Arthur Neville Chamberlain, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940.
Appeasement, in an international context, is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the British governments of Prime Ministers Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy between 1935 and 1939. Under British pressure, appeasement of Nazism and Fascism also played a role in French foreign policy of the period but was always much less popular there than in the United Kingdom.
The 1945 United Kingdom general election was a national election held on Thursday 5 July 1945, but polling in some constituencies was delayed by some days, and the counting of votes was delayed until 26 July to provide time for overseas votes to be brought to Britain. The governing Conservative Party sought to maintain its position in Parliament but faced challenges from public opinion about the future of the United Kingdom in the post-war period. Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed to call for a general election in Parliament, which passed with a majority vote less than two months after the conclusion of the Second World War in Europe.
Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford, was a prominent Liberal and later National Liberal politician in the United Kingdom. His 1938 diplomatic mission to Czechoslovakia was key to the enactment of the British policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany preceding the Second World War.
George C. Peden is an emeritus professor of history at Stirling University, Scotland.
Sir David Edgeworth Butler, was an English political scientist who specialised in psephology, the study of elections. He has been described as "the father of modern election science."
Wolfram Kaiser is a professor of European studies at University of Portsmouth and visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges.
The 1938 Oxford by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Oxford, held on 27 October 1938. The by-election was triggered when Robert Croft Bourne, the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament died on 7 August 1938. He had served as MP for the constituency since a 1924 by-election.
Frank McDonough is a British historian of the Third Reich and international history.
The European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry from 1937 to 1940 was based on British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's commitment to "peace for our time" by pursuing a policy of appeasement and containment towards Nazi Germany and by increasing the strength of Britain's armed forces until, in September 1939, he delivered an ultimatum over the invasion of Poland, which was followed by a declaration of war against Germany.
Effie G. H. Pedaliu is an international historian, author and Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS. She has held posts at LSE, KCL and UWE. She is the author of Britain, Italy and the Origins of the Cold War,, the co-editor of Britain in Global Affairs, Volume II, From Churchill to Blair, and The Foreign Office, Commerce and British Foreign Policy in the 20th Century.
Raia Prokhovnik, is Reader in Politics at the Open University's Faculty of Social Sciences, for their Department of Politics and International Studies, and founding editor of the journal Contemporary Political Theory. She is the chair of the OU's interdisciplinary politics module, Living political ideas, and contributed to other modules including Power, dissent, equality: understanding contemporary politics.
Pippa Poppy Catterall is a British academic historian who, since 2016, has been Professor of History and Policy at the University of Westminster. Her research has focused on twentieth-century history and politics, the mass media, conflict studies and nationalism.
The Runciman Report was issued at the conclusion of Lord Runciman's Mission to Czechoslovakia in September 1938. The purpose of the Mission was to mediate in a dispute between the Government of Czechoslovakia and the Sudeten German Party (SdP), representing German separatists within Czechoslovakia, which was threatening to plunge Europe into war.
Richard Charles Vinen is a British historian and academic who holds a professorship at King's College London. Vinen is a specialist in 20th-century European history, particularly of Britain and France.
This bibliography includes major books and articles about British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her policies in office.
Jane Chapman is a British academic, professor of communications at the University of Lincoln, a research associate and a former fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge and the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge. She is the author of twelve books and over 35 academic articles and book chapters.
Matthew J. Hilton, FRHistS, is an academic social historian. Since 2016, he has been Vice-Principal for Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London, where he holds a professorship.
Ina-Maria Zweiniger-Bargielowska, known professionally as Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, is a British-American academic historian specialising in 20th-century Britain. Since 2010, she has been Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Anne Fuchs, is an academic specialist on modern and post-war German literature and Culture.
