The Tories: Conservatives and the Nation State 1922-1997 by Alan Clark

The Tories: Conservatives and the Nation State 1922-1997 by Alan Clark lands on the shelves of my shop.

London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Tables; Illustrated endpapers and blanks;

From the cover: Alan Clark returns brilliantly to the role of historian, with which he originally made his name.

The Tories is his personal account of the modern Conservatives, who for the better part of this century have been the governing political party of Britain.

During this period the country has fallen in stature, both comparative and absolute, by virtually every criterion of measurement which can be applied. Yet the Conservative Partys primary objective, or so it claims and its supporters believe, is to advance and protect the interests of the British Nation State.

To understand the catastrophic and repetitious failure of the Tories to attain that objective, over practically the whole of the past seventy-five years, Alan Clark examines afresh personalities and argument on occasions as diverse as the Gold Standard dispute of 1925; the abdication of King Edward VIII; the failure of Appeasement; the mishandling of North Sea oil; the alternating inspiration and hubris of Margaret Thatcher.

In The Tories he shows how the apparent interest of the Nation State seems often to have been neglected, but that Conservatives, with the sole exception of the first Churchill premiership, perceived its real interest differently as being best served, above all other considerations, by the perpetuation of the Party in office.

To this exposition, Alan Clark brings his personal experience of Government, which he has recorded in his celebrated Diaries; and the acknowledged skills of a historian whose books on the extremes of two world wars, the British Expeditionary Force in 1915 (The Donkeys) and the Russo-German conflict of 1941-45 (Barbarossa) are classics, still in print after more than thirty years.

To understand the Conservatives from Bonar Law to John Major one need look no further than Alan Clarks The Tories.

Very Good in Good+ Dust Wrapper. Gently faded at the spine of the dust wrapper which is showing a little wear to the edges. Edges of the text block lightly spotted. Text complete, clean and tight.

Black boards with Silver titling to the Spine. [XVII] 493 pages. Index. Bibliography. 9½” x 6¼”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!

Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis by Ian Kershaw

Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis by Ian Kershaw lands on the shelves of my shop.

Allen Lane, 2000, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Maps;

From the cover: WHETHER RIGHT OR WRONG, WE MUST WIN. THAT IS THE ONLY WAY. AND IT IS MORALLY RIGHT AND NECESSARY. AND WHEN WE HAVE WON, WHO WILL ASK US ABOUT THE METHOD? ADOLF HITLER, 1941

It is impossible to offer an adequate parallel to Hitlers situation in 1936. With the peaceful resolution of the Rhineland crisis, Hitler became both the adored object of the vast majority of Germans and an international symbol of modernity and dynamism. He managed this while in reality being the dictator of a system of single-minded viciousness new to human experience.

Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis is the definitive account of the twentieth centurys central figure. Drawing on a vast range of material and using the same skills that made Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris a bestseller around the world, lan Kershaw allows us to understand both the dictator himself and the society that made him.

Perhaps this books greatest achievement is to make clear the often conflicting dynamics that led from the seemingly stable, successful Germany of 1937 to the brutalized military state of the 1940s. By concentrating on the figure of Hitler, Kershaw both gives an immediacy and texture to these terrible events and shows the options available to Germany and its ruler at each point in the unfolding disaster. At the heart of the book lies Hitlers decision to unleash annihilatory war in the East and the terrifying new moral universe this brought into being: the degradation of enemies into beasts and the hatching of the Final Solution.

This is the story of a poisoned world and of a man who was both shaped by that world and to a catastrophic degree created it.

Good+ in Good+ Dust Wrapper. Gently bruised at the spine ends and corners with commensurate wear to the dust wrapper. Text complete, clean and tight.

Black boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [XLVI] 1115 pages. Index. Bibliography. 9½” x 6¼”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!