A timely, riveting book that presents for the first time an alternative 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 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; 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?
- The Pro-Nazi British Aristocracy: Uncover the shadow governments and secret societies, from the Cliveden Set to the Right Club, where Britain's elite plotted a pro-German agenda.
- The Duke and Duchess of Windsor: Explore the full story of the former king's Nazi connections, the couple's shocking correspondence with the Third Reich, and the high-level cover-up that followed.
- Oswald Mosley and the BUF: Go beyond the headlines of the British Union of Fascists to see how the movement was backed by powerful press magnates and aristocrats in a bid to bring Fascism to London's streets.
- Declassified Intelligence Files: Based on recently declassified MI5 and Foreign Office files, this book exposes a hidden history the British government tried to keep secret for decades.
- Hitler's Girl—Unity Mitford: Follow the astonishing story of the British socialite who met with Hitler over 160 times, becoming a key figure in his inner circle and a conduit for Nazi ideology in Britain.