THE MAN WHO MADE THE PEACE: Neville Chamberlain

A short biography, less patently eulogistic that Petrie's, with a more incisive portrait of the man. As background, an account of his youth, of the municipal work in Birmingham on slums and health, finally his appointment as Prime Minister. From early liberalism to staunch conservatism and a practical, middle class course. Then an account of the tense weeks preceding the peace (a straight journalistic report) and of Chamberlain's single-minded attempts to attain peace, and the alliance with Germany. Hodgson's conclusion is that dictatorship does not imply unrest and war, that dictators are not necessarily seeking outside territory, but merely internal unity, and that Chamberlain was justified. Hardly a book that would convince those who thought otherwise.