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On May 7, 1940, the House of Commons began perhaps the most crucial debate in British parliamentary history. On its outcome hung the future of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's government and also of Britain-indeed, perhaps, the world. Troublesome Young Men is Lynne Olson's fascinating account of how a small group of rebellious Tory MPs defied the Chamberlain government's defeatist policies that aimed to appease Europe's tyrants and eventually forced the prime minister's resignation. Some historians dismiss the "phony war" that preceded this turning point as a time of waiting and inaction, but Olson makes no such mistake, and describes in dramatic detail the public unrest that spread through Britain then, as people realized how poorly prepared the nation was to confront Hitler, how their basic civil liberties were being jeopardized, and also that there were intrepid politicians willing to risk political suicide to spearhead the opposition to Chamberlain-Harold Macmillan, Robert Boothby, Leo Amery, Ronald Cartland, and Lord Robert Cranborne among them. The political and personal dramas that played out in Parliament and in the nation as Britain faced the threat of fascism virtually on its own are extraordinary-and, in Olson's hands, downright inspiring.… (more)
User reviews
Ms. Olson writes well, and has to my limited knowledge culled the secondary sources well for her work. Above all, she is to be commended for writing, in this day and age, a book which lays out clearly that there is a difference between good and evil. Well done. Highly recommended.
And a damned good novel at that.
I enjoyed this book enormously
I think most people know about Winston Churchill's heroism and leadership through the Second World War. This book brought an added dimension in
Ms. Olson also brought depth of knowledge about the young Tory "rebels" who brought Churchill to power, complete with the backroom alliances and political intrigue that made this book a page turner!
I literally woke up in the middle of the night, after all the kids were in bed, so I could read this book - and I work full-time, so it wasn't that I would simply catch up on sleep the next
This book is so well-written, so masterfully told, so insightful that I really have no words for it.
I thought I was fairly educated on the beginnings of WWII politics, but I knew nothing until I read Troublesome Young Men. It is the story of a handful of courageous men who stepped forward, of men of honor like Ronald Cartland, of men of bright character (and often characters themselves) who not only recognized the horror of Hitler but risked their own reputations, and often their own lives, to make certain that he would be defeated.
Absolutely magnificent.