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The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940

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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.

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.

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.

This, the second volume of Manchester's Churchill biography, continues the extraordinary story of the British prime minister up to 1940. And as with the first volume, it is incredible reading, perhaps the best biography written about anyone. Manchester's gift as a writer is absolutely astounding. One feels there is nothing he does not know about his subject or the subject's time. Particularly interesting are the quotes he includes, which when I first read them I had to resist framing for my library wall. And almost as interesting as Churchill are the myriad individuals who surrounded him, exhumed here by Manchester for a final and proper setting of the record. Ultimately, we come to Churchill's greatest contemporaries, Chamberlain, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Hitler, and are drawn with such expertise into the relationships that we are left wondering how it will all turn out. But of course we do know, and it is with growing dismay and sadness that we let Manchester take us to the end of the book, with the detailed recounting of the terrible stumbling of the West's leaders toward WWII and the end of an era. Of course, this is the beginning of Churchll's greatest challenge, to be continued in the as yet unpublished third volume, but we still feel regret for having lost to time such an able and important man. With the last page, our respect for him has us near tears with the knowledge that the world, more than ever, needs more Churchills and will not have them.

This is a great book of historical writing. For those who question the role history has in our lives I suggest you read this book and look at the world anew. Its focus is Churchill's fight against the appeasers in 1930s English politics. The staggering stupidity and the relentless badgering of Churchill as he stood his ground is an amazing story. Many people have described the Battle of Britain as Churchill's finest hour, but it was these long years with fascism growing in Europe that really mark him with distinction. Manchester is a brilliant historian and this is his masterwork. A dreadful pity that the third volume was never printed due his ill health.

I was inspired to read about Churchill, among others, after reading Time magazine's Man of the Century issue. I picked Wm. Manchester's first volume in complete ignorance as to the identity of the author or his reputation as an historian and biographer. I quickly realized that I was reading a finely written, thoroughly researched, and detailed biography of the one man who alone is probably most responsible for saving the world from the horrors of Nazi Germany. The second volume continues where the first left off: Winston still in the political wilderness, the lone British statesman who recognized Hitler for the tyrant history proved him to be.

I cannot express how much I learned about this time in European history. As an armchair student of history, I never understood, until now, how Europe could stand by and let Hitler first gain control of Germany and then of Eastern Europe. And I certainly never comprehended the role of Churchill, nor the many prices he willingly paid in his career and personal life.

I have only two complaints about the second volume. First, the voice of Clementine Churchill, Winston's wife and so vitally present in the first volume, seemed absent, a vacuum in this tale about these tumultuous 8 years. In the first volume, she encouraged, advised, cajoled, and consoled Winston throughout his political ups and downs. Often she was right on target in how Churchill should proceed. In the second volume, she is notable only in her absence.

The second complaint: no third volume. I sincerely hope that Mr. Manchester is having success in this particular endeavor. Any other biography just won't do!

I cannot praise this book in any better fashion than those before me. However, I must plead with Mr. Manchester's heirs to bring together the material gathered for volume three. Following his wife's death in 1998, Manchester had a stroke, and announced he wouldn't be able to finish volume three. On June 1st of this year, he passed away. Just as Martin Gilbert took over Randolph Churchill's task of writing his father's official biography, surely the Manchester heirs could find an author who could do justice to the research this great author had done on the third volume.

Winston Churchill, it can be argued, did more than any other single person to save the free world from Hitler. This book does more than any other to demonstrate what set Churchill apart from others in this monumental task.

In covering Churchill's years of political exhile between WWI and WWII, Manchester captures the man who was willing to assess the world order for himself and stand completely alone with every force imaginable opposing him. In the end, he was right and the world was wrong. This book captures that wonderfully.

William Manchester is one of our finest writers, and "Alone" is the best book I have read about Churchill. Manchester's brilliant opening chapter about a Churchillian day at Chartwell, his country home, establishes quickly in the reader's mind the virtues and foibles of a man who described himself as "great" and never suffered from false modesty.

I have a couple of quibbles about the book. First, I thought Manchester's admiration for his subject was occasionally a bit cloying. Secondly, and more seriously, I don't think Manchester did a very good job detailing the ideological currents of the 1930s. Manchester portrays Britain's leaders during that era as clueless, weak, and something close to wicked. I would tend to regard them as people who thought that Communism was a greater threat than Fascism and reacted accordingly in the spirit of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." They were nearly right. But Churchill, unencumbered by an attraction to foreign ideologies, despised both Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, and early on correctly identified the Nazis as the immediate and most serious menace to his beloved Isle.

That Churchill was right and had the courage to stand isolated and steadfast in his convictions is the basis of his greatness. Manchester has written a masterpiece biography about the essential man of the 20th century.

Smallchief

I was adrift when I finished this volume.
grasping at pathetic things to read for a while - nothing satisfied - Manchester can set the stage, his historical background is so rich that you'll find yourself spouting about it to your friends.

You'll learn more from this book than a two semester course in 20th century history.

Churchill himself is the lead player in a panapoly of exciting elements. But manchester never lets the reader forget the place in history - the man was a masterful writer.