PDF Sir John Moore: The Making of a Controversial Hero by Janet Macdonald in History

Description

“WWII scholar John Kelly triumphs again” (Vanity Fair) in this remarkably vivid account of a key moment in Western history: The critical six months in 1940 when Winston Churchill debated whether England should fight Nazi Germany—and then decided to “never surrender.”London in April; 1940; is a place of great fear and conflict. The Germans have taken Poland; France; Holland; Belgium; and Czechoslovakia. The Nazi war machine now menaces Britain; even as America remains uncommitted to providing military aid. Should Britain negotiate with Germany? The members of the War Cabinet bicker; yell; and are divided. Churchill; leading the faction to fight; and Lord Halifax; cautioning that prudence is the way to survive; attempt to usurp one another by any means possible. In Never Surrender; we feel we are alongside these complex and imperfect men; determining the fate of the British Empire; and perhaps; the world. Drawing on the War Cabinet papers; other government documents; private diaries; newspaper accounts; and memoirs; historian John Kelly tells the story of the summer of 1940. Kelly takes readers from the battlefield to Parliament; to the government ministries; to the British high command; to the desperate Anglo-French conference in Paris and London; to the American embassy in London; and to life with the ordinary Britons. We see Churchill seize the historical moment and ultimately inspire his government; military; and people to fight. Kelly brings to life one of the most heroic moments of the twentieth century and intimately portrays some of its largest players—Churchill; Lord Halifax; Hitler; FDR; Joe Kennedy; and others. Never Surrender is a fabulous; grand narrative of a crucial period in World War II and the men and women who shaped it. “For lovers of minute-by-minute history; it’s a feast” (Huffington Post).