Rise of Neville Chamberlain controversial biography of Chamberlain by Conservative Party chairman Iain Macleod defended Chamberlain's ministerial record. Macleod pointed out that Chamberlain had been a "most valiant" champion of rearmament as Chancellor as early as 1934, but that little was done. According to "Time" magazine, Macleod saw Chamberlain as a "humanitarian industrialist, <nowiki>[a]</nowiki> progressive Lord Mayor of Birmingham and a dedicated Minister of Health who was damned as a 'Tory socialist'<nowiki>[.]</nowiki> Chamberlain had worked tirelessly in the '20s and '30s for the 'noble and fascinating ideal' of fashioning a better life for Britain's workingman." The 1960s and 1970s saw a further reassessment of
Rise of Neville Chamberlain action during the Battle of Cambrai, and in February 1918, Norman's body was found—a great blow to Neville Chamberlain, who described Norman as "the most intimate friend I had". Through the rest of his career, Neville Chamberlain laboured to further the ideals of his cousin, and wrote his biography—the only book he ever wrote. Some historians relate Norman's death to a hatred of war on his cousin's part which led to appeasement; according to Chamberlain's biographer Nick Smart, the death did not cause Chamberlain to hate World War I, and any influence on his later positions is far from certain.