Churchill and the Politics of War, 1940-1941

Churchill and the Politics of War, 1940-1941 PDF Author: Sheila Lawlor
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521466851
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a reappraisal of Churchill's role as Britain's wartime leader, and in particular reconsiders his response to the dominant strategic challenges of his first year as prime minister. Based on a detailed examination of the public and private records of both political and military leaders, Dr Lawlor analyses what were often conflicting views and reactions to events. She suggests that Churchill's own position reflected the uncertainties, differences and vacillations of his colleagues, and that he was a far more sophisticated and astute politician than he allowed himself to appear. The first part of the book considers the various reactions among the British leadership to the fall of France and the Battle of Britain. The second and third parts analyse the discussions and decisions which led to British action in the Middle East and to sending military support to Greece.

Churchill and the Politics of War, 1940-1941

Churchill and the Politics of War, 1940-1941 PDF Author: Sheila Lawlor
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521466851
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a reappraisal of Churchill's role as Britain's wartime leader, and in particular reconsiders his response to the dominant strategic challenges of his first year as prime minister. Based on a detailed examination of the public and private records of both political and military leaders, Dr Lawlor analyses what were often conflicting views and reactions to events. She suggests that Churchill's own position reflected the uncertainties, differences and vacillations of his colleagues, and that he was a far more sophisticated and astute politician than he allowed himself to appear. The first part of the book considers the various reactions among the British leadership to the fall of France and the Battle of Britain. The second and third parts analyse the discussions and decisions which led to British action in the Middle East and to sending military support to Greece.

Roosevelt's Second Act

Roosevelt's Second Act PDF Author: Richard Moe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199981914
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Get Book Here

Book Description
Discusses President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to defy one hundred fifty years of tradition and seek a third term in office.

How Churchill Waged War

How Churchill Waged War PDF Author: Allen Packwood
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1473893917
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Get Book Here

Book Description
An analytical investigation into Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s decision-making process during every stage of World War II. When Winston Churchill accepted the position of Prime Minister in May 1940, he insisted in also becoming Minister of Defence. This, though, meant that he alone would be responsible for the success or failure of Britain’s war effort. It also meant that he would be faced with many monumental challenges and utterly crucial decisions upon which the fate of Britain and the free world rested. With the limited resources available to the UK, Churchill had to pinpoint where his country’s priorities lay. He had to respond to the collapse of France, decide if Britain should adopt a defensive or offensive strategy, choose if Egypt and the war in North Africa should take precedence over Singapore and the UK’s empire in the East, determine how much support to give the Soviet Union, and how much power to give the United States in controlling the direction of the war. In this insightful investigation into Churchill’s conduct during the Second World War, Allen Packwood, BA, MPhil (Cantab), FRHistS, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, enables the reader to share the agonies and uncertainties faced by Churchill at each crucial stage of the war. How Churchill responded to each challenge is analyzed in great detail and the conclusions Packwood draws are as uncompromising as those made by Britain’s wartime leader as he negotiated his country through its darkest days.

The Splendid and the Vile

The Splendid and the Vile PDF Author: Erik Larson
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 038534872X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 609

Get Book Here

Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis “One of [Erik Larson’s] best books yet . . . perfectly timed for the moment.”—Time • “A bravura performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.”—NPR NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • Vogue • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • The Globe & Mail • Fortune • Bloomberg • New York Post • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • LibraryReads • PopMatters On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments. The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.

Attlee's War

Attlee's War PDF Author: Robert Crowcroft
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857719637
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
As deputy prime minister of Britain's coalition government during World War II, Clement Attlee became one of the most powerful figures in British politics and subsequently played a crucial role in the reshaping of the post-war party-political landscape. The architect of Labour's entry into the wartime coalition, Attlee came to straddle the workings of government to a unique degree. Unmatched in his range of influence, he dominated party politics; directed a doctrinal struggle within the coalition; and even sought to create the conditions for a cross-party alliance to be maintained after the war. His goal was to carve out a position of greater strength than Labour had ever occupied before and he succeeded when he led his party to power in July 1945. Robert Crowcroft here examines the political leadership of the unsung architect behind the development of wartime politics and the rise of the Labour party. Traditionally seen as a period of unprecedented cooperation between the Labour and Conservative parties, Crowcroft argues that in fact Attlee's influence facilitated a significant shift towards Labour which sowed the seeds for his party's post-war victory. Attlee's War mounts a challenge to the popular image of Attlee as a reticent collegiate, and unravels his elusive path to power. Shedding new light on an often misunderstood figure, this book will appeal to all those interested in modern British history and the leadership of major political figures.

Churchill's Phoney War

Churchill's Phoney War PDF Author: Graham Clews
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682472809
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book Here

Book Description
Given the dearth of scholarship on the Phoney War, this book examines the early months of World War II when Winston Churchill’s ability to lead Britain in the fight against the Nazis was being tested. Graham T. Clews explores how Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, proposed to fight this new world war, with particular attention given to his attempts to impel the Royal Navy, the British War Cabinet, and the French, toward a more aggressive prosecution of the conflict. This is no mere retelling of events but a deep analysis of the decision-making process and Churchill’s unique involvement in it. This book shares extensive new insights into well-trodden territory and original analysis of the unexplored, with each chapter offering material which challenges conventional wisdom. Clews reassesses several important issues of the Phoney War period including: Churchill’s involvement in the anti-U-boat campaign; his responsibility for the failures of the Norwegian Campaign; his attitude to Britain’s aerial bombing campaign and the notion of his unfettered “bulldog” spirit; his relationship with Neville Chamberlain; and his succession to the premiership. A man of considerable strengths and many shortcomings, the Churchill that emerges in Clews’ portrayal is dynamic and complicated. Churchill’s Phoney War adds a well-balanced and much-needed history of the Phoney War while scrupulously examining Churchill’s successes and failures.

Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War"

Churchill, Hitler, and Author: Patrick J. Buchanan
Publisher: Forum Books
ISBN: 0307405168
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 546

Get Book Here

Book Description
Were World Wars I and II inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen– Winston Churchill first among them–the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins. Half a century of murderous oppression of scores of millions under the iron boot of Communist tyranny might never have happened, and Europe’s central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations. Among the British and Churchillian errors were: • The secret decision of a tiny cabal in the inner Cabinet in 1906 to take Britain straight to war against Germany, should she invade France • The vengeful Treaty of Versailles that mutilated Germany, leaving her bitter, betrayed, and receptive to the appeal of Adolf Hitler • Britain’s capitulation, at Churchill’s urging, to American pressure to sever the Anglo-Japanese alliance, insulting and isolating Japan, pushing her onto the path of militarism and conquest • The greatest mistake in British history: the unsolicited war guarantee to Poland of March 1939, ensuring the Second World War Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Churchill, Hitler, and “the Unnecessary War” is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.

Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940–45

Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940–45 PDF Author: Max Hastings
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007344112
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 94

Get Book Here

Book Description
'I would choose this account over and above the rest. It is a fabulous book: full of perceptive insight that conveys all the tragedy, triumph, humour and intense drama of Churchill's time as wartime leader; and it is incredibly moving as a result' James Holland, Literary Review

Grand Strategy and Military Alliances

Grand Strategy and Military Alliances PDF Author: Peter R. Mansoor
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107136024
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Get Book Here

Book Description
A broad-ranging study of the relationship between alliances and the conduct of grand strategy, examined through historical case studies.

British Strategy and Politics during the Phony War

British Strategy and Politics during the Phony War PDF Author: Nick Smart
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313051453
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book Here

Book Description
The so-called Phony War from September 1939 to May 1940 occupies a peculiar yet distinct place in popular memory. All the sensations of war, except the fighting, were present; yet, instead of massed air attacks and great land battles, very little happened. The British government was said to be complacent, and the people downright bored. Then, France fell to German attack, and the small British army was evacuated (minus its equipment) from Dunkirk. Reaction to this major strategic catastrophe was naturally to blame the men deemed guilty for bringing the nation to the verge of humiliating defeat. In sharp contrast to previous studies, Smart argues that there was more to the phony war than governmental complacency, that the period was more than a foolish or frivolous ante-chamber to a later more heroic phase. The extent to which the guilty men verdict on the first nine months of Britain's Second World War has stuck remains surprising. The notion that the phony war was a necessary, indeed over-determined, prelude to catastrophe has become cemented over time. Examining the workings of the Anglo-French leadership during this period, Smart picks this thesis apart and argues that disaster was not necessarily, still less inevitably, just around the corner. He concludes that Anglo-French decision-making during this time was basically sound, that the soldiers were well equipped and in good-heart, and that there was no malaise eating away at the entente. This study offers a challenging reappraisal of the phony war from a British perspective.