The Cliveden Set
The Cliveden Set

Author: Norman Rose

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011-02-28

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1446450392

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Lloyd George once spoke of 'a very powerful combination - in its way the most powerful in the country'. Its proceedings were invariably conducted at Cliveden, the country estate of the fabulously wealthy Nancy and Waldorf Astor. Collectively dubbed 'God's Truth Ltd', the group included leading politicians, academics, writers and newspaper editors. Its pedigree impeccable, its social standing beyond reproach, its persuasive powers permeated the clubs and institutions of London, the senior common rooms of Oxbridge colleges, the quality press and the great country houses of England. Suddenly, in the late 1930s, the 'Cliveden Set' was catapulted into uncalled-for notoriety. It had been identified as a cabal that sought to manipulate, even determine, British foreign policy in order to uphold its narrow class interests. It would use any means, however devious - even negotiate a humiliating, dishonourable settlement with Nazi Germany - to maintain its privileges, those of a decaying ruling class. But was the 'Cliveden Set' a traitorous cabal, challenging 'the constitutional structures of British democracy', or simply an unstructured think-tank of harmless do-gooders? Norman Rose discerningly probes this fascinating tale, brilliantly disentangling fact from fiction, and setting this privileged clique in the wider perspective of its times.

Five Sisters
Five Sisters

Author: James Fox

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2001-02-21

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 0743217004

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The author of the bestseller White Mischief tells the story of the beautiful Langhorne sisters, who lived at the Pinnacle of high and powerful society from the end of the Civil War through the Second World War. Making their way across two continents, they left in their wakes rich husbands, fame, adoration, and scandal. Lizzie, Irene, Nancy, Phyllis, and Nora were born in Virginia to a family impoverished by the Civil War. Their father remade his fortune by collaborating with the Yankees and building rail-roads; the sisters became southern belles and northern debutantes. James Fox draws on unpublished correspondence between the sisters and their husbands, lovers, children, and the powerful and glamorous of their day to construct a plural topography with the scope of a grand novel and the pace of a historical thriller. At its center is the most famous sister, Nancy, who married Waldorf Astor, one of the richest men in the world. Heroic, hilarious, magnetically charming, and a bully, Lady Astor became Britain's first female MP, championing women's rights and the poor. The beautiful Irene married Charles Dana Gibson and was the model for the Gibson Girl. The author's grandmother, Phyllis, married a famous economist, one of the architects of modern Europe. Fox has written an absorbing and spirited, intimate and sweeping account of extraordinary women at the highest reaches of society, their adventures set against the background of a tumultuous century.

Bernard Shaw and Nancy Astor
Bernard Shaw and Nancy Astor

Author: Bernard Shaw

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780802037527

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This collection of nearly 250 letters between Shaw and Astor - as well as between Astor and Shaw's wife, Charlotte, and Shaw's secretary, Blanche Patch - illustrates the rewarding friendship the two shared and the numerous issues they debated.

Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement, and the British Road to War
Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement, and the British Road to War

Author: Frank McDonough

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 9780719048326

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Drawing on a wide range of material, including primary sources, Frank McDonough re-examines the controversial policy of appeasement, and argues that appeasement was part of a broad consensus in British society at the time.

Believe Nothing Until it is Officially Denied
Believe Nothing Until it is Officially Denied

Author: Patrick Cockburn

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2024-10-22

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1804290742

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The Extraordinary Life of a Revolutionary Journalist Radical journalist Claud Cockburn fought successfully against the political and media establishment, writing for publications as varied as The Times and Private Eye. To Graham Greene, he was the greatest journalist of the twentieth century. Born in China in 1904 and educated alongside Evelyn Waugh, Cockburn launched into a stellar career as a Times correspondent, first in Berlin, then New York, interviewing Al Capone in Chicago, and finally Washington. He resigned in 1932 to start The Week, an anti-Nazi and anti-establishment newsletter with an influence out of all proportion to its circulation. British officials were horrified by the scoops he published. These included stories on the political influence of German appeasers – the Cliveden Set – in the British elite and the previously suppressed news of Edward VIII’s abdication. Cockburn wrote dispatches while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. In Spain, he helped W. H. Auden and clashed with George Orwell. Claud’s private life, too, was eventful. He was married three times, once to Jean Ross, the model for Christopher Isherwood’s Sally Bowles. Patrick Cockburn, himself an international journalist, chronicles his father Claud’s lifelong dedication to a guerrilla campaign against the powerful on behalf of the powerless. It is a biography for today’s age, in which journalism is frequently suppressed, overshadowed, undervalued, and corrupted

The Ambassador
The Ambassador

Author: Susan Ronald

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2021-08-03

Total Pages: 549

ISBN-13: 1250238730

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Acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald reveals the truth about Joseph P. Kennedy's deeply controversial tenure as Ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of World War II. On February 18, 1938, Joseph P. Kennedy was sworn in as US Ambassador to the Court of St. James. To say his appointment to the most prestigious and strategic diplomatic post in the world shocked the Establishment was an understatement: known for his profound Irish roots and staunch Catholicism, not to mention his “plain-spoken” opinions and womanizing, he was a curious choice as Europe hurtled toward war. Initially welcomed by the British, in less than two short years Kennedy was loathed by the White House, the State Department and the British Government. Believing firmly that Fascism was the inevitable wave of the future, he consistently misrepresented official US foreign policy internationally as well as direct instructions from FDR himself. The Americans were the first to disown him and the British and the Nazis used Kennedy to their own ends. Through meticulous research and many newly available sources, Ronald confirms in impressive detail what has long been believed by many: that Kennedy was a Fascist sympathizer and an anti-Semite whose only loyalty was to his family's advancement. She also reveals the ambitions of the Kennedy dynasty during this period abroad, as they sought to enter the world of high society London and establish themselves as America’s first family. Thorough and utterly readable, The Ambassador explores a darker side of the Kennedy patriarch in an account sure to generate attention and controversy.

Hitler's Spy Princess
Hitler's Spy Princess

Author: Martha Schad

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2012-05-30

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0752488295

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‘Hold on to this letter, so that it will be evidence of how accurately I have kept you informed. I’m serious; don’t throw this letter away.’ BORN the illegitimate daughter of Jewish parents, Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe would rise to dizzying heights in international politics, hobnobbing with European royalty, British aristocracy – and high-ranking Nazis. She was the unofficial go-between for some of the most important people of the era, conveying secret messages and organising meetings between Adolf Hitler, Lord Rothermere, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and more than one US president. She would even be one of only a handful of women to be awarded the Nazi Party’s Gold Medal for ‘outstanding service to the National Socialist movement’. But then the Second World War began, and everything changed. Hitler’s Spy Princess is a tale of lovers and manipulation, cleverness and deceit in the remarkable life of the woman Hitler called his ‘dear princess’.

Total Espionage
Total Espionage

Author: Curt Riess

Publisher: Fonthill Media

Published: 2017-04-20

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13:

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Total Espionage was first published shortly before Pearl Harbor and is fresh in its style, retaining immediacy unpolluted by the knowledge of subsequent events. It tells how the whole apparatus of the Nazi state was geared towards war by its systematic gathering of information and dissemination of disinformation. The author, a Berlin journalist, went into exile in 1933 and eventually settled in Manhattan in where he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. He maintained a network of contacts throughout Europe and from inside the regime to garner his facts. The Nazis made use of many people and organizations: officers' associations who were in touch with many who left to help organize the armies of South American countries, and in the USA there were the Friends of the New Germany. German consulates sprang up and aircraft would make unusual detours to observe interesting parts of foreign countries. News agencies and various associations dedicated to maintaining contacts with particular countries were encouraged to supply information. Film studios would send large crews abroad to shoot documentaries as well as perform acts of espionage. Foreign nationals were bribed or blackmailed; and pro-fascist groups in foreign countries were supported via the Auslandsorganization. All Germans living abroad were encouraged to report their observations to the authorities, particular attention was being focused on engineers, technicians, scientists and people in other professions who were particularly likely to obtain valuable information; however, other Germans abroad were also used, even cabaret singers, waiters, language teachers, as well as Germans travelling abroad as tourists. Germans living abroad were exempt from mobilization because of their value as spies. Foreigners were given opportunity to study in Germany, and connections with them were kept in the hope that they would one day provide useful information. All of this was Goebbels' 'Total Espionage'.

Summary of Lauren Young's Hitler's Girl
Summary of Lauren Young's Hitler's Girl

Author: Everest Media,

Publisher: Everest Media LLC

Published: 2022-09-09T22:59:00Z

Total Pages: 25

ISBN-13:

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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Great War, which saw two and a half million Germans die and four million wounded, left a discernible line in the sand between the victors and the vanquished. For Germany, the vanquished, losing the war left the turmoil of economic uncertainty, unbridled violence, and boiling resentment. #2 In the 1930s, the German government passed increasingly harsh laws against any perceived threats to the accelerating power of the Nazi machine. This included anti-Semitic art, which was exhibited in Munich in a show called Degenerate Art. #3 The Weimar Republic, which was established following World War I, was a disaster for Germany, seeing two and a half million Germans die and four million wounded. The process of brutalization brought by the paramilitary groups resulted in street violence and the mass killing of civilians, as well as prominent German politicians and members of the Communist Party. #4 The streets of German cities were marked by violence and disability following the Great War, while the streets of London were deceptively calm. The British Empire was beginning to feel the strain of maintaining a far-flung empire and the cost in human life and economic drain of fighting a total war.

Broadcasts from the Blitz
Broadcasts from the Blitz

Author: Phillip Seib

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2011-09

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1597973947

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With the words "This is London," Edward R. Murrow's groundbreaking radio broadcasts from 1939 to 1941 brought the blitz into America's living rooms. Countering the tide of U.S. isolationism, Murrow told his huge audience that the United States could not avoid a confrontation with Hitler and that the bombs it heard falling during his reports would eventually be targeted at American cities. But although often cited as the paragon of journalistic objectivity, Murrow had a clear agenda--to bring America into the war--and he slanted his broadcasts accordingly. And behind the scenes, he helped the British court U.S. public opinion and secure American funds for a British intelligence operation. Broadcasts from the Blitz examines Murrow's work and life during this crucial time. It also profiles unsung heroes of those days, such as U.S. ambassador John Winant and Winston Churchill's confidant Brendan Bracken, and villains as well--such defeatists as Joseph Kennedy and Charles Lindbergh, who believed England was doomed. Other compelling characters include Eric Sevareid, Mollie Painter-Downs, and Nancy Astor, whose "Cliveden set" was accused of being too cozy with the Germans. They and many others mixed in a London that remained vibrant even as it was being battered. Broadcasts from the Blitz is a story of courage--of a journalist broadcasting live from London rooftops as bombs fell around him--and of intrigue, as the machinery of two governments pulled America and Britain together in a common cause. Finally there is the drama of December 7, 1941, when Murrow was the sole journalist to meet with Roosevelt. Broadcasts from the Blitz is for all those interested in the influential career of an extraordinary man and in the relationship between journalism and politics.