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98 of 100 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A chronicle of courage, July 14, 2002
This review is from: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 (Hardcover)
William Manchester's first Churchill volume covers the first fifty eight years of Winston's life. His second, "Alone," covers just eight. Assuming that there will be a third, it will cover the final quarter century, including most of World War II and Churchill's two spells as Prime Minister. To the elementary observer, these divisions seem somewhat out of sorts. It's only by reading that middle volume that we understand just how critical those eight years were. Above all, "Alone" is a morality play -- the best one I know -- about what happens when democracies fail to confront aggression. At no other time in the 20th Century were so many people so wrong about a matter as grave as the Nazi buildup in the 1930s. Only Winston Churchill and a few of his cohorts disagreed at the time. Early in the book, Manchester briefly lays out a powerful case for Britain's aversion to confronting Germany. Britain sensed the unfairness of the Versailles "diktat," and reacted strongly against it. To a great degree, London was fed up with France's insolence after the war, both in its lust for revenge against Germany, and in the flaccid disillusionment of Paris intellectuals. At the same time, Great Britain was a nation cornered by two bloodthirsty wolves -- Nazism and Bolshevism. In order to defeat the other, one would have to be appeased. Being a country dominated by aristocrats, Britain chose to enlist Hitler as a bulwark against Communism. In doing so, they ignored the basic fact of geopolitical proximity: only Germany, abutting France and a few hundred miles away from Britain's shores, had the capacity to strike at the West. Britain's aristocrats bet wrong, and Churchill, ever the "traitor to his class" immediately recognized it. Churchill's story also holds valuable lessons for us today. By nature, Churchill was naturally aggressive, and as such, Manchester writes that he saw exactly what Hitler was up to. Pacifists often distrust such assertiveness, even in a democracy. In fact, assertiveness in defense of democratic values is almost always the right foreign policy. One can have assertiveness for good, or assertiveness for evil, and one must choose it for good. In this way, Churchill's "black and white" Manichean worldview has truly stood the test of time.
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49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent History of Churchill's Wilderness Years, September 29, 1998
This review is from: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 (Hardcover)
As one reads William Manchester's second volume on Churchill, one is struck by Churchill's uncanny grasp of the threat of Nazi Germany, and his many attempts to warn Britain of its peril. Like Cassandra in Greek mythology, though, Churchill's predictions are not believed, and he is only included in the War Cabinet when war was inevitable. William Manchester's book is thoroughly researched, and is at least as good as that of Churchill's official biographer, Martin Gilbert, with one important difference: Manchester's book is written on a far larger canvas, and the level of detail he is able to devote to Churchill is far greater -- and the subject is more than worthy of it. Mandatory reading for anyone studying Churchill, a good prelude to read before reading Churchill's own five volume history of World War II in that it gives insight into Churchill's mind. On a personal level, I know that Mr. Manchester is advanced in years, and I cannot help thinking, in my selfishness as a historian, that I hope he completes volume III soon. It would be a tragedy if the task of completing this wonderful history proves to be too much for him.
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Freedom's Greatest Defender, Hitler's Greatest Enemy!, May 2, 2002
This review is from: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 (Hardcover)
Most people today know Winston Churchill at the great British Prime Minister of WWII. But Churchill was 65 when he became Prime Minister and had a public career spanning more than forty years. In this excellent book which is part biography, part history, William Manchester focuses on the period of 1932-1940 when Churchill was out of power, an outcast in his own party and universally derided as a warmongering relic. Churchill referred to these years as his "wilderness years" and they are among the most fascinating of his life because the years of Churchill's political exile coincide with the rise of Hitler and the growth of Germany from defeated power to world menace. Indeed, as Manchester chronicles, Churchill's return from the wilderness was intimately connected to the rise of Hitler because Churchill's relentless public opposition to Hitlerism and British policy towards Germany throughout the thirties is what led to his continuing exile while this same stalwartness preserved him from the mark of shame that infected the rest of the British elite when the policy of appeasement collapsed in 1939. Manchester has an unrestrained admiration for Churchill. Nevertheless, at no time in this volume does he overlook Churchill's many faults of personality. Many of these faults become clear when Manchester examines Churchill's personal life at his Chartwell estate and his relationship with his family and the servants and secretary's who worked for him. Despite these faults, however, the Churchill of this book comes across as a man touched with greatness and who is well aware of it. But this book is not merely the story of Churchill but the story of the small shabby men whose policy of appeasement in the face of absolute evil laid England low. Most of the government during the thirties fits this bill but in particular Manchester singles out the three prime ministers, Ramsey McDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain and Chamberlain's foreign minister Lord Halifax.. The author's contempt for these "Men of Munich" drips on virtually every page. He contrasts their fecklessness with Churchill's steadiness. Certainly Churchill recognized from day one that Germany had been overtaken by a deranged criminal regime and that such a regime would necessarily threaten the peace of the world. The Men of Munich just could not see it. Churchill believed, without once wavering, that a foreign policy built on strength and deterrence could prevent war but that a policy of appeasement could only guarantee it. The Men of Munich believed quite the opposite. Manchester shows the motivation of the appeasers to be more complex than commonly understood. Nevertheless, since, to their mind, no rational human being could want war, any dispute with Germany could be resolved through diplomacy and negotiation. It never occurred to the Churchill's foes that Hitler was no rational human being but rather quite mad or that they were not "negotiating" with him so much as giving in and retreating. A review of the events of the thirties shows a steady British retreat beginning with the failure to stop the re-occupation of the Rhineland then the failure to halt the annexation of Austria, the infamous betrayal of Czechoslovakia at Munich and finally the failure to prevent the final conquest of Czechoslovakia. Indeed, even after the invasion of Poland and declaration of War, Britain and France held back from aiding the Poles for fear Hitler would "turn west". Not until Churchill returned to power, nearly a year after the start of the war and days before the capitulation of France did the policy of appeasement truly end. Even without the benefit of hindsight, the policy of the British government during this period defies belief. Churchill stands as starkly in contrast to these appeasers as he does to the criminal Hitler. Churchill's wilderness years contain important lessons for today's policy-makers. Appeasement of evil is not only wrong but foolish. It never preserves peace but only guarantee's war. Manchester is a great writer. His prose is lively and his storytelling ability is excellent. All lovers of history will adore this book. I highly recommend it. What a pity that there will never be a third volume chronicling the war and post war years of Churchill's 90 year life.
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