Appeasing Hitler

{{Short description|2019 non-fiction book by Tim Bouverie}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War

| image = Appeasing Hitler (Tim Bouverie).png

| border = yes

| alt =

| caption = First edition cover

| author = Tim Bouverie

| audio_read_by = John Sessions{{Cite book |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1113054/appeasing-hitler/9781473571907.html |title=Appeasing Hitler |website=Penguin Books UK |date=25 April 2019 |accessdate=25 December 2019}}

| cover_artist =

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| subject = British appeasement of Adolf Hitler

| publisher = The Bodley Head

| pub_date = 18 April 2019

| media_type = Print (hardcover and paperback)

| pages = 512

| awards =

| isbn = 978-1-84792-440-7

| isbn_note = (hardcover)

| dewey = 327.41043

| congress = DA47.2 .B685 2019

}}

Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War, is a 2019 book by Tim Bouverie about the British policy of appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s.

Bouverie explains the policy as a product of the British response to the First World War. Given that an enormous percentage of Britain's fighting-age men had died in a war the purpose of which no one could perceive, Bouverie describes British pacifism as the explanation of Chamberlain's appeasement policy, since "The desire to avoid a Second World War was perhaps the most understandable and universal wish in history."{{cite news |last1=Szalai |first1=Jennifer |title=In 'Appeasement,' How Peace With the Nazis Was Always an Illusion (book review) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/books/review-appeasement-chamberlain-hitler-churchill-tim-bouverie.html |accessdate=5 June 2019 |work=New York Times |date=4 June 2019}} Bouverie describes the antisemitism of the British ruling class as the secondary cause of Britain's reluctance to stand up to Hitler.

The book is a strong response to a number of recent works of historical revisionism that have painted Chamberlain as a "super-pragmatist", much maligned since his options were limited by widespread popular pacifism and also painting him as a man who cleverly used appeasement to gain time that would enable Britain to rearm.{{cite news |author=David Aaronovitch |title=Appeasing Hitler by Tim Bouverie review — Britain's guilty men; The case is well made that appeasing Hitler was not hard-nosed pragmatism but self-delusion (book review) |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/appeasing-hitler-by-tim-bouverie-review-8rcv2d39j |access-date=5 June 2019 |work=The Times |date=12 April 2019}}