World War II: The Appeasers--Lady Astor (1879-1964)
Figure 1.--Here is Lady Astor during the War that she and the other appeasers sought to avoid and in the process almost destroyed Western Civilization. The press caption read, "Lady Astor Entertains Ecacuees: Ladt Astor, famous woman MP, entertains children from the poorer estate near Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. All the children are under five years of age, and are shown with Ladt astor kin this pictgire during a recent lawn party." The picture is dated September 30, 1939. This was just after the startof tghe War and the first evacuation of children from London and other cities.
Nancy Astor commonly referred to as Lady Astor was the first woman to sit in Parliament. She was anti-French, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and anti-Communist. She entertained many of the appeasers at her country home Cliveden. It became a center of appeasement, although she had relatively little influence. Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, CH (19 May 1879 � 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician and the first female Member of Parliament (MP) to take her seat. Astor was an American citizen Langhorne House in Danville, Virginia after the Civil War (1879). Her family was reduced to poverty by the War, but grdually recovered. Sho moved to England at age 26 and married Waldorf Astor, her second husband. He was a scion of the wealthy Astor family.
After the marriage, the Astor couple moved into Cliveden, a lavish estate in Buckinghamshire on the River Thames that was a wedding gift from Astor's father. Nancy Astor developed as a prominent hostess for the British social elite. Astor was an American-born English politician and newspaper proprietor who succeeded to the peerage and entered the House of Lords. Lady Astor then entered politics and won his former seat in Plymouth (1919), becoming the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. Astor's Parliamentary career was the most public phase of her life. She gained attention as a woman and as someone who did not follow the rules which was commonly blamed on her American upbringing. Astor like other English politicans was challenged by the rise of NAZIs in Germany. She was no NAZI flunky. She criticised them for their attitude toward women. She was like most appeasers, however, determined to avoid another World War. Her prejudice toward Jews abd Catholics and fear bof the Sovie Coomunists led her to see Hitler as the lesser of the evils. In fairness to her, this was before the War and tyhe killing phase of the Holocaust. Several of her friends and associates, especially Lord Lothian, became deeply comitted to Balwin's and Chamberlains policy of appeaseimg the NAZIs. This group became known as the 'Cliveden set'". [Wilson]
Cliveden was the country estate of Vicount Astors. And Lady Astor commonly entertained prominent aristocratic appeaerers and pro-Fascists there. [Fort] British politicans arguing for a more robust response to the NAZIs and expanded defense spending saw the Cliveden Set as arch appeasers. Astor and the Clivden Set believed that the NAZIs would solve the problems associated with Communism and the Jews
Sources
Fort, Adrian. Nancy, The Story of Lady Astor (St. Martins: 2013).
Wilson, Bee. "Musical chairs with Ribbentrop," London Review of Books (December 20, 2012).
