Acquisitions

Duff Cooper. The Duff Cooper Diaries, 1915-1951. London: Phoenix, 2006. Nobleman, socialite, Conservative MP, Cabinet Minister, anti-appeaser, and apparently a fine diarist too. Edited by his son, John Julius Norwich.

Adam Tooze. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. London: Allen Lane, 2006. I've heard good things about this book. Seems to assign a higher value to the Combined Bomber Offensive than do some, but argues that it was often misdirected (e.g. Battle of Berlin).

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3 thoughts on “Acquisitions

  1. If you get the chance, could you look (or attempt to look) something up for me? Duff Cooper is supposed to have said that the overwhelming service vote for Labour in 1945 was "a vote against the sergeant-major" rather than a vote for a coherent socialist platform - a view that was largely correct IMHO. Is there anything along these lines in the diary entries for June or July 1945?

  2. Post author

    Nothing that I can see, I'm afraid. He only mentions the election three times or so, one beforehand noting that it was Churchill's main topic of conversation, another one saying that Labour had made a few gains, and a final one about Bevin going to the FO and worrying about his own position there. Of course, what's in the book is only an edited selection, but he doesn't seem particularly concerned about the election from this.

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