Portrait of an Appeaser: Robert Hadow, First Secretary in the British Foreign Office, 1931-1939

(Hardback)

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This work relates the policy of appeasement to the personal beliefs and decisions of those responsible for foreign policy. Using Robert Hadow, First Secretary in the Foreign Office, as an example of an appeaser, this approach aims to demonstrate how intelligent and capable men in Britain fell victim to a policy which, to many still, in retrospect, appears blind and irrational. An examination of Hadow's fear of war, his reaction to communism, his sympathy for the German minority in Czechoslovakia, and his actions inside and outside the Foreign Office in pursuit of appeasement is made in this book through detailed research of Hadow's public and private papers. By following the course of Hadow's career and the working of his mind in the 1930s, this study explains the thinking behind a policy associated with Britain on the eve of World War II.

Reviews

"Dr. Michie's scholarly study of [Hadow's] interpretation of events and the policy conclusions to be drawn throws fresh light on the 'mind of Appeasement' amongst British diplomats and politicians in this vital decade."- Keith G. Robbins, Vice-Chancellor, University of Wales
"Fresh evidence from private papers, skillfully used, deepens understanding of the British appeasers of Hitler. This book breaks new ground."-R.A.C. Parker, Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford
"This is a sound piece of scholarship that adds to our cumulative knowledge of the period."- T. Boyle, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in History, Goldsmith's College, University of London
In this welcome account....Lindsay Michie has persuasively related Hadow's intensifying efforts for Appeasement to the phase-shift in policy from the relative optimism of the early 1930s to the anxiety-ridden pessimism-cum-desperation of 1938 and 1939. In addition, she has sorted through the frequently cited general explanatory factors and assigned them an order, in Hadow's case, which has the ring of truth. Future studies will do well to give this one full faith and credit.-The International History Review
"In this welcome account....Lindsay Michie has persuasively related Hadow's intensifying efforts for Appeasement to the phase-shift in policy from the relative optimism of the early 1930s to the anxiety-ridden pessimism-cum-desperation of 1938 and 1939. In addition, she has sorted through the frequently cited general explanatory factors and assigned them an order, in Hadow's case, which has the ring of truth. Future studies will do well to give this one full faith and credit."-The International History Review

Author Bio

LINDSAY W. MICHIE teaches at East Carolina University, Chowan College, and Roanoke-Chowan Community College.