Title: The unnecessary war
First published: 1992
Description: The book is a scathing, indepth look at the treacherous and dispicable actions of the British government during the years leading up to the Second World War. There was a massive and coordinated effort within Nazi Germany to overthrow Hitler that would have prevented WWII entirely. But the British government, under Neville Chamberlain, refused to shift away from its policy of Appeasement. Despite incontrivertable evidence provided by the German Foreign Office that Hitler intended to go to war, the Neville Chamberlain's government refused to assist those German Oppositionists in any way. 

Patricia Meehan provides an enormous amount of archival evidence and eye-witness accounts that should put to rest any idea of WWII being inevitable. She also illustrates how before, during, and especially after the war, the British government continued to distance itself from the German Oppositionists, even going so far as to withhold evidence during the Nuremberg Trials that would have exhonorated some members of the German Foreign Office that were on trial.

The book shows, with uncompromising honesty and clarity, that the deadliest war in Human history need not have happened. Its an engaging account that leaves the reader aghast at the arrogance and wilfull blindness of the British government. But the reader is also shocked by the willingness of those within the British government to extend the war and make the war more costly in human life just to protect those involved from embarrassment and blame after the war. Many German Oppositionists died during the war as a result of their anti-Nazi activities, activities the British government refused to aid them in. Many within the British government are positively celebratory upon learning of the Oppositionists deaths' simply because the Nazi's are silencing witnesses of the British governments failures. The book shows a side of politicians that many will find frightening and disturbing.
Subjects: Anti-Nazi movement, Foreign relations, World War, 1939-1945, History, Diplomatic history
Places: Germany, Great Britain
People: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Time periods: 1933-1945, 1936-1945