I was given, Winston’s War, Churchill 1940-1945, for my birthday and have finally gotten around to reading it. I wish I hadn’t waited. I had given it pause because there are just so many books about Churchill, half of which I think I have read. And I have been waiting and waiting for the third volume of William Manchester’s The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, to be published. Manchester died in 2004 leaving this planned third volume unfinished. So what’s a man to do? Just wait? Well enter Max Hastings. Hasting’s book is just what’s needed. He has entered a pretty crowded field here, but actually manages to write I think, a worthy successor, so to speak, to the period not yet covered by Manchester’s work. (Churchill aficionados do not send hate mail). I know and appreciate just how great Manchester’ s books are. But if you love reading about Churchill, Hasting’s book is the perfect fix. 1940-1945 is the period when Churchill, the political outcast, literally stepped up to save Western Europe. And even more interestingly what Hasting’s book provides is a picture of Churchill’s character at work. What the reader gets is a clear-eyed appraisal of how Churchill, with all his faults, was able to spur into action an unprepared and demoralized Britain. Without Churchill Britain would have probably surrendered in 1941. In Winston’s War, you see Churchill at work and how single handedly he changed the mood of his nation and roused up the British to fight on against insurmountable odds. It’s quite a remarkable story and Hasting’s does a good job with it. Hasting’s says that Churchill, “cherished aspirations which often proved greater than his nation was capable of fulfilling.” And yet some how through the force of his character he was able to bring those aspirations to fruition. This is the angle from which Hasting’s approaches Churchill and what makes the book so good. It’s ironic, Churchill was driven out of office prior to the war because of his indifference to building a new and enlightened British society, but in the end it turned out Churchill had to step in to save that society. Read about it. Recommended.
