United Kingdom Books

In "Appeasement and All Souls," Sidney Aster attempts to reverse not just the title but the verdict of A.L.Rowse in "All Souls and Appeasement." Rowse alleged that the plotters of the Munich Pact were a group of incompetent intellectuals in the orbit of his Oxford college.

Aster fails on every count.

His contention is that, in addition to the older Fellows of All Souls who were appeasers, there was a younger group who wanted to stand up to Hitler, Mussolini and Japan. His evidence is "Salter's Soviet," formally the All Souls Foreign Affairs Group, organized by Arthur Salter. It met 15 times in 1937-8 and included several anti-appeasers, including Rowse, Gilbert Murray, Harold Nicholson, B.H. Liddell-Hart and Harold Macmillan.

The record shows these were not serious men. "Appeasement and All Souls" is primarily a collection of letters, memorandums and diary entries, with minimal commentary and annotation by Aster.

Salter's stated goal was to encompass the range of English (or at least, All Souls) elite opinion, except for the "extreme Right and extreme Left." Supposedly, Salter himself was anti-Government and anti-appeasement, if not as stridently as Rowse.

However, this is hard to believe, because he loaded up the group with fanatical pacifists. One, Lord Allen of Hurtwood, was named chairman, allegedly because of his masterly methods of conducting meetings.

This was, on the face of it, crazy. If you are aiming to move public opinion to a more forceful policy, you don't weight down your pressure group with appeasers, disarmers and League of Nations zealots like Lionel Curtis and Lord Allen. Especially not Allen.

Allen was fatuous, treacherous and indefatigable. Nearly half the book is comprised of his position papers (repetitive but relentless) in favor of giving Hitler what he wanted -- at one point, enunciating "peace at any price." As chairman, he tabled these papers. Of course the discussions were consumed with refuting Allen, so they never got around to opposing appeasement. Allen never tabled a paper for discussion that was critical of Chamberlain.

Had Salter and the rest really meant to challenge the government, they would either have thrown Allen and Curtis overboard; or seceded and formed a new anti-appeasement group.

One purpose of the group was to clear the minds of these academics about contentious issues. Another was, possibly, to issue a position paper. Czechoslovakia was the big issue, but the group never could decide what it thought about Czechoslovakia -- except Allen, who could not wait to throw the Czechs to Hitler's wolves. He was quite clear about the immorality of it; he spoke out again and again against morality.

In early 1938, the group nearly made up its mind that if the British government should ever do anything, its naval power argued for applying force in Spain, not central Europe. However, by the time they almost girded themselves up to bravely indite a letter to The Times, Franco was about to batter down the defenses of Barcelona, so they decided better not.

There is nothing good to say about Chamberlain and Halifax, but even they were not as feckless as these supposed stalwarts for democracy, who could not even stand up to an old, sick pacifist like Allen. How could anybody imagine they would stand up to Hitler?

This is a specialist book (one of three valuable records of English political thought published in the Camden Fifth Series, but the least valuable of the three), and the skimpy annotation will leave any reader not already deeply knowledgeable about Europe in the `30s mystified. It is worth reading (if not worth $90) because it shows how deep the rot had set in in England. Parallels to American politics in the 21st century will present themselves on every other page.

If you need two books to sum up the history of the British Conservative Party, the ones to get are this one by Ramsden and E.H.H. Green's "The Crisis of Conservatism 1880-1914". Forget about Robert Blake, he's out of date and his work looks increasingly pompous and thin with the passage of time. Ramsden is very astute in his judgements, and if there is one little quibble it is with his assessment that Baldwin and Chamberlain were somehow "good eggs" while Churchill was a "bad egg". This may be true in the very narrow sense of who looked after the Conservative Party's interests when the party was in power, but surely what counts is who did most for the country and for the free world. Neither Baldwin nor Chamberlain, nor other deadbeats like Rab Butler, would have risen to the occasion in 1940. Churchill did. It matters not one jot that the Conservative Party's fortunes declined temporarily as a result.

I have opportunity to read the last issue, and I am so happy for new issue becouse I as proffesor of the economics will learn the applied economics from the best teachers of the world. Thank you for the gift Ms.Alan Grifiths and Ms.Stuart Wall.

This book serves as an excellent 'handbook' for teacher appraisal. It is based on the British appraisal system yet it can be effectively used in any system as it focuses on the professional development of teachers. The information is presented in a clear, concise manner and although the British teacher appraisal regulations are quoted extensively throughout the book it is done in a manner which adds rather than detracts from the text.

The activities and forms in the book serve as a good stimulator for appraisal training. This book serves as an excellent foundation for the implementation of teacher appraisal using staff development as its central focus. It can also double as an extremely good training manual.

For anyone who is interested in golf course architecture, this book is a must for your library. Contains a complete index (a continuous work-in-process) of architects and their courses. Essentially every course in the world (including those which are no longer in existance), is listed including its location, date of orgin and the architects who created it also the provider of any known substantial (professional) renovation work. It must take a tremendous effort for the authors to keep this book up to date. I hope the fact that this book is no longer in print indicates that the authors are hard at work. If you do not have a copy find one, if you have to go the the library and photocopy theirs (but bring a stack of dimes its very long).

The overall view of the book is considered to be an excellence book.
There are a few projects that need to have drawing documentation and in my preferences drawings could be bigger but they are readable.
The photographs in this book are excellent representation of the essence of the projects under the study cases. Perhaps the narratives could include deeper conclusions of the architect's ideas-to explain the arrival of their conclusions.

This is a wonderful book! I bought the video from Borders, (39.99) and I LOVED it! Of course, to follow up, I had to but the book. There are two versions of this book, the telivision companion, which I prefer since it has better pictures, and more pictures in color. Stella Tillyard did a fabulous job of writing this book! This edition, has pictures from the video series, and contains the text telling the stories of the Lennox sisters, their passions, deceptions and timless love for one another. I can't get enough of this book! If you have not seen this video, buy it! I promise you will watch it again and again! The costumes are fabulous, and the actors LOOK like the real people! It is made by the BBC. I would buy both versions of the books as well. ajw@marinternet.com

Five stars for content, but not this particular edition's print quality.

This version of the book looks like it was printed on a photocopy machine, especially the photos. They are on paper, and grainy, not like the glossy plates of the original publisher. At this price, this should be a much better reproduction than it is.

I don't recommend this version, unless you just can't find an original printing at a similar price, or prefer this being a new and less fragile copy. I traded this for other books, and found a used copy.

Used copies can be a bit hard to find, and pricey. I lucked onto a good condition 1940 second printing with jacket, two years ago for $25. Watch all the used book sources to find a copy in your budget.

You can't be a BG fan without this book. It only relates his life up through 1938, since it was published in '39. It's a shame he didn't write later and could tell more.

I was a bit surprised how humble and occaisionally self-deprecating he can be here. I think he really meant this to be a true account of his life; however, it is basic in most details.

We both found this book interesting and informative. Plan to take it with us when we travel to Arran next September to hike the trail

Synopsis
When art hits the headlines, it is usually because it has caused offence or is perceived by the media to have shock-value. Over the last fifty years many artists have been censored, vilified, accused of blasphemy and obscenity, threatened with violence, prosecuted and even imprisoned. Their work has been trashed by the media and physically attacked by the public. In "Art & Outrage", John A. Walker covers the period from the late 1940s to the 1990s to provide the first detailed survey of the most prominent cases of art that has scandalised. The work of some of Britain's leading, and less well known, painters and sculptors of the postwar period is considered, such as Richard Hamilton, Bryan Organ, Rachel Whiteread, Reg Butler, Damien Hirst, Jamie Wagg, Barry Flanagan and Antony Gormley.Included are works made famous by the media, such as Carl Andre's Tate Gallery installation of 120 bricks, Rick Gibson's foetus earrings, Anthony-Noel Kelly's cast body-parts sculptures and Marcus Harvey's portrait of Myra Hindley. Walker describes how each incident emerged, considers the arguments for and against, and examines how each was concluded.

While broadly sympathetic to radical contemporary art, Walker has some residual sympathy for the layperson's bafflement and antagonism. This is a scholarly yet accessible study of the interface between art, society and mass media which offers an alternative history of postwar British art and attitudes.