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From the cover: Alan Clark returns brilliantly to the role of historian, with which he originally made his name.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

Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler by Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager, With Florence & Jerome Fehrenbach

Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler by Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager, With Florence & Jerome Fehrenbach lands on the shelves of my shop.

Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2009, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black and White Photographs;

From the cover: When the Second World War broke out, Philipp von Boeselager and his brother Georg fought enthusiastically for their country, leading cavalry units in France and on the Russian Front. But when they discovered what the SS were doing to Jews and Gypsies their enthusiasm quickly turned to disgust. Together they joined a group of conspirators in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. After several abortive assassination attempts, including one in which Philipp was supposed to shoot the Fuhrer with his own pistol, the plotters finally decided on a plan to blow Hitler up with a bomb. Philipp transported the explosives and passed them on to Claus von Stauffenberg. He and his brother then moved their cavalry units to Berlin to take control of the city.

When the plot failed, the SS instituted a terrifying purge of senior army officers. In an attempt to disguise their part in the conspiracy, the Boeselager brothers hurried back to the eastern front with their units. One by one their fellow plotters were found out, tortured and executed, and it is a testimony to their fortitude that they never gave away the Boeselagers names.

Georg von Boeselager eventually died in battle on the Russian Front, but Philipp survived the war, and eventually outlived all the other survivors of the conspiracy. In this unique memoir he tells the story of his life, and the part he played in these historic events.

Very Good+ in Very Good+ Dust Wrapper.

Red boards with Silver titling to the Spine. [XII] 176 pages. 8¾” x 5½”.

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!

Trouble Spots: The World Atlas of Strategic Information by Andrew Duncan & Michael Opatowski

Trouble Spots: The World Atlas of Strategic Information by Andrew Duncan & Michael Opatowski lands on the shelves of my shop.

Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2000, Hardback in dust wrapper.

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

From the cover: The world in which we live is an increasingly dangerous place, subject to many widely differing threats that range from nuclear weapons proliferation to chemical and biological warfare, and from international crime to tribal genocide. Trouble Spots explains, through concise authoritative text and clear graphics, the causes of conflict whether it is currently in progress, in abeyance or imminent unless preventative measures are taken.

Thematic problems such as global warming and weapons of mass destruction are reviewed, but Trouble Spots focuses mainly on unrest of a regional nature, such as in the Middle East, the Indian Sub-Continent, and in East and South-East Asia. Maps are used as a key to each topic, showing not simply the geographical features which influence military or humanitarian activity, but also the locations of the various factors contributing to the problem, for example population ethnicity or religious breakdown.

The authors give a short historical background to each problem together with a summary of recent events and steps taken by participants and third or international parties to bring about a solution. They do not attempt to criticise or offer answers, but instead concentrate on the advantages and disadvantages of possible options. They also assess the likelihood of violence spreading from the area of original outbreak. The trouble spots considered in this book are not necessarily areas of military conflict: several issues with purely political and economic implications are covered, for example the availability of vital resources such as oil and water.

Trouble Spots is meticulously researched and richly illustrated with specially commissioned maps and diagrams, and supported by a selection of evocative photographs from around the world. It is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the causes of conflict in the contemporary world.

Introduction by: Francois Heisbourg

Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper otherwise a very well presented copy.

Black boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [XII] 324 pages. Index. Bibliography. 10¾” x 7¾”.

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

Litter: How Other People’s Rubbish Shapes Our Life by Theodore Dalrymple

Litter: How Other People’s Rubbish Shapes Our Life by Theodore Dalrymple lands on the shelves of my shop.

Gibson Square, 2011, Hardback in dust wrapper.

From the cover: Driving the four hundred miles from Glasgow to London, Theodore Dalrymple found practically every yard of roadside to be littered with rubbish flapping in the wind like Buddhist prayer flags.

It prompted him to ask the question why? What does it mean when a country tips its rubbish anywhere it likes? What other consequences shape our lives? What happens in other nations?

Ranging from the poorer areas where he used to work to chewing gum and the behaviour of students and the educated, Dalrymple casts a witty and unsparing eye on modern life shared with others.

Very Good+ in Very Good+ Dust Wrapper.

Black boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 159 pages. 8″ x 5¼”.

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

Herbert Morrison: Portrait of a Politician by Bernard Donoughue & G. W. Jones

Herbert Morrison: Portrait of a Politician by Bernard Donoughue & G. W. Jones lands on the shelves of my shop.

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black and White Photographs; Tables;

From the cover: Herbert Morrison, who started his working life as an errand boy, was for over forty years at the centre of British political life, and almost became Prime Minister.

This book tells the story of how the young socialist agitator from Lambeth rose to rule London as Britains most famous city boss and then, nationally, shaped the Labour Partys policies and directed its successful electoral strategies. His constant objective, and achievement, was to make Labour a party of Government, rather than of negative opposition, and to keep it firmly within the democratic socialist tradition.

In a succession of Important Cabinet posts, he shared the catastrophe of Ramsay MacDonalds 1931 Government, was Churchills inspired choice to fight the German blitz throughout the war, managed Labours great post-1945 reconstruction programme and ended his career overwhelmed by problems and seemingly inexplicable failures as Foreign Secretary. Out of office in the 1950*8 he suffered the humiliations of political decline and the bitterness of failing in his last bid to win the party leadership.

Although publicly the chirpy cockney sparrow, Herbert Morrison was a deeply complex personality, secretive, vulnerable and inhibited. Obsessed with politics, he neglected his first wife and daughter and warped his private personality. Perpetually surrounded by an entourage of political acquaintances, he was inwardly lonely and sought affection in a network of discreet female friendships, until the Indian Summer of his second marriage.

This book is about Morrison the man and his work rather than the wider history of the times through which he passed. The authors show how Morrison mastered the craft of politics until at his peak he could truly claim to be the most professional politician so far produced by the Labour Party. His relations with many other politicians are described, from the host of rank and file socialists encouraged by him to take a more active role in public life, to such major political figures as Attlee, Bevin, Cripps and Bevan.

In order to obtain this deep focus on Morrison the politician in action, an unusually wide range of official, press and private sources have been used. Most important are over three hundred interviews conducted with Morrisons friends and working associates which add flesh to the central portrait.

Herbert Morrison was a major figure not only in guiding the Labour Party to its great power in the mid-twentieth century, but also in shaping the wider operation of British social democracy. This book permanently establishes his political contribution and stature as well as portraying a truly English character.

Very Good in Good+ Dust Wrapper. Upper panel slightly loose, with the crease not meeting the leading edge of the board.

Red boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [XVI] 696 pages. Index. 9½” x 6¼”.

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

Contemporary Political Philosophers by Edited by Anthony de Crespigny & Kenneth Minogue

Contemporary Political Philosophers by Edited by Anthony de Crespigny & Kenneth Minogue lands on the shelves of my shop.

Methuen & Co., 1976, Hardback in dust wrapper.

First British Edition. [First Published: 1975, Dodd, Mead & Co.]

From the cover: Contemporary Political Philosophers is a survey, by scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, of the main developments of twentieth-century political philosophy. It fills a long-acknowledged gap with conspicuous success. The editors approach the subject by way of twelve of the most influential figures: Herbert Marcuse, F. A. Hayek, Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, Michael Oakeshott, Karl Popper, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Raymond Aron, Jean-Paul Sartre, Hannah Arendt, C. B. Macpherson and John Rawls. These thinkers range in style of philosophy from metaphysicians to model-makers; from those who follow the texture of current political life to those who seek the remotest of underlying structures; together they display the remarkable power and range of contemporary political thought. Few readers will not be surprised and impressed by the richness of the philosophical discussion of politics in this century. This book will be welcomed both for providing access to a body of work not easily approached by the unguided explorer, and for offering a critical discussion which will stimulate those already familiar with the work of these philosophers.

Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. Rear panel a little tanned. Edges of the text block lightly spotted. Previous owners’ inscription to the first blank. Text complete, clean and tight bar one passage that has a little highlighting.

Black boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [XVII] 296 pages. Bibliography. 8¾” x 5¾”.

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

Prime Ministers: From Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher by George Malcolm Thomson

Prime Ministers: From Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher by George Malcolm Thomson lands on the shelves of my shop.

Nationwide Book Service, 1980, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Facsimiles; Colour Plates;

From the cover: They have come in many shapes and sizes, these forty eight men and one woman who have guided the destiny of Britain from 1721 into the nineteen eighties, from Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher. Who could be less alike than the flamboyant Benjamin Disraeli and the almost mouse-like Clement Attlee? Yet the former established a new Tory party and the latter steered a motley crew with immense skill through the shoals of social democracy which had to be navigated after World War II.

In a series of masterly vignettes Mr Thomson traces the development of the Prime Ministerial role, monopolised at first by the aristocracy ruling from the House of Lords and then in the nineteenth century, heyday of the bourgeoisie, by men such as Robert Peel and Gladstone, sitting in the House of Commons. Today it is unthinkable that a peer should be a Prime Minister. The Earl of Home renounced his peerage in a flash when nominated by commoner Harold Macmillan to succeed him and became plain Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

There were great men in the list the elder and younger Pitt; Disraeli and Gladstone, those sworn enemies; Asquith and Lloyd George, the opposing poles of Liberalism; Winston Churchill, as long as there was a war on, and even in peacetime a giant. There were nonentities who remembers Viscount Goderich? But it is Mr Thomsons view that this body of men avoided the major political pitfalls and played their collective part in furthering the democratic ideal.

Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper, snagged at the tail of the spine. Edges of the text block lightly spotted. Text complete, clean and tight.

Red boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [XXIV] 260 pages. Bibliography. 10″ x 7½”.

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

Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer by Peter Wright

Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer by Peter Wright lands on the shelves of my shop.

Viking, 1987, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated with black and white photographs.

From the cover: Peter Wright was a key figure in British intelligence for nearly a quarter of a century This book, which the British government has gone to great lengths to keep from being published, is a memoir that recounts his extraordinary career in that wilderness of mirrors, the world of espionage. It is uncensored, remarkably candid, and enormously revealing about the real spy business that most of us know principally from fiction. Peter Wright initially joined Britains Secret Service, known as MI5, in 1955 in the capacity of the organizations principal scientist, and devoted himself in the early years to the invention of various gadgets for use in the espionage trade. Along the way, he demonstrated a brilliant flair for the art of counter-intelligence. He went on to become, for nearly two decades, the central figure in Britains relentless and sometimes humiliating efforts to detect and expose Soviet espionage. From that vantage point, the reader is treated to a unique perspective on the likes of Philby, Maclean, Burgess, Blunt, and a host of other exposed spies and alleged defectors. The identity of the so-called Fifth Man Soviet spy has puzzled and fascinated many for decades. In Spycatcher, Peter Wright shares his conviction that the Fifth Man was none other than Sir Roger Hollis, long the head of MI5 itself! The story of how he and many of his MI5 colleagues came to this conclusion makes for some of the best reading found anywhere in the vast literature on espionage. As a result of a great many trips Peter Wright made to the United States in his capacity as Britains principal liaison with American intelligence officials, his book is replete with sharply etched and sometimes humorous anecdotes about such notables as J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Helms, Bill Sullivan, William Harvey, and, above all, James Jesus Angleton. Wrights insights about the CIA and the FBI, their relationships with each other, with the rest of the U. S. government, and with Americas allies is riveting stuff. American interest ought to be especially aroused by Peter Wrights charge that there was a conspiracy within MI5 to overthrow then Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the mid-1970s, and that it was instigated from within the CIA. Wrights memoir is also of interest because it is a firsthand account of the bugging of embassies (of friend and foe alike), as well as other aspects of electronic eavesdropping, codebreaking, and wet affairs (assassinations). But the most important aspect of this book is that it offers a rare inside glimpse of the real day-by-day goings-on within the intelligence world over a long period of time from a very high-level, authoritative voice.

Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper. Pages lightly age-tanned.

Black boards with Silver titling to the Spine. 392 pages. Index. 9½” x 6¼”.

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

Midnight Diaries by Boris Yeltsin

Midnight Diaries by Boris Yeltsin lands on the shelves of my shop.

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Chronological Tables; Genealogical Tables;

From the cover: Even his wife and daughter, his closest aides, did not know. On 28 December 1999, as the video tapes were rolling to cover the pre-taping of his annual New Year address, Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia for a decade, suddenly stopped the cameramen. The text must be rewritten. He has decided to resign, to retire. But no-one must know until the last moment, no-one must be allowed to steal his thunder.

This final twist in the story of the Yeltsin presidency is typical of a remarkable man, a powerful and commanding presence. Far from the incapacitated and sidelined leader as he was sometimes portrayed by the worlds media, Yeltsin demonstrates in these MIDNIGHT DIARIES that as, ever he was in control.

With a title taken from the fact that he kept notes and diaries throughout his presidency, mainly at the end of the day, Yeltsin offers perhaps the most personal memoirs of a recent world leader. How did he manage to survive at the top? One answer is the involvement of his daughter Tanya. Not only was she to be trusted totally, but being in her thirties and a computer scientist she represented the new generation coming to leadership in Russia.

Yeltsin reflects on the momentous vears as Russia shakes off the shackles of the former Soviet Union. In his relationships with other world leaders it is in the Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis, his friendships with Helmut Kohl and Jacques Chirac, that he sees his greatest foreign policy accomplishment. The warmth of this troika soon had Blair and Clinton lighting up the Kremlin hotlines, indignant that the Anglo-American relationship had been left out of this new European club.

And he looks back at the events that marked his presidency: the real impact of the 1991 coup, the tough decisions he was forced to make over Chechnya, why he hired and dismissed a string of Prime Ministers. He docs not shrink from discussing the state of the Russian economy, the allegations of corruption, nor his own health.

Vivid and direct in the style of Yeltsin himself, MIDNIGHT DIARIES is an unprecedented account of a tumultuous period in the history of one of the great nations on earth.

Very Good+ in Very Good Dust Wrapper. Price Clipped.

Blue boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [XXII] 398 pages. Index. 9½” x 6¼”.

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