Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II »

David Faber, an Emmy, Peabody, and duPont Award winner, is the anchor and coproducer of CNBC's acclaimed original documentaries and long-form programming as well as a contributor to CNBC's Squawk on the Street. He has been reporting on Wall Street and corporate America for over twenty-two years, sixteen of them as the foremost reporter at CNBC. Faber has broken numerous stories including the massive fraud at WorldCom and News Corp.'s hostile bid for Dow Jones. He was a founding member of CNBC's signature morning show, Squawk Box.

David Faber, the author of Speaking for England, pens a dramatic, detailed, and essential narrative account of the 1938 Munich appeasement crisis.

Ed Goedeken - Library Journal

Adolf Hitler was crazy. In 1938, however, few European leaders knew just how crazy he was. What British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did know was how awful war was, since only 20 years before the British had lost a generation of their men in the trenches of France. The British statesman believed sincerely that he could negotiate effectively with someone like Hitler, and thus it was at Munich in 1938 that Chamberlain agreed to let the Nazis take over the German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia in exchange for Hitler's promise not to go to war. As we all know now, Chamberlain's act of appeasement served only to delay the start of World War II for about a year. Ever since, the word appeasement has taken on a highly negative meaning. VERDICT Well written and researched, Faber's thorough treatment of the men and the issues surrounding the Munich agreement compares favorably with standard accounts such as Telford Taylor's Munich: The Price of Peace. Over 250 books in English have been written on the subject, but Faber's is certainly worth reading. Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

Prologue: Heston 1

1 Hitler Sees His Chance 9

2 Scandal in Berlin 46

3 The Last Frail Chance 76

4 The Loaded Pause 104

5 A Spring Storm 139

6 Crisis in May 169

7 A Faraway Country 199

8 Czechoslovakia Stands Alone 230

9 In Full War Cry 251

10 On the Razor's Edge 272

11 A New and Sharper Sword 297

12 On the Banks of the Rhine 325

13 Keep Calm and Dig 356

14 The Flying Messenger of Peace 391

Epilogue: Drawing the Sword 427

Notes 438

Bibliography 493

Acknowledgments 503

Index 505