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Title: The Duel: The Eighty-Day Struggle Between Churchill and Hitler by John Lukacs ISBN: 0-300-08916-3 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Greatest Crisis of the Twentieth Century
Comment: This book is one of the most thrilling that I have ever read. It is about the 83-day period from May 10, 1940, on which day coincidentally Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain and Adolf Hitler launched the German Army against the Western Front, until July 31, 1940, on which day coincidentally President Franklin Roosevelt decided that America would actively support England against Germany and Hitler decided that he would not after all invade England.
The author conceives of this period as the theater of a personal duel between the titanic figures of Churchill and Hitler (as he notes, the German word is "Zweikampf", a fight of two) during which Hitler had his best chance of winning what Lukacs called in an earlier book "the last European war". That this figure of monstrous gifts, as he is described by the author, did not win was the achievement of Churchill, who knew after the fall of France that England and its Commonwealth could not prevail against the power of Germany without America and Russia on its side, but willed that England would not negotiate with Germany until events or persuasion would bring these powers into the war against Naziism. Lukacs acknowledges that the overwhelming power of Russia and America was necessary to defeat Germany, but Churchill's achievement was that England did not lose the war.
In a later book, "Five Days in London, May, 1940", the author focuses on the period from May 24 to May 28, 1940 within the period of The Duel. Although this five-day period preceded the fall of France, Lukacs identifies it as the period of most acute crisis because the British War Cabinet came close to deciding that England should begin cease-fire negotiations with Germany. It was Churchill's eloquence and force of character that swayed the members of the government, and ultimately the British people, to reject this idea and fight on alone until Germany launched the invasion of Russia. In "The Duel" he deals with this crisis in a chapter called "The Slippery Slope", a metaphor used by the participants to describe the demoralization of the British public that would have resulted from peace negotiations that might have resulted in a surrender to Germany's demands.
Another reviewer has remarked, correctly I think, that there is some overlap and repetition in the several books by the author that deal with Churchill and/or Hitler. However, the author possesses such a powerful narrative drive and brilliance of insight into the psychology of his subjects and significance of events that the repetition of phrases from one book to the next has the effect of a recurring melody in a symphony.
I have had the privilege to meet and talk with the author about his work. In my first conversation with him about "The Duel" I told him that from his book I had learned both how close Hitler came to winning the war and how much we owe to Churchill. He commented that I had understood his book very well.
Rating: 5
Summary: Thank You Mr Churchill
Comment: For those of us fortunate not to have lived through those horrid times of 1939-40 this book will give you an insight to the greatest mind power struggle ever in our history. That of the duel between the then two most powerful men in the world, Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill.
John Lukacs explores the minds of these two men as they plunged the world into battle for survival and delves into the mind set of the times ie - Facisim and Fear.
During this time the United States was slowly being cojouled into the conflict through the natural pulling of the heart strings by the well spoken Prime Minister and a thoughtful President Roosevelt. In reality all it did was allow the USA to build up it's might and when the time (premetualy) came for USA's entry into the war, Winston Churchill knew he had won.
Rating: 5
Summary: Memorably Good
Comment: Whenever I discuss the Second World War with anyone, I wind up referring to this book. The pages devoted to the Nazi assault on Oslo harbor, the quick thinking of one Norwegian navy officer, and the possible impact of that officer's actions on the outcome of the war, provide a model for understanding history and the nature of man. A masterwork by an incomparably fine historian.
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Title: Five Days in London: May 1940 by John Lukacs, Jphn Lukacs ISBN: 0300084668 Publisher: Yale Nota Bene Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Churchill: Visionary. Statesman. Historian. by John Lukacs ISBN: 0300097697 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Last European War: September 1939 - December 1941 by John Lukacs ISBN: 0300089155 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: At the End of an Age by John Lukacs ISBN: 0300092962 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Hitler of History by John Lukacs ISBN: 0375701133 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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