Why England Slept
Originally published in 1940, Why England Slept was written by then-Harvard student and future American president John F. Kennedy. It was Kennedy's senior thesis that analyzed the tremendous miscalculations of the British leaders in facing Germany on the advent of World War II, and in doing so, also addressed the challenges that democracies face when confronted directly with fascist states.

In Why England Slept, at the book's core, John F. Kennedy asks: Why was England so poorly prepared for the war? He provides a comprehensive analysis of the tremendous miscalculations of the British leadership when it came to dealing with Germany and leads readers into considering other questions: Was the poor state of the British army the reason Chamberlain capitulated at Munich, or were there other, less-obvious elements at work that allowed this to happen? Kennedy also looks at similarities to America's position of unpreparedness and makes astute observations about the implications involved.

This re-publication of the classic book contains excerpts from the foreword to the 1940 original edition by Henry R. Luce, an American magazine magnate during that era; the foreword to the 1961 edition, also written by Luce; and a new foreword by Stephen C. Schlesinger, written in 2015.

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Why England Slept
Originally published in 1940, Why England Slept was written by then-Harvard student and future American president John F. Kennedy. It was Kennedy's senior thesis that analyzed the tremendous miscalculations of the British leaders in facing Germany on the advent of World War II, and in doing so, also addressed the challenges that democracies face when confronted directly with fascist states.

In Why England Slept, at the book's core, John F. Kennedy asks: Why was England so poorly prepared for the war? He provides a comprehensive analysis of the tremendous miscalculations of the British leadership when it came to dealing with Germany and leads readers into considering other questions: Was the poor state of the British army the reason Chamberlain capitulated at Munich, or were there other, less-obvious elements at work that allowed this to happen? Kennedy also looks at similarities to America's position of unpreparedness and makes astute observations about the implications involved.

This re-publication of the classic book contains excerpts from the foreword to the 1940 original edition by Henry R. Luce, an American magazine magnate during that era; the foreword to the 1961 edition, also written by Luce; and a new foreword by Stephen C. Schlesinger, written in 2015.

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Why England Slept

Why England Slept

Why England Slept

Why England Slept

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Overview

Originally published in 1940, Why England Slept was written by then-Harvard student and future American president John F. Kennedy. It was Kennedy's senior thesis that analyzed the tremendous miscalculations of the British leaders in facing Germany on the advent of World War II, and in doing so, also addressed the challenges that democracies face when confronted directly with fascist states.

In Why England Slept, at the book's core, John F. Kennedy asks: Why was England so poorly prepared for the war? He provides a comprehensive analysis of the tremendous miscalculations of the British leadership when it came to dealing with Germany and leads readers into considering other questions: Was the poor state of the British army the reason Chamberlain capitulated at Munich, or were there other, less-obvious elements at work that allowed this to happen? Kennedy also looks at similarities to America's position of unpreparedness and makes astute observations about the implications involved.

This re-publication of the classic book contains excerpts from the foreword to the 1940 original edition by Henry R. Luce, an American magazine magnate during that era; the foreword to the 1961 edition, also written by Luce; and a new foreword by Stephen C. Schlesinger, written in 2015.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781440849909
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 04/04/2016
Pages: 184
Sales rank: 696,569
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Stephen C. Schlesinger, JD, is fellow at the Century Foundation in New York; author of Act of Creation: The Founding of The United Nations, winner of the 2004 Harry S. Truman Book Award; former director of the World Policy Institute at the New School (1997–2006); and former publisher of the magazine The World Policy Jourbanal.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Foreword to the 1961 Edition xv

Excerpts from the Foreword to the Original Edition xix

Introduction xxiii

Part 1 Period of Disarmament Policy

Chapter I Certain Fundamental Beliefs of the British Regarding Armaments 3

Chapter II Influence of the Financial Crisis on Armaments, 1931-1932 17

Chapter III Influence of the General Disarmament Conference and the Pacifist Movement on British Armaments, 1933 27

Chapter IV Beginnings of the Shift from Disarmament to Rearmament, 1934 39

Chapter V Influence of the General Election-Final Phase of Disarmament 55

Part 2 Period of Rearmament Policy

Chapter VI The Launching of the Rearmament Program, 1936 73

Chapter VII Slowness of Fulfillment of the Program, 1937 91

Chapter VIII The Penalty-Munich, 1938 101

Chapter IX The Aftermath-Britain Awakens 117

Part 3 Conclusion

Chapter X America's Lesson 129

Appendix 139

Bibliography 149

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