Anthony Eden: A Life and Reputation

As the centenary of his birth approaches, Anthony Eden remains one of the most controversial figures in the political history of twentieth-century Britain. Using a mass of unpublished archival material, much of it from Eden's own papers, David Dutton seeks to reassess the career of a man who experienced the extremes of political fortune.

For much of his life the golden boy of British politics, with a popular appeal that transcended party boundaries, Eden left public life with his reputation for sound judgement and probity sadly tarnished. In this new study the Suez crisis of 1956, which did such lasting damage to Eden's historical reputation, is given due attention in the light of the wealth of detailed studies now available, but it is not allowed to compromise a proper assessment of the full career of a man who was at the heart of British political life for more than two decades. Eden's role in the appeasement of the 1930s is scrutinised, his contribution to wartime diplomacy re-evaluated and n

The failed gamble of Suez in 1956 lay waste Eden's 30-year career in a number of positions at the top of the British government. Long the heir-apparent to Churchill, who kept postponing his retirement, Eden (1897-1977) occupied 10 Downing Street as prime minister for only 21 months. The Anglo-French attack on Egypt forced Eden's resignation, after which critics wondered whether he had been big enough for the job. In the shadow of Churchill, perhaps no one was, but Dutton, who lectures in modern history at the University of Liverpool in England, offers in this thoughtful work a cautiously sympathetic reappraisal. His reassessment?not a full life?examines the major facets of Eden's eventful service in several cabinets, from youthful foreign secretary to aging, ailing and embattled prime minister. Beginning with Eden's unheroic role in the prewar appeasement of Hitler and Mussolini, papered over by a well-publicized resignation, and concluding with the ghosts of Suez, Dutton ranges across crises and controversies, backing his deeply informed study with nearly 80 pages of notes. While he sees Eden as damaged by his reputation as the most elegant and handsome politician of his era, he sees Eden's personal deficiencies as less crucial than the historical hand he was dealt. As Dutton observes: "The management of the foreign policy of a nation which was, despite its traditions and obligations as a world power, in manifest decline, was no easy task." Misjudging what was to Eden a politically unsophisticated America marred his stewardship in general, but to Dutton his performance as Churchill's wartime partner is credit enough to lift Eden's faded reputation. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Dutton, a biographer of British political figures, appraises the many reputations Eden acquired in his career, including 1955^-58, when he was at the top of British political power. Dutton's "life" in this exercise is incidental; biographical narrative is devoid until Eden's entrance to the Foreign Office in 1935, leaving out entirely such presumably formative events as Eden's experience in western front trenches and the death of his brother in them. What Dutton delivers is an adjudication of the battle of the books that erupted after Eden's captaincy of the 1956 Suez fiasco, which accelerated Britain's descent from world power status. A more brightly burnished episode of Eden's career was his 1938 resignation in protest against appeasement policies, but Dutton indicates that Eden was more deeply associated with them than suggested by his public image. Nevertheless, he was opposed to yielding to Hitler along the way and, restored as foreign secretary in 1940, participated in the momentous diplomatic decisions of World War II. For readers interested in diplomatic and parliamentary nuances. Gilbert Taylor

Dutton (modern history, Univ. of Liverpool) proves here that U.S. politicians don't have a monopoly on Teflon coating. Dutton recounts how Eden, British prime minister from 1955 to 1957, managed to steer clear of accountability for dubious political judgments and the injudicious acts of his Conservative Party colleagues. His luck ran out when he finally grasped the ring of the prime minister's post and Egypt's Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956. Britain and France's military effort to regain control of the canal was short-lived after U.S. support was withheld. That crisis and failing health forced Eden to resign the following year. Dutton aims to complement the respected biographies by David Carlton (Anthony Eden, LJ 9/1/81) and Robert Rhodes James (Anthony Eden, LJ 7/87), focusing here on the highlights of Eden's political career. Recommended for academic libraries.?Paul Burnam, Ohio Wesleyan Univ. Libs., Delaware
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.