Hitler's Girl: The British Aristocracy and the Third Reich on the Eve of WWII - Paperback

by Lauren Young (Author)

A timely, riveting book that presents for the first time a secret history of 1930s Britain, revealing how prominent fascist sympathizers nearly succeeded in overturning British democracy--using the past as a road map to navigate the complexities of today's turn toward authoritarianism.

Hitler's Girl is a groundbreaking history that reveals how, in the 1930s, authoritarianism nearly took hold in Great Britain as it did in Italy and Germany. Drawing on recently declassified WWII intelligence files, Lauren Young details the pervasiveness of Nazi sympathies among the British aristocracy, as significant factions of the upper class methodically pursued an actively pro-German agenda. She reveals how these aristocrats formed a murky Fifth Column to Nazi Germany, which depended on the complacence and complicity of the English to topple its proud and long-standing democratic tradition--and very nearly succeeded.

As she highlights the parallels to our similarly treacherous time, Young exposes the involvement of secret organizations like the Right Club, which counted the Duke of Wellington among its influential members; the Cliveden Set, which ran a shadow foreign policy in support of Hitler; the troubling complicity of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; and the shocking four-year affair between socialite Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler.

Eye-opening and instructive, Hitler's Girl re-evaluates 1930s England to help us understand our own vulnerabilities and poses urgent questions we must face to protect our freedom. At what point does complacency become complicity, posing real risk to the democratic norms that we take for granted? Will democracy again succeed--and will it require a similarly cataclysmic event like World War II to ensure its survival? Will we, in our own defining moment, stand up for democratic values--or will we succumb to political extremism?

• Declassified Intelligence: Based on newly released files, Young uncovers the shocking extent of the Nazi plot to infiltrate the highest echelons of British society.
• The British Fifth Column: Explore how an influential segment of the upper class formed a shadow network to advance Hitler's agenda, risking their nation's freedom to preserve their power.
• Secret Societies: Go inside the clandestine meetings of the Right Club and the Cliveden Set, where a shadow foreign policy was run in support of Hitler.
• The Debutante Nazi: The unbelievable true story of Unity Mitford, the British socialite who met with Hitler more than 160 times and became his close confidante.