Most studies of World War II assume that it was, in some way, a triumph for Britain. John Charmley-s important new reappraisal of the immediate origins of the war is based on extensive new work in the Chamberlain papers. It starts from Chamberlain-s belief that even a victorious war would be a disaster-it would destroy the foundations of British power and hand over Europe to Russian domination. Reconstructing Chamberlain-s policy assumptions, Mr. Charmley argues that they were neither na- nor foolish. While focusing on the prime minister-s personality, he also shows that Chamberlain-s views were shared by many other leading politicians and diplomats. Mr. Charmley thus resurrects a whole school of thought on foreign policy which was forgotten in the wake of Churchill-s triumph. Unlike Churchill, Chamberlain was not prepared to gamble an empire; but events produced, according to Mr. Charmley, indeed a -human tragedy.- Early British reviews of the book have called it -important,- -enterta
