ABSTRACT
To explain Chamberlain’s decision about pensions, the biographer Amery selected the facts of Chamberlain’s situation which seemed to map and limit the choices open to him. Chamberlain himself certainly thought that he could distinguish the necessities from the liberties. He professed a lucid, cutting view of history, full of implications for the future, which we may see as his explanation of his country’s predicament, and of the need for his own program. Its dramatic and political attractions make it hard to guess how genuinely he believed in it, but he certainly committed his later career to its implications, and it is interesting because it did distinguish the areas of necessity and choice so clearly, and so clearly identified the choosers – Chamberlain among them.
