Customer Reviews

The Duel

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I read this book because I found Lukacs's *Five Days in London: May 1940* so compelling. I was not disappointed, and recommend *The Duel* enthusiastically and without hesitation. Lukacs's way of writing history is wonderfully magisterial. Especially to be appreciated are two complementary gifts: an eye for small significant details and their patterns (as when Hitler's and Churchill's ways of getting up in the morning are contrasted), and a grasp of the big picture (really an asset when something as colossal as the Second World War is under examination). Lukacs's mind is at once a microscope and -- not a telescope (which is really only a microscope aimed at a large distant object instead of a close small one), but, if you will -- a *macroscope*. The result of their combination here is a history rich with significant detail and sweeping visions.

Prospective readers should be aware that Lukacs is more than a conventional historian narrating the past. He is also a philosophical historian -- not in the sense that he discusses theories of historiography, but in that for him, history has meaning, and is not merely one damned thing after another. Your appreciation of *The Duel* will inevitably be affected by the degree to which you find his ruminations insightful or ponderous. Philosophical history is not for everyone. Some readers might even be put off by being told that "we are all national socialists now." (p. 223) But if you have the taste for it, as I do, you'll find much food for thought here, and even some wisdom.

The volume is well edited, though I, for one, would prefer genuine footnotes to the hard-to-decipher endnotes found here. Lukacs writes with incisiveness and wit. The volume includes an interesting bibliographical essay of some interest.

I had the pleasure of reading the short, succinct, well-written history, 5-Days in London, by Lukacs, just last week. Great book, but lacked some "context" of what was going on around the main characters at the time. Even though I am a history buff. Fortunately, Lukacs previously wrote The Duel, which gives an idea of the interplay of that year between Hitler & Churchill. Lukacs really puts you right into the minds of these two individuals, in that year & earlier, and is extraordinarily successful in making you understand what "set of facts" each had before him, what "set of principles" each operated with, to make decisions in a stressful time. Read this.

Tells the story of the background of the two men. A very interesting and very informative book. Was not expecting much when I got it, but it turned into a fascinating and well-written history lesson.