Winston Churchill was able to lead The Allies to victory against the Germans in World War II
while writing like a poet - "The Norwegian mountains run into the ocean in a continuous fringe of islands."

His mastery ranged from balancing the mass confusion of internal British political divisions
through engaging reluctant President Roosevelt
and on to distant commanding of The Royal Navy.

It is still hard to understand why he didn't want Freedom for India. ( )

The first volume of Churchill's six-volume history of World War II, This volume describes, step by step, the decline into war, a period that ended with Churchill becoming Prime Minister. This is a well-written history by one of the great men of the twentieth century. ( )

Incredibly detailed but incredibly readable and fascinating first volume of Winston Churchill's history of World War II, for most of which he served as Prime Minister of Great Britain. From the mass of notes Churchill must have kept, it's hard to believe he had time to run the nation. He has always seemed an impressive figure to me, but reading this volume has multiplied my respect for him by a factor of ten. Yet Churchill writes with confidence but virtually no braggadocio. I look forward to reading the rest of this major work. ( )

Churchill tells the reader up front what to expect from this first volume of his account of WWII. His stated theme: "How the English-speaking peoples, through their unwisdom and carelessness, and good nature, allowed the wicked to rearm." Beautifully said, as was the rest of this book. I wrote down page numbers and quotes of things Churchill wrote I didn't want to forget. As I read through the book, I wondered who, in current times, can express themselves as clearly and thoughtfully as Churchill? In our age of Tweets and Instagram posts, how are we nurturing future Churchills?

But on to the book. There are actually 2 books within this first volume. The first book is primarily about what led up to the war, and the missed chances of the Allies. The second book, less interesting to me, had more to do with military strategy. It was from this first book that the following quotes have been taken:

" Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness."

"A sincere love of peace is no excuse for muddling hundreds of millions of humble folk into total war."

"Statesmen are not called upon only to settle easy questions..."

"...we made our way to the shelter assigned to us, armed with a bottle of brandy and other appropriate medical comforts."

This book is largely about Churchill's warning about the rise of Nazi Germany and the passive acceptance of this situation by his own government (and the rest of Europe and the US, by the way). Time and again he points to events that could have been prevented if governments had been more aggressive with Germany, or had at least banded together. To be fair, he makes sure the reader understands that the world was exhausted in the aftermath of WWI and was reaching for peace at almost any cost.

This is a book rich in detail, and full of characters, so much so that I needed to keep my computer nearby for additional research.

I found parallels between the lead-up to WWII and the lead up to the war between Russia and the Ukraine to be uncanny. Both Hitler and Putin want to reclaim land they felt was taken from them. Both start invading areas in other countries that have high percentages of Germans (WWII) or Russians (Ukraine war). Both men are dictators who have no problem with exterminating human life. As I was reading, I was astonished that this same set of events was happening almost 100 years later. The book is worth reading for this education alone.

I'm not sure how much of the other 4 volumes I will be taking on, but I am glad I found this book in an antiques bookstore and thought to pick it up. It's really quite remarkable. ( )

Excellent in-depth view of how the victorious powers of the Great War wasted opportunity after opportunity to oppose Germany's rearmament and Hitler's rise to power despite him repeatedly and blatantly breaking the Versaille treaty.
Based on the combination of a hopeful, but as it turned out ill-advised policy of appeasement and the non-inclusion of the USSR, the major European forces of France and Great Britain are shown to have contributed greatly to what eventually became the Second World War.
Churchills skills with words are widely known and the value of this book gets increased by him openly and honestly admitting to shortfalls and mistakes in these twenty years between the defeat of Germany and her return as vastly superior military power in Europe. ( )