Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England
Starred Review.In 1930s England, faced with the gathering menace of fascism, 30 or so  junior members of Parliament understood that Hitler would not be dissuaded by  Prime Minister Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. Their rebellion against  their leader and the "elderly mediocrities" of their own Conservative Party is  the subject of Olson's absorbing book. The forces opposed to Chamberlain were  initially inhibited by party loyalty and the ferocious reprisals threatened  against anyone who challenged the prime minister. Olson traces how Hitler's  continuing depredations (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland) served to recruit  more insurgents in the House of Commons and galvanize those shamed by England's  inaction. Olson's story picks up energy as she reviews the events of 1940, when  at long last Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill. Olson is interested in the  moral imperatives driving her protagonists. The dominant figure in the  narrative, of course, is Churchill, who despised Chamberlain's defeatism but  served loyally in his cabinet until Chamberlain's forced resignation. Infused  with the sense of urgency felt by the young Tories, Olson's vivid narrative of  a critical generational clash leaves the reader wondering what might have  happened had they prevailed earlier on.(Apr.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.