More echoes of appeasement

To conclude our round-up, here are a Boston Globe opinion piece from last May about Bush's attempt to smear Obama as an "appeaser", and a very brief overview from the Churchill Archives Centre at Cambridge University.

Recycling rhetoric

Just to indicate how "contemporary" the 1940s still are, even at the level of political rhetoric, there's an interesting piece in the Times Higher Education of 30 July 2004 which touches on the attempts of a Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to clothe himself in Churchillian rhetoric, and of his Conservative predecessor, John Major, to draw on the language of George Orwell.

And of course, it's not only politicians who invoke the powerful phrases of the past:

Schama on Churchill and Orwell

In eight parts:
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
Part five
Part six
Part seven
Part eight

George Formby

After spending so long this afternoon contemplating the lives and words of old boys of Eton and Harrow, here's the voice of someone who actually came from Wigan, and left school at the age of seven to be apprenticed to a jockey. In between the songs (which might not be to everybody's taste) there are very English utterances, entirely without Churchillian rhetorical flourishes, at 1 min. 45 sec. and at 4 min. 24 sec.

Mass-Observation recorded that the fantasy sequence in [the film] Let George do it (1940), in which Formby landed at Nuremberg and knocked out Hitler, was one of the biggest cultural morale-boosters of the early war years, the visual encapsulation of the people's war with the English Everyman flooring the Nazi Superman. The popularity of his character is indicated by the fact that from 1937 to 1943 inclusive Formby was the top British male star at the cinema box office, and from 1938 to 1942 the highest-paid entertainer in Britain. [...] Formby maintained his popularity through the Second World War both in films and on the ENSA [Entertainments National Service Association] tours he undertook, entertaining the troops frequently in close proximity to the front line. It was estimated that he had sung to 3 million service personnel by 1946, and in that year he was appointed OBE in recognition of his morale-boosting activities.

(From Jeffrey Richards, ‘Formby, George (1904–1961)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2005)

Churchill's rhetoric of defiance

When Napoleon lay at Boulogne for a year with his flat-bottomed boats and his Grand Army, he was told by someone. “There are bitter weeds in England.” There are certainly a great many more of them since the British Expeditionary Force returned.

[...]

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

(a section of the speech dealing with home defence and fifth columnists has been omitted)

Chamberlain announces War

I am speaking to you from the cabinet room of 10 Downing St. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.

You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more, or anything different, that I could have done, and that would have been more successful. Up to the very last it would have been quite possible to have arranged a peaceful and honourable settlement between Germany and Poland. But Hitler would not have it; he had evidently made up his mind to attack Poland whatever happened. And although he now says he put forward reasonable proposals which were rejected by the Poles, that is not a true statement. The proposals were never shown to the Poles, nor to us. And though they were announced in the German broadcast on Thursday night, Hitler did not wait to hear comments on them but ordered his troops to cross the Polish frontier the next morning.

His action shows convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force, and we and France are today in fulfillment of our obligations going to the aid of Poland who is so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack upon her people. We have a clear conscience, we have done all that any country could do to establish peace, but a situation in which no word given by Germany's ruler could be trusted, and no people or country could feel itself safe, had become intolerable. And now that we have resolved to finish it, I know that you will all play your parts with calmness and courage.