Neville Chamberlain is remembered today as Hitler’s credulous dupe, the man who proclaimed in September 1938 that the Munich agreement guaranteed ‘peace in our time’. Walter Reid delivers a re-assessment of one of Britain’s most controversial prime ministers, showing him to be one of the most effective political leaders of the twentieth century.

When he became Prime Minister on 10 May 1940, Churchill was without allies. Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain saved Britain from defeat, but it was evident that Britain alone could never win the war. This work reveals how much time and energy was devoted to fighting the war that was excluded from the official accounts, the war with the allies.