Guilty Men
Encyclopedia
Guilty Men was a book
published in Great Britain in 1940 that attacked British public figures for their appeasement
of Nazi Germany
in the 1930s. It is regarded as the classic denunciation of appeasement and is said to have shaped popular thinking for twenty years.
polemical book
written under the pseudonym
"Cato
" and published in 1940. It attacked fifteen public figures for their policy towards Germany
, Italy
and Japan
in the 1930s and for their failure to equip the British armed forces adequately to stand up to the dictators of those countries. It is regarded as the classic denunciation of appeasement
, which it defined as the "deliberate surrender of small nations in the face of Hitler's blatant bullying."
The book's slogan, "Let the guilty men retire," was an attack on members of the National Government before Winston Churchill
became prime minister
, most of whom were Conservatives
, although some were National Liberals
and one was Ramsay MacDonald
, the late leader of the Labour Party
. Several remained members of Winston Churchill's government. The book shaped popular thinking about appeasement for twenty years and has been seen as destroying the reputation of ex-prime ministers Stanley Baldwin
and Neville Chamberlain
and contributing to the defeat of the Conservative Party in the 1945 general election
.
The authors were three journalists, Michael Foot
(a future Leader of the Labour Party), Frank Owen
(a former Liberal
MP), and Peter Howard
(a Conservative). They wrote pseudonymously because their employer, Lord Beaverbrook, was active in the Conservative Party and banned his journalists from writing for other publications. Foot, Owen and Howard would meet on the roof of the Evening Standard
building after the late edition had been put to bed, surveying the London skyline and considering what might happen in the imminent Battle of Britain
.
They believed that Britain had suffered a succession of bad leaders, who, with junior ministers, advisers and officials, had conducted a disastrous foreign policy toward Germany and had failed to prepare the country for war. They persuaded Victor Gollancz
, creator of the Left Book Club
, to publish the book, divided the twenty-four chapters among themselves and wrote it in four days, finishing on June 5, 1940. Gollancz asked for some of the rhetoric to be toned down, fearing the reaction it might provoke.
The so-called guilty men were:
Guilty Men was published in early July, shortly after Churchill took over as Prime Minister, after the Dunkirk evacuation had shown Britain's military weakness, and after the Fall of France
, which left the country with few allies. The major book wholesalers, W H Smith
and Wyman's, and the largest book distributor, Simpkin Marshall, refused to handle the book. It was sold on news-stands and street barrows and went through twelve editions in July 1940 selling 200,000 copies in a few weeks. The police are alleged to have visited bookshops and to have told them they were selling a banned book, although Guilty Men was never banned.
There was speculation as to Cato's identity; some thought that he was Aneurin Bevan
. The authors had some fun reviewing their own work, Michael Foot entitling an article, "Who is This Cato?" Beaverbrook was as much in the dark as anyone, but joked that he "made do with the royalties from Guilty Men". The authors earned no royalties, as their literary agent Ralph Pinker made off with them.
Guilty Men remains in circulation and has been reprinted for its historical interest, for example, by Penguin Books
to mark its sixtieth anniversary in 2000.
, instead of the 1935 general election
and dated the Fulham by-election 1935. "1935" was corrected to "1933" in later editions, but the 1998 Penguin facsimile edition reproduced the error without comment.) It also shows in its excessively detailed description of Dunkirk.
The book's arguments and conclusions have been questioned by historians. The idea of appeasement as error and cowardice was challenged in 1960 by historian A. J. P. Taylor
's highly controversial The Origins of the Second World War, in which he argued that, in the circumstances, it might be seen as a rational policy.
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
published in Great Britain in 1940 that attacked British public figures for their appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in the 1930s. It is regarded as the classic denunciation of appeasement and is said to have shaped popular thinking for twenty years.
Authorship and publication
Guilty Men was a BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
polemical book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
written under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Cato
Cato the Younger
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis , commonly known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather , was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a follower of the Stoic philosophy...
" and published in 1940. It attacked fifteen public figures for their policy towards Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in the 1930s and for their failure to equip the British armed forces adequately to stand up to the dictators of those countries. It is regarded as the classic denunciation of appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
, which it defined as the "deliberate surrender of small nations in the face of Hitler's blatant bullying."
The book's slogan, "Let the guilty men retire," was an attack on members of the National Government before Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
became prime minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, most of whom were Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, although some were National Liberals
National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)
The National Liberal Party, known until 1948 as the Liberal National Party, was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1968...
and one was Ramsay MacDonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
, the late leader of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. Several remained members of Winston Churchill's government. The book shaped popular thinking about appeasement for twenty years and has been seen as destroying the reputation of ex-prime ministers Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
and Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
and contributing to the defeat of the Conservative Party in the 1945 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
.
The authors were three journalists, Michael Foot
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...
(a future Leader of the Labour Party), Frank Owen
Frank Owen (politician)
Humphrey Frank Owen was a British journalist and Liberal Member of Parliament. He was a Lloyd Georgite Liberal MP for Hereford between 1929 and 1931...
(a former Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
MP), and Peter Howard
Peter Howard (journalist)
Peter Dunsmore Howard was a British journalist, playwright, captain of the England national rugby union team and the head of the spiritual movement Moral Re-Armament from 1961 to 1965.-Biography:...
(a Conservative). They wrote pseudonymously because their employer, Lord Beaverbrook, was active in the Conservative Party and banned his journalists from writing for other publications. Foot, Owen and Howard would meet on the roof of the Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
building after the late edition had been put to bed, surveying the London skyline and considering what might happen in the imminent Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
.
They believed that Britain had suffered a succession of bad leaders, who, with junior ministers, advisers and officials, had conducted a disastrous foreign policy toward Germany and had failed to prepare the country for war. They persuaded Victor Gollancz
Victor Gollancz
Sir Victor Gollancz was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.-Early life:Born in Maida Vale, London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; after being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking...
, creator of the Left Book Club
Left Book Club
The Left Book Club, founded in 1936, was a key left-wing institution of the late 1930s and 1940s in the United Kingdom set up by Stafford Cripps, Victor Gollancz and John Strachey to revitalise and educate the British Left. The Club's aim was to "help in the struggle For world peace and against...
, to publish the book, divided the twenty-four chapters among themselves and wrote it in four days, finishing on June 5, 1940. Gollancz asked for some of the rhetoric to be toned down, fearing the reaction it might provoke.
The so-called guilty men were:
- Neville ChamberlainNeville ChamberlainArthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
- Sir John SimonJohn Simon, 1st Viscount SimonJohn Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon GCSI GCVO OBE PC was a British politician who held senior Cabinet posts from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second. He is one of only three people to have served as Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer,...
- Sir Samuel Hoare
- Ramsay MacDonaldRamsay MacDonaldJames Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
- Stanley BaldwinStanley BaldwinStanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
- Lord HalifaxE. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of HalifaxEdward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, , known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians of the 1930s, during which he held several senior ministerial posts, most notably as...
- Sir Kingsley WoodKingsley WoodSir Howard Kingsley Wood was an English Conservative politician. The son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, he qualified as a solicitor, and successfully specialised in industrial insurance...
- Ernest BrownErnest BrownAlfred Ernest Brown CH was a British politician who served as leader of the Liberal Nationals from 1940 until 1945.-Biography:...
- David Margesson
- Sir Horace Wilson
- Sir Thomas Inskip
- Leslie BurginLeslie BurginEdward Leslie Burgin was a British Liberal and later Liberal National politician in the 1930s.Burgin trained as a solicitor specialising in international law and served as principal and director of legal studies to the Law Society...
- Earl StanhopeJames Stanhope, 7th Earl StanhopeJames Richard Stanhope, 13th Earl of Chesterfield and 7th Earl Stanhope KG, DSO, MC, PC , styled Viscount Mahon until 1905, and known as The Earl Stanhope from 1905 until 1967, was a British Conservative politician.-Background:Stanhope was the eldest son of Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope, and...
- W. S. MorrisonWilliam Morrison, 1st Viscount DunrossilWilliam Shepherd Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil, GCMG, MC, KStJ, PC, QC , the 14th Governor-General of Australia, was born in Scotland and educated at George Watson's College and the University of Edinburgh. He joined the British Army in the First World War and served with an artillery regiment...
- Sir Reginald Dorman-SmithReginald Dorman-SmithColonel Sir Reginald Hugh Dorman-Smith GBE was a British diplomat, soldier and politician.-In politics:Dorman-Smith started his career with a strong interest in agriculture, becoming President of the National Farmers Union at the age of 32, and then later Minister of Agriculture...
Guilty Men was published in early July, shortly after Churchill took over as Prime Minister, after the Dunkirk evacuation had shown Britain's military weakness, and after the Fall of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
, which left the country with few allies. The major book wholesalers, W H Smith
W H Smith
WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
and Wyman's, and the largest book distributor, Simpkin Marshall, refused to handle the book. It was sold on news-stands and street barrows and went through twelve editions in July 1940 selling 200,000 copies in a few weeks. The police are alleged to have visited bookshops and to have told them they were selling a banned book, although Guilty Men was never banned.
There was speculation as to Cato's identity; some thought that he was Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan was a British Labour Party politician who was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1959 until his death in 1960. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people...
. The authors had some fun reviewing their own work, Michael Foot entitling an article, "Who is This Cato?" Beaverbrook was as much in the dark as anyone, but joked that he "made do with the royalties from Guilty Men". The authors earned no royalties, as their literary agent Ralph Pinker made off with them.
Guilty Men remains in circulation and has been reprinted for its historical interest, for example, by Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
to mark its sixtieth anniversary in 2000.
Evaluation
The speed with which Guilty Men was written shows in its errors. For example, the authors muddled the place and date where Baldwin said that re-armament was unpopular with the voters. (They placed it in the Fulham East by-election, 1933Fulham East by-election, 1933
The Fulham East by-election, in Fulham, on 25 October 1933 was held after Conservative Member of Parliament Kenyon Vaughan-Morgan died. In what had been a safe Conservative seat the election was surprisingly won by John Charles Wilmot of Labour....
, instead of the 1935 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...
and dated the Fulham by-election 1935. "1935" was corrected to "1933" in later editions, but the 1998 Penguin facsimile edition reproduced the error without comment.) It also shows in its excessively detailed description of Dunkirk.
The book's arguments and conclusions have been questioned by historians. The idea of appeasement as error and cowardice was challenged in 1960 by historian A. J. P. Taylor
A. J. P. Taylor
Alan John Percivale Taylor, FBA was a British historian of the 20th century and renowned academic who became well known to millions through his popular television lectures.-Early life:...
's highly controversial The Origins of the Second World War, in which he argued that, in the circumstances, it might be seen as a rational policy.