Five days in London

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section needs to be revised. Details should be given on the talk page. Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

Five days in London. England and Germany in May 1940 is a book by the Hungarian - American historian John Lukacs , which was published in 1999 under the English original title Five Days in London, May 1940 .

content

A "political turncoat, a dangerous adventurer "; a "wonderful rogue who lacked political judgment " - few people today would guess these were descriptions of one of the most admired statesmen of the 20th century : Winston Churchill .

When he took office as Prime Minister in May 1940, Churchill was not very popular, as the historian Lukacs explains in his book. The Conservative Party was skeptical of his power and the UK was far from war zeal. In addition, there were some spectacular downfalls for Great Britain and, on the other hand, war successes for Adolf Hitler . The Netherlands had fallen, Belgium was about to fall and France was close to doom. There were truly serious fears that the entire British Expeditionary Forces would be captured.

In her private diaries many leading politicians in the country were discouraged: Charles Waterhouse , a Conservative member of the House of Commons , wrote "all is lost" ( " all is lost "), while Samuel Hoare "completed all" ( " everything finished ") saw.

On May 28, 1940, Churchill declared, with the full backing of the War Cabinet and other ministries, that Britain would continue fighting, if necessary, regardless of what happened in France. This was a daring step and one which, without the better knowledge later, was not plausible from any point of view. Churchill himself remained calm during the painful fighting, backroom negotiations, and heated discussions that arose four days before the announcement.

In his book, Lukacs gives a captivating, obvious overview of the dramatic events, the uncertainty, uncertainty and courage of the people who ultimately decided the fate of Great Britain. He restores the fast-paced series of events that turned the trend and led the public and the War Cabinet to back Churchill.

Lukacs is a noted historian whose previous books included The Last European War and The Duel , The Duel , which charted Hitler's relationship with Churchill . Five days in London , based on official documents, published memoirs and private letters and diaries, is history in the microcosm : a representation of a turning point in world events that affected not only the outcome of the war, but the future of all of Europe . Key battles and the entry of the Soviet Union, as well as the entry of the United States into World War II , eventually won World War II , but, according to Lukacs' account, this was the point at which Churchill ended the threat of defeat.

It is extremely important to our understanding of history that we acknowledge what a remarkable achievement it was - and the thin thread on which Britain's hopes hung, as biographer and historian Philip Ziegler said in an introduction to a new English-language edition of the book on The Folio Society executes.

In a review in Harper's Magazine was carried to the book, "Great ... At the same time a provocative book on history and a wonderful historical Entertainment" ( " Superb ... At once a provocative work of history and a marvelous historical entertainment "), while The Times the Book with the words "This is a modern story that rejects simple answers: its skilful precision cuts painfully to the bone and spills real blood on the carpets of Whitehall [the government district] and Westminster [the seat of parliament]" (" This is a modern history that refuses easy answers: its skilful concision cuts painfully to the bone and spills real blood on the carpets of Whitehall and Westminster ”).

Web links