Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War Tim Bouverie
Event details
Join journalist and historian Tim Bouverie as he presents a gripping history of the British appeasement of the Third Reich in the lead up to the Second World War.
On a wet afternoon in September 1938, Neville Chamberlain stepped off an aeroplane and announced that his visit to Hitler had averted the greatest crisis in recent memory. It was, he later assured the crowd in Downing Street, ‘peace for our time’. Within a year of the British Prime Minister’s return from Munich, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began.
That moment of theatre was the culmination of over five years of drama. Beginning with the advent of Hitler in 1933, Tim, author of Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War, will take you on a fascinating journey from the early days of the Third Reich to the beaches of Dunkirk. You’ll enter the 10 Downing Street of Stanley Baldwin and Chamberlain, and the backrooms of Parliament where an unusual coalition of MPs – including the indomitable Winston Churchill – were among the few to realise that the only real choice was between ‘war now or war later’.
Drawing on deep archival research, Tim will create an unforgettable portrait of the ministers, aristocrats and amateur diplomats who, through their actions and inaction, shaped their country's policy and determined the fate of Europe.
About the speaker
Tim Bouverie was awarded a First-Class degree in history from Christ Church, Oxford. From 2013 to 2017 he was a political journalist at Channel 4 News. He regularly reviews history and politics books, and has written for the Spectator, Observer and Daily Telegraph.
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