A vivid and incisive portrait of Winston Churchill during wartime from acclaimed historian Max Hastings; Winston’s War captures the full range of Churchill’s endlessly fascinating character. At once brilliant and infuriating; self-important and courageous; Hastings’s Churchill comes brashly to life as never before. Beginning in 1940; when popular demand elevated Churchill to the role of prime minister; and concluding with the end of the war; Hastings shows us Churchill at his most intrepid and essential; when; by sheer force of will; he kept Britain from collapsing in the face of what looked like certain defeat. Later; we see his significance ebb as the United States enters the war and the Soviets turn the tide on the Eastern Front. But Churchill; Hastings reminds us; knew as well as anyone that the war would be dominated by others; and he managed his relationships with the other Allied leaders strategically; so as to maintain Britain’s influence and limit Stalin’s gains. At the same time; Churchill faced political peril at home; a situation for which he himself was largely to blame. Hastings shows how Churchill nearly squandered the miraculous escape of the British troops at Dunkirk and failed to address fundamental flaws in the British Army. His tactical inaptitude and departmental meddling won him few friends in the military; and by 1942; many were calling for him to cede operational control. Nevertheless; Churchill managed to exude a public confidence that brought the nation through the bitter war. Hastings rejects the traditional Churchill hagiography while still managing to capture what he calls Churchill’s “appetite for the fray.†Certain to be a classic; Winston’s War is a riveting profile of one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century.
#320547 in Books H W Brands 2009-09-08 2009-09-08Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.20 x 1.90 x 6.10l; 2.50 #File Name: 0307277941888 pagesTraitor to His Class The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Process bookBy M. J. MccaffreyMr. Brands has written an approachable account of FDR's life. He does not dip too deeply into the waters of scandal and infidelity; and is content to note trips and meetings that are part of both Eleanor and Franklin's public schedules.If you want to know about the process that led to FDR's presidency; and the dance in which he engaged with Churchill and Stalin during World War II; this book will be informative and interesting.If you want to know more about what drove FDR to be the person he was; or for that matter why he was a "traitor to his class;" you may end up disappointed. Brands; or his publisher; found the phrase to be catchy as a title; but does not make the connections to flesh it out.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. "Fair and Balanced" AdmirationBy GioH.W. Brands's admiration of FDR as a human being and as a politician is scarcely concealed. Here's his summary encomium from the last chapter of his biography; describing the reaction of Americans to the President's death: "[His presidency] had been a remarkable accomplishment; reflecting a unique bond between the President and the American people. They put their faith in Roosevelt because he put his faith in them. He believed in democracy -- in the capacity of ordinary Americans; exercising their collective judgement; to address the ills of that afflicted their society. He refused to rely on the invisible hand of the marketplace; for the compelling reason that during his lifetime the invisible hand had wreaked very visible havoc on millions of unoffending Americans. He refused to accept that government invariably bungled whatever it attempted; and his refusal inspired government efforts that had a tremendous positive effect on millions of marginal farmers; furloughed workers; and struggling merchants..." If that encomium seems more rhetorical than analytical to you; you're not alone. This journalistic biography is best at portraying personalities and personality clashes; and weakest at historical contextualization.In attempting to be moderately detached; Brands details FDR's weaknesses; frivolities; and errors -- his overweening ambition; his marital cruelties and follies; his manipulative relationships with friends -- but the overall picture is extremely engaging. It's easy to see how Roosevelt overcame both his advantages and disadvantages to become the master politician and popular icon that he undeniably was. The narrative breaks rather schematically into three sections: Roosevelt's youth and political activities before 1932; his two terms of office during the Depression; and his wartime years. Of the three 'acts;' the first is the most carefully constructed and the clearest in intention. Brands depict FDR as the product of extraordinary privilege and insulation from the lives of ordinary folk. At the same time; he links Roosevelt's development to the example of his predecessor and relative; Theodore; demonstrating fairly convincingly that FDR's economic and social platform derived more from Progressivism than from any ideology of the Democratic Party. It was his illness and paralysis; Brands argues; that brought FDR into contact with and empathy for the less-privileged Americans; and that forged his strengths as a leader in crises.Brands's focus during FDR's first two terms in the White House is on his political challenges -- his dealings with his own party and with Congress; his relationships with his aides and advisors; and the occasional rivalries between those aides; his election strategies; etc. Brands keeps all these juggling pins aloft with some skill; but unfortunately I was hoping for a different kind of analysis of these years; more in fulfillment of the iimplications of the book's title. Brands is at his most shallow in placing the "New Deal" in the context of American social history. Alas; that's what I was looking for; a coherent summary of the very real and very permanent changes in American society than accompanied the New Deal; with some answer to such questions as: 1. What was new about the Deal? 2. Whose Deal was it really? 3. How much did the New Deal embody Roosevelt's own vision? Brands portrays FDR's confrontations with Labor leader John L Lewis; for instance; entirely in terms of personalities and passing events; but the changes in labor relations and labor law during the New Deal years were among the most important developments of the era; and the underlying question is to what degree can those changes be considered accomplishments of Roosevelt's "betrayal" of his class. America arrived at the end of World War I still maintaining the class assumptions of common law master-servant relationships; but by the 1930s America was no longer a land of apprentices; master craftsmen; and yeoman farmers. Instead it was a nation of wage earners; and it was FDR's great opportunity to shape new perceptions and new laws to suit such new realities. That's what the NRA was about - not merely market recovery - and that's what FDR's confrontation with the 'nine old men' of the Supreme Court amounted to. The victories that FDR achieved with his liberal appointment to the Court; victories which were partly consolidated by his third electoral triumph and by the democratizing effect of his plans for benefits for returning soldiers; were in effect a "new and better" deal for ordinary Americans. Frankly; too much attention has been paid to the 'recovery' issues of the New Deal -- particularly with 75% or more of Americans keeping their jobs and doing rather well on the basis of price deflation -- and too little to the transformation of America from the hierarchical Gilded Age portrayed by novelists like Edith Wharton and Henry James to the bland but prosperous and egalitarian America post WW2.Brands establishes in his prologue; where he foreshadows the trauma of Pearl Harbor; that his deepest adulation of Roosevelt is reserved for his war leadership. Once again; the narrative focuses on interpersonal confrontations; chiefly between Roosevelt; Churchill; and Stalin; and to a lesser degree between Roosevelt and his generals. Oddly enough; however; by the time Brands gets to his chosen topic; his writing has become less cogent and carefully ordered. Many of the severest critics of this book; and by implication of Roosevelt himself as a war leader; are dismayed by the portrayal of Roosevelt's amiability toward Stalin. The critics howl that Roosevelt was naive; or that he was secretly sympathetic to communism; and that Brands should have revealed that ideological 'treachery.' What Brands does reveal is that Roosevelt had every bit as much trouble with Churchill's motivations as with Stalin's. Honestly; whether you side with those who denounce FDR's policies toward the USSR; or with those who applaud his wartime leadership; you won't find much to support your bias in this entertaining but superficial biography.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Good; Brief Overview of the Life of Franklin RooseveltBy Steven M. AnthonyI was given this audiobook as a gift and found it to be a good; though perhaps overly brief overview of the life of one of our most controversial and celebrated Presidents. I suspect that my version (10 1/2 hours) is an abridged version; though I do not see that printed on the CD container. The book is perhaps more detailed.My great grandfather; an entrepreneur from the early 20th century despised Roosevelt more than the devil. The New Deal; support of organized labor; the income tax; socialism; all went against everything he believed in. He was convinced that World War II saved Roosevelt from defeat in the 1940 election and a lasting and deserved reputation as an abject failure as President. Nevertheless; World War II did in fact lift the country out of the Great Depression; and lifted Roosevelt into the pantheon of our most celebrated Presidents.This book is a fair and balanced treatemnt of Roosevelt's life. It is not a hagiography and gives the failures as well as the successes of Roosevelt's life and Presidency.
