In 1936; the British monarchy faced the greatest threats to its survival in the modern era—the crisis of abdication and the menace of Nazism. The fate of the country rested in the hands of George V's sorely unequipped sons:•a stammering King George VI; terrified that the world might discover he was unfit to rule•a dull-witted Prince Henry; who wanted only a quiet life in the army•the too-glamorous Prince George; the Duke of Kent—a reformed hedonist who found new purpose in the RAF and would become the first royal to die in a mysterious plane crash•the Duke of Windsor; formerly King Edward VIII; deemed a Nazi-sympathizer and traitor to his own country—a man who had given it all up for lovePrinces at War is a riveting portrait of these four very different men miscast by fate; one of whom had to save the monarchy at a moment when kings and princes from across Europe were washing up on England's shores as the old order was overturned. Scandal and conspiracy swirled around the palace and its courtiers; among them dangerous cousins from across Europe's royal families; gold-digging American socialite Wallis Simpson; and the King's Lord Steward; upon whose estate Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess parachuted (seemingly by coincidence) as London burned under the Luftwaffe's tireless raids.Deborah Cadbury draws on new research; personal accounts from the royal archives; and other never-before-revealed sources to create a dazzling sequel to The King's Speech and tell the true and thrilling drama of Great Britain at war and of a staggering transformation for its monarchy.
#858592 in Books 2015-07-21Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.90 x 1.50 x 5.90l; .0 #File Name: 1608462676552 pages
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Exceptional First Hand InsightBy Ex-PattyVictor Serge is one of the most talented writers I have read - and I read about 100 books of all types a year. This is a first hand account of the author's experience during the Russian Revolution of 1917. He had contact with Lenin; Trotsky and other significant personalities. What's more is Serge not only gives the reader a "being there" viewpoint; but he's so profoundly intellectual and an adroit historian that he explains to the reader the historical reasons for the events he was part of. Anyone interested in Russian/Soviet history must have a copy of this book in their library.Serge began from Ch. 1 discussing the fact that Russia could not industrialize without shedding its monarchical system which kept peasants in the countryside; instead of "freeing" them to enter the cities to toil as factory workers for their survival and thus was why the bourgeoisie of commerce; manufacturing; finance and parliament intended to shatter Imperial Russia with the Revolution. In this sense; he blamed ascendant capitalism for the Revolution and that "the liberal bourgeoisie found it [Marxism] an excellent weapon."
