Background
Born in Oxford, the son of Sir Graham Balfour, Michael Balfour was Director of Public Relations and Information Services, Control Commission, in the British Zone of Allied-occupied Germany from 1945 to 1947.
( After all the endeavours that combined to make Britain ...)
After all the endeavours that combined to make Britain the first great industrial nation, that dominant position was then relinquished. Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), the driven and self-made Birmingham businessman who shifted his energies formidably into politics, might have appeared to be one leader well equipped to help Britain stay competitive in the global race for economic growth. But, as Michael Balfour suggests in this absorbing study, Chamberlain's personality and temperament were not suited to the challenge. Determined always to have his way, animated by 'the business man's love of getting things done', Chamberlain lacked the gift of persuasion and made enemies too well, it being his unique achievement to split both major parties in the space of twenty years. Had it been possible for one man to arrest Britain's slackening growth then that man, Balfour contends, was not the erstwhile 'Radical Joe.'
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( What were the consequences for Germany, and the world, ...)
What were the consequences for Germany, and the world, that William II was Kaiser at the onset of the 'Great War'? In The Kaiser and His Times (first published in 1964), Michael Balfour analyzes the social, constitutional, and economic forces at work in imperial Germany, and sets the complex and disputed character of the Kaiser, who occupied such a central position in the three decades before 1918, in the context of his family background and the history of Germany. 'Balfour has borne in mind the Kaiser's own request to the head of his military Secretariat - 'Not dry reports only, please, but now and then a funny story.' The circumstances that allowed to Kaiser to live as if 'The greater part of his life... was illusion' would make comic reading if the results had not been so tragic...' Kirkus Review
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571303765/?tag=2022091-20
( “An admirably comprehensive and beautifully written stu...)
“An admirably comprehensive and beautifully written study of William II’s reign.” ―Gordon A . Craig What did it mean for Germany, and the world, to have William II on the throne for the First World War? In The Kaiser and His Times, Michael Balfour analyzes the social, constitutional, and economic forces at work in imperial Germany, and sets the complex and disputed character of the Kaiser, who occupied such a central position in the three decades before 1918, in the context of his family background and the history of Germany.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393006611/?tag=2022091-20
Born in Oxford, the son of Sir Graham Balfour, Michael Balfour was Director of Public Relations and Information Services, Control Commission, in the British Zone of Allied-occupied Germany from 1945 to 1947.
He was Chief Information Officer at the Board of Trade from 1947 to 1964. He was then Professor of European History at the University of East Anglia from 1966 to 1974. Balfour died in the Oxfordshire town of Witney nine-and-a-half weeks before his 87th birthday.
( What were the consequences for Germany, and the world, ...)
( After all the endeavours that combined to make Britain ...)
( “An admirably comprehensive and beautifully written stu...)