John Charmley

John Denis Charmley (* 1955 ) is a British historian . He teaches "Modern and Recent British History" at the University of East Anglia and is best known for his unconventional works on the British statesman Winston Churchill . Since 2011 he has also been editor-in-chief of the academic journal History .

Positions

In contrast to the dominant position of historical research, Charmley sees Churchill's war policy in World War II as a failure and particularly accuses the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of having "gambled away" the British Empire. Chamley sees the main reason for the collapse of the Empire in Churchill's refusal to make an “honorable” peace with Nazi Germany in 1940. The war against Germany would have forced Great Britain to mobilize forces that should have been used to maintain the Empire in its overseas territories in the struggle for survival of the British core state. As a result, the Empire finally fell apart.

In addition, Churchill's alliance with the anti-imperialist US President Roosevelt would have exacerbated this tendency even further and turned out to be a heavy, ultimately devastating mortgage for the Empire. A peace agreement with Hitler - who was well-disposed towards the Empire - would have brought a partner "on board" who would have been far less indifferent and negative about British interests than the American leadership. In addition, a peace treaty with Germany would have further strengthened Great Britain's position of power, since Germany would then have directed all its strength to Russia, with the result that both the Soviet Union and the German Reich would have suffered greater losses, while Great Britain would have been stronger at rest, ultimately as To appear as a referee.

Charmley has stressed in several of his books that Churchill's war policies favored the rise of the Labor Party and the rise of “socialist conditions” in Britain.

Among others, Manfred Weidhorn , Christian Graf von Krockow and Corelli Barnett have appeared as critics of Charmley's positions . The rejection of his theses sparked, among other things, by his position that the Empire could still be saved at all, and by his view that a reliable peace settlement with Hitler would have been possible. They argue against Charmley that a peace treaty in 1940 would not have been accepted as a lasting peace for Hitler, but merely as a breather in order to be able to “gather strength for further aggressive ventures undisturbed.” In particular, it is pointed out how close the defense of the Soviet Union is to failure between 1941 and 1943, so that without Great Britain behind him, Hitler would probably have freed the decisive forces to win in front of Moscow , in Stalingrad and Kursk .

Works

• Duff Cooper , 1986. (Biography of the British politician Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich )
• Lord Lloyd and the Decline of the British Empire , 1987. (Biography of the British statesman Lord Lloyd)
• Chamberlain and the Lost Peace , 1989.
• Churchill: The End of Glory , 1993.
• Churchill's Grand Alliance 1940-1957 , 1995.
• A History of Conservative Politics 1900-1996 , 1996.
• Splendid isolation? Britain and the Balance of Power 1874-1914 , 1999.
• in German language:
• Churchill. The end of a legend . Propylaen Verlag , Berlin 1995, ISBN 978-3-549-05467-3 . New edition by Ullstein Verlag , Berlin 1997, ISBN 978-3-548-26502-5 .
• The fall of the British Empire. Roosevelt - Churchill and America's Road to World Power . Ares Verlag , Graz 2005, ISBN 978-3-902475-04-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about John Charmley in the catalog of the German National Library