Aristocracy, Democracy, and Dictatorship: The Political Papers of the Seventh Marquess of Londonderry

The seventh Marquess of Londonderry (1878–1949) held government posts in Dublin, Belfast and London. Controversial in his own lifetime, he oversaw the early years of both the Royal Air Force and Northern Ireland, and he was attacked as a ‘warmonger’ for his role at the World Disarmament Conference held at Geneva in the early 1930s. Londonderry’s subsequent venture into amateur diplomacy cemented his reputation as an arch appeaser of Nazi Germany. He corresponded throughout with important national and international figures and others of significance, including Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, and Lord Halifax. In the late 1930s his regular correspondents also included Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Franz von Papen. This volume provides a vivid insight into the outlook and actions of an unapologetic aristocrat-politician, his colleagues in government, and the efforts of his German correspondents to inform and shape British opinion on the Nazi regime.