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mari1532 's review for:
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I recently listened to the Royal History Geeks podcast's series on The Abdication Crisis and wanted to read more books on the subject and the life of the Duke of Windsor after he gave up the throne.
While this book did provide some new evidence from letters of key players in the book that provided further context to the events unfolding during this period, I do not feel that I learned a great deal of new information.
Now, I do think that the Duke of Windsor wrote his check and he should have had to suffer from it being cashed (of course his privilege meant he was not impacted at all). That being said I think Morton wants the readers to be shocked at the lengths everyone went to to cover up things and how flabbergasted we should all be. Uneasy definitely, but shocked, no.
In addition to highlighting the attempted coverup, Morton's other goal of the book was to highlight just how involved the Duke of Windsor was with the Nazi regime. Morton did get both of these points across, but it did feel like the personalities of the characters featured throughout the book faded into the background and that the complex dynamics of why the British government did not want that information to come out weren't fully analyzed.
The thing that I think isn't integrated into this discussion of these two points is how the abdication was perceived as having impacted the monarchy and the British Government and the anxieties it produced likely played a role in actions taken. The perceived impact was incredibly ingrained within the Royal Family at least as can be seen from how Elizabeth II approached her reign. Taking this into account, it becomes clearer why the Government would seek to cover up how involved Edward was in communicating with known Nazis during the war they were motivated by their concern for how it would reflect on the Monarchy, not specifically how it would reflect on Edward personally. Morton does hint at this as a possible motive for actions with the discussion of previous destruction and cover-ups of Royal History (see Victoria's diaries, Elizabeth I's letters). However, Morton focuses more on the moral way that this should have been approached (release the documents demonstrating Edward's associations) and misses some of the more nuanced discussion of why the moral way wasn't how the monarchy was approaching the release.
Morton's discussion that Edward did not seem to understand or perceive his behaviour as problematic in any way was the most interesting part of the book. I think it also highlighted how the release of Edward's correspondence could have further contributed to the fallout.
It's a great introduction to The Abdication crisis if you are new to the topic, but you might find it to be simply a different examination of events if you have read on the topic before.
While this book did provide some new evidence from letters of key players in the book that provided further context to the events unfolding during this period, I do not feel that I learned a great deal of new information.
Now, I do think that the Duke of Windsor wrote his check and he should have had to suffer from it being cashed (of course his privilege meant he was not impacted at all). That being said I think Morton wants the readers to be shocked at the lengths everyone went to to cover up things and how flabbergasted we should all be. Uneasy definitely, but shocked, no.
In addition to highlighting the attempted coverup, Morton's other goal of the book was to highlight just how involved the Duke of Windsor was with the Nazi regime. Morton did get both of these points across, but it did feel like the personalities of the characters featured throughout the book faded into the background and that the complex dynamics of why the British government did not want that information to come out weren't fully analyzed.
The thing that I think isn't integrated into this discussion of these two points is how the abdication was perceived as having impacted the monarchy and the British Government and the anxieties it produced likely played a role in actions taken. The perceived impact was incredibly ingrained within the Royal Family at least as can be seen from how Elizabeth II approached her reign. Taking this into account, it becomes clearer why the Government would seek to cover up how involved Edward was in communicating with known Nazis during the war they were motivated by their concern for how it would reflect on the Monarchy, not specifically how it would reflect on Edward personally. Morton does hint at this as a possible motive for actions with the discussion of previous destruction and cover-ups of Royal History (see Victoria's diaries, Elizabeth I's letters). However, Morton focuses more on the moral way that this should have been approached (release the documents demonstrating Edward's associations) and misses some of the more nuanced discussion of why the moral way wasn't how the monarchy was approaching the release.
Morton's discussion that Edward did not seem to understand or perceive his behaviour as problematic in any way was the most interesting part of the book. I think it also highlighted how the release of Edward's correspondence could have further contributed to the fallout.
It's a great introduction to The Abdication crisis if you are new to the topic, but you might find it to be simply a different examination of events if you have read on the topic before.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Classism
Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Death of parent, Colonisation
Minor: Eating disorder, Genocide, Murder
Nazism