The Cliveden Set
Norman Rose
  • Published: 28 February 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446450390
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

The Cliveden Set

Formats & editions
EBook
28 Feb 2011
Tr. Paperback
7 Sep 2001
Buy from…
Amazon Apple Books Google Play Kobo Booktopia eBooks.com

'A lively, entertaining and informative account of one of the stranger episodes to have created a national legend.' Anthony Howard, Sunday Times

Lloyd George once spoke of 'a very powerful combination - in its way the most powerful in the country'. Its proceedings were invariably conducted at Cliveden, the country estate of the fabulously wealthy Nancy and Waldorf Astor. Collectively dubbed 'God's Truth Ltd', the group included leading politicians, academics, writers and newspaper editors. Its pedigree impeccable, its social standing beyond reproach, its persuasive powers permeated the clubs and institutions of London, the senior common rooms of Oxbridge colleges, the quality press and the great country houses of England. Suddenly, in the late 1930s, the 'Cliveden Set' was catapulted into uncalled-for notoriety. It had been identified as a cabal that sought to manipulate, even determine, British foreign policy in order to uphold its narrow class interests. It would use any means, however devious - even negotiate a humiliating, dishonourable settlement with Nazi Germany - to maintain its privileges, those of a decaying ruling class. But was the 'Cliveden Set' a traitorous cabal, challenging 'the constitutional structures of British democracy', or simply an unstructured think-tank of harmless do-gooders? Norman Rose discerningly probes this fascinating tale, brilliantly disentangling fact from fiction, and setting this privileged clique in the wider perspective of its times.
  • Published: 28 February 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446450390
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
Categories:

About the author

Norman Rose

Norman Rose is a graduate of the LSE and now holds the Chair of International Relations at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. A distinguished historian and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is also the author of much acclaimed biographies of Winston Churchill, Chaim Weitzman and Harold Nicholson, as well as a study of the Cliveden Set.

Also by Norman Rose

Harold Nicolson
See all

Praise for The Cliveden Set

A lively, entertaining and informative account of one of the stranger episodes to have created a national legend

Anthony Howard, Sunday Times

A model piece of historical writing...A lively, generous-minded and convincing demolition of a contemporary legend

Anne Chisholm, Sunday Telegraph

Norman Rose...is a master of Britain's internal relations...his knowledge is extensive and his touch assured...In fine, economical, sometimes epigrammatic prose he has written a thoroughly entertaining, absorbing account

Ian Gilmour, London Review of Books

Well-researched, well-written and fascinating...a fine work

Andrew Roberts, Daily Telegraph

Norman Rose sorts out the Cliveden Set for us once and for all...calm, lucid and authoritative

Spectator

The Cliveden Set was long said to be a conspiracy at the heart of the Establishment to appease Hitler. Here, at last is a full exposure of the truth behind the myth. Norman Rose has done a signal service to history, producing a work of profound scholarship written with a wonderfully light touch

Piers Brendon