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{{Short description|Short polemical book published in 1940}}{{italic title}}{{for|the Colombian film|Guilty Men (film)}}
'''''Guilty Men'''''
==Contents==▼
▲''Guilty Men'' was a British [[polemic]]al book written under the pseudonym "Cato" published in July 1940. It attacked fifteen public figures for their failed policies towards Germany and for their failure to re-equip the British armed forces. In denouncing appeasement, it defines the policy as the "deliberate surrender of small nations in the face of Hitler's blatant bullying".<ref name=dnb>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/70/70401.html |title=Oxford DNB theme: Guilty men |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|date= |accessdate=2013-10-05}}</ref>
▲==Contents==
The book's slogan, "Let the guilty men retire", was an attack on members of the [[Third National Government 1935–1937|National Government]] before [[Winston Churchill]] became [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] in May 1940. Most were [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]], although some were [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|National Liberals]] and one was [[Ramsay MacDonald]], the former leader of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]. Several were current members of Churchill's government. The book shaped popular thinking about appeasement for twenty years; it effectively destroyed the reputation of former Prime Ministers [[Stanley Baldwin]] and [[Neville Chamberlain]], and contributed to the defeat of the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] at the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]]. According to historian David Dutton, "its impact upon Chamberlain's reputation, both among the general public and within the academic world, was profound indeed".<ref>David Dutton, ''Neville Chamberlain'' (2001) pp. 71–72</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Graham Macklin|title=Chamberlain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zoJp9B23cxkC&pg=PA98|year=2006|publisher=Haus Publishing|page=98|isbn=9781904950622}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Addison| authorlink = Paul Addison |title=The Road To 1945: British Politics and the Second World War Revised Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2hit1s8B04C&pg=PT136|year=2011|publisher=Random House|page=136| isbn = 9781446424216 }}</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
*[[Neville Chamberlain]]
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*[[Ramsay MacDonald]]
*[[Stanley Baldwin]]
*[[
*Sir [[Kingsley Wood]]
*[[Ernest Brown (British politician)|Ernest Brown]]
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*Sir [[Reginald Dorman-Smith]]<ref name=dnb/>
{{div col end}}
Though mostly devoted to what the authors see as the blindness and inertia of the Conservative majority that in 1939 led a drastically under-prepared Britain into war, followed by the disastrous losses of Norway and of France in 1940, the authors look briefly at the British Army's contribution to these failures. While praising the discipline and courage of the soldiers in the field, they point to grave errors of strategy. In their opinion, some lessons that should have been obvious from the [[Western Front (World War I)|1914–1918]] war over the same terrain in France were ignored: you need a secure perimeter to fall back on in need; you need a mobile reserve to call on; in defence, you must guard against infiltration by motorised infantry and you need copious anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery; to attack, you need superiority in aircraft and tanks.<ref>Guilty Men, pp118-122</ref>
==Authorship==
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It was under a pseudonym because the writers were employed by [[William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook|Lord Beaverbrook]], who barred his journalists from writing for publications other than his own. Beaverbrook, who was active in the Conservative Party, was also a vocal supporter of appeasement, though he was not mentioned in the book.<ref>Michael Foot, Preface to the 1998 re-issue of ''Guilty Men'', Penguin Books</ref>
There was much speculation as to who Cato was. At one time [[Aneurin Bevan]] was named as its author. [[Randolph Churchill]] ([[Winston Churchill|Winston's]] son, also a Beaverbrook journalist) was also wrongly attributed as its author.<ref>Morgan, Kenneth O. (2008). ''Michael Foot: A Life, p.80. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-00-717827-8.</ref> In the meantime, the real authors had some fun reviewing their own work. Michael Foot wrote an article, "Who
==Publication==
''Guilty Men'' was published in early July 1940, shortly after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, the [[Dunkirk evacuation]] had shown Britain's military unpreparedness, and the [[Battle of France|Fall of France]]
''Guilty Men'' remains in circulation and was reprinted for its historical interest by [[Penguin Books]] to mark its sixtieth anniversary in 2000.
==Evaluation==
The book's arguments and conclusions have been questioned by politicians and historians. In 1945, [[Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone|Quintin Hogg, MP]], wrote ''[[The Left
The fact that all bar one of the 15 "guilty men" named were either Conservatives or Liberals caused controversy – no mention was made, for example, of the [[Labour Party (UK)]] cabinet member and mid-1930s leader [[George Lansbury]], a pacifist who advocated [[Unilateral disarmament]] in the face of fascist rearmament.
The idea of appeasement as error and cowardice was challenged by historian [[A. J. P. Taylor|A.J.P. Taylor]] in his book ''[[The Origins of the Second World War]]'' (1960), in which he argued that, in the circumstances, it might be seen as a rational policy.▼
▲The idea of appeasement as error and cowardice was challenged by historian [[A. J.
==See also==
* ''[[The Left
* [[The bomber will always get through]], a military/political belief from the 1930s that held that in future conflicts regardless of [[Anti-aircraft warfare|air defences]] sufficient numbers of [[bomber]]s would survive to destroy cities and infrastructure
==Notes==
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* Hucker, Daniel. "The Unending Debate: Appeasement, Chamberlain and the Origins of the Second World War." ''Intelligence and National Security'' 23.4 (2008): 536-551.
* [[Morgan, Kenneth O.]] ''Michael Foot: A Life'' (2007), ch 3
{{Military historiography}}{{Michael Foot}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Books about politics of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Michael Foot]]
[[Category:Books about World War II
[[Category:1940 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Victor Gollancz Ltd books]]
[[Category:1940 in British politics]]
[[Category:1940 in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Anti-fascist books]]
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