Jonathan SchneerBesprekingen

CONTENTS

1. Glossary of names - pag. ix
2. Introduction - pag. xvii
3. Prologue - pag. xxi

PART I: MAKING A WAR CABINET

4. CHAPTER 1 - Challenging the Prime Minister - pag. 3
5. CHAPTER 2 - Finding a War Prime Minister - pag. 25

PART II: CHIRCHILL AND HIS MINISTERS OF WAR

6. CHAPTER 3 - Testing the War Cabinet - pat. 47
7. CHAPTER 4 - The Months of Greatest Crisis - pag. 61
8. CHAPTER 5 - Shaping the War Cabinet - pag. 83
9. CHAPTER 6 - The War Cabinet at Work - pag. 95
10. CHAPTER 7 - Spearhead od the Left - pag. 115
11. CHAPTER 8 - Coping with Mr. Cripps - pag. 137
12. CHAPTER 9 - The Cat That Walked Alone - pag. 155
13. CHAPTER 10 - The Impact of Professor Beveridge - pag. 179
14. CHAPTER 11 - The "Cocky Cockney" and the Debate over Postwar Britain - pag. 195

PART III - SUNDERING THE WAR CABINET

15. CHAPTER 12 - Chruchill on the Downslope - pag. 215
16. CHAPTER 13 - Aftershock - pag. 231

17. Coda - pag. 251

18. Acknowledgments - pag. 265
19. Notes - pag. 267
20. Bibliography - pag. 303
21. Index - pag. 309

I first heard of the Lockhart Plot, as many others will have done, in the British television series from the 1980s, Reilly: Ace of Spies. That was a largely fictionalised version of the story, but to be fair the story itself reads like fiction.

Bruce Lockhart, a young and very talented British diplomat travelled to Russia in 1918 to make a deal with the Bolsheviks: stay in the world war on Britain’s side and we will help you. When that didn’t pan out, he switched sides and decided, together with a handful of his associates (including the notorious Sidney Reilly) and suitcases full of cash, to overthrow the Soviet regime.

Looking back at how it all turned out, it seems an inevitable failure and Lockhart was crazy to try it. But at the time, the idea of bribing the Latvian soldiers who were tasked with guarding the Bolshevik leaders in the Kremlin — combined with the landing of British troops in northern Russia, the attempted coup by the legendary terrorist Boris Savinkov, the anti-German uprising of the Left Social Revolutionaries, and the assassination attempt on Lenin — may have seemed more plausible.

The Lockhart plot is one of the great “what ifs” of the history of the twentieth century and Jonathan Schneer has done an outstanding job telling the story (as much as it can be hold — and there is much that we do not know) well. Highly recommended.

This was an interesting and valuable read. It's important to keep in mind that Schneer is very determined to make everything fit his imperial narrative, though - not that he'll let you forget it!

I had expected more of a general look at the London of 1900 (cp. with "London 1945" by Maureen Waller), but to my disappointment, this turned out to be a somewhat dreary exercise in race, class and gender politics, with the incidents and personalities in question being given somewhat more prominence than they deserve in retrospect. About the best that can be said for the book is that choice of illustrations is good; the section on the docklands and the life there was probably the best of the writing in the book. Can't say I recommend.½

Superbly written history of a period most people think they know well, but will find really don't. This book explodes many myths about Winston's Churchill's war cabinet, the eclectic mix of politicians from all sides that Churchill assembled in 1940, as Britain faced its darkest hour. It has always been generally believed that this body of men put their differences behind them for the sake of the war effort, but Schneer blows this apart, showing that personal and political rivalries continued. The book is ripe with big personalities and big egos jostling for position and favour with Churchill, or even plotting to undermine him. The myth that Churchill was unassailably popular for the duration of the war is also shattered, as Schneer shows how his massive appeal during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz faded as the danger to Britain lessened, aided in part by Churchill's own irascible personality. He even came under serious threat of being toppled, first by the high-minded independent socialist Stafford Cripps, then by his close friend, the avaricious Canadian-born magnate Lord Beaverbrook. Churchill saw off both these challengers, but was eventually brought down by his failure to satisfy the public's desire for major post-war economic reconstruction, masterminded by Labour leader Clement Attlee and firebrand Herbert Morrison. The book is fast-paced, never dull, and the clash of personalities is captured in exquisite detail. This is a really top-class piece of historical writing.½

A very interesting book, clearly the product of an immense amount of research and written in a generally dispassionate way that is unusual given the emotional resonance of the subject - the path to the 'Balfour declaration' of support for a Jewish home in Palestine, and the seeds of the conflict that still mars the middle east today. This is one of those episodes in history where everyone's motives are understandable. Arabs and (some) Jews wanting land and liberty; the western powers desperate to find any way of reaching a breakthrough in the impasse that was decimating their populations in the first world war. Hindsight is a marvellous thing, but one that the author resists very well in favour of describing the key players and articulating their actions and motivations within the context where they took place

This the best volume I have read on the Middle East in the First World War. The author does a fine job of explaining the relationships and motives between the stakeholders in this critical theater of the war. He covers the actions of Great Britain, Russia, France, Turkey, the various factions of the Jews and Arabs, and Germany, even the U.S. Due the number of individuals introduced in this complex adventure, the author includes a 10 page Glossary of Names so the reader can keep track of who is who as the story unforlds.

Even though the story is complex, the author takes you through the events step by step; keeping the narrative readable throughout the 376 pages of text. It is a newer book published in 2010.

Highly recommend this book. Next I will be reading "Shadow of the Sultan's Realm" by Daniel A. Butler. This also a new book on the same subject.....will be interesting to compare them.

Unbiased, comprehensive, and relevant. Author does a great job of setting the scene(s).

Good, but the link to the Thames is overdone and overwrought at times.

This is not simply a book about the river, and definitely not just about London. The premise of the book is that the Thames is indeed "England's river", woven deeply into the history and "national consciousness" of England. The author admirably demonstrates this with rich examples of war, politics, engineering, revolution, art, poetry and much more from pre-Roman times to the modern era.

My main complaint is that he sometimes labours the point. At the end of a chapter that speaks for itself, he still feels the need to spend a couple of pages reminding us, yet again, of his basic premise. Has he so little confidence in his writing that he feels we'll constantly miss his point? I would also note in passing that some of his writing is quite pretentious - a good candidate for Pseud's Corner in Private Eye.