The Cliveden Set: Portrait of an Exclusive Fraternity

by NormanRose (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2000

  $3.29

  The Cliveden Set had its roots in South Africa immediately after the Boer War. Back in England its members formed a self-appointed pressure group. They would often meet at Cliveden or 4 St. James's Square in London - the homes of the American-born multi-millionaire Waldorf, 2nd Viscount Astor and his wife Nancy, by birth a Virginian belle, and the first woman M.P. to take her seat in the House of Commons. Suddenly in the late 1930s the Set was catapulted into unlooked-for notoriety when Communist journalist Claud Cockburn identified it as a cabal that sought to manipulate, and even determine, British foreign policy including a conspiracy to procure a humiliating, dishonourable settlement with Nazi Germany. The Washington Post asserted that the Set constituted the real centre of British foreign policy, menacing and challenging the constitutional structures of British democracy. This fascinating book is the first full-length account of the Set and its influence.

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $7.09

  Lloyd George once spoke of 'a very powerful combination - in its way the most powerful in the country'. Its proceedings were invariably conducted at Cliveden, the country estate of the fabulously wealthy Nancy and Waldorf Astor. Collectively dubbed 'God's Truth Ltd', the group included leading politicians, academics, writers and newspaper editors. Its pedigree impeccable, its social standing beyond reproach, its persuasive powers permeated the clubs and institutions of London, the senior common rooms of Oxbridge colleges, the quality press and the great country houses of England. Suddenly, in the late 1930s, the 'Cliveden Set' was catapulted into uncalled-for notoriety. It had been identified as a cabal that sought to manipulate, even determine, British foreign policy in order to uphold its narrow class interests. It would use any means, however devious - even negotiate a humiliating, dishonourable settlement with Nazi Germany - to maintain its privileges, those of a decaying ruling class. But was the 'Cliveden Set' a traitorous cabal, challenging 'the constitutional structures of British democracy', or simply an unstructured think-tank of harmless do-gooders? Norman Rose discerningly probes this fascinating tale, brilliantly disentangling fact from fiction, and setting this privileged clique in the wider perspective of its times.