Chamberlain, Hitler and the Illusion of Knowledge

Professor Harmonie Toros from the University of Reading is coming to Portsmouth Guildhall on Tuesday 13 October for a talk titled Chamberlain, Hitler and the Illusion of Knowledge. It's part of the Portsmouth Historical Association's 2026/27 series, so if you're into history, this is one of several they've got lined up across the year.

The talk centres on the Munich Conference of 1938, which Toros describes as the 'object-lesson' of the postwar era. It looks at the gap between how Neville Chamberlain saw things and how Adolf Hitler did: Chamberlain believed he was building a trusting relationship with Hitler, while Hitler boasted in private that he'd deceived Chamberlain into thinking his ambitions ended with the Sudetenland. Toros draws on a growing body of trust literature to look at the role trust and deception played in the making of Munich.

It's a session that works as a standalone evening, but it's also the start of a longer run. The talk is held in the Park Building, Room 1.09, on King Henry I Street (PO1 2BZ), and it starts at 7pm, finishing no later than 8.30pm. There's no need to book in advance—you just turn up and pay on arrival.

Entry is £4 for the lecture, or £20 for all the lectures in the series from October to May, and it's free for students and HA members.