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Five Days in London, May 1940

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Five Days in London, May 1940

By: John Lukacs
Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
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About this listen

 In the days between May 24th and 28th, 1940, the British War Cabinet held a historical debate over whether to negotiate with Hitler or to continue the war. In this magisterial work, John Lukacs demonstrates the decisive importance of those five days. Lukacs takes us hour by hour into the critical unfolding of events at 10 Downing Street, where Churchill, who had only been prime minister for a fortnight, painfully considered his war responsibilities. We see how the military disasters taking place on the Continent - particularly the plight of the nearly 400,000 British soldiers bottled up in Dunkirk - affected Churchill's fragile political situation, and how the citizenry, though only partly informed about the dangers that faced them, nevertheless began to support Churchill's determination to stand fast.©1999 John Lukacs (P)1999 Blackstone Audio Inc. Europe Great Britain Military Politics & Government Winston Churchill War Royalty England Imperialism United Kingdom British History

Critic reviews

"With a delightful British accent and a professional quality voice, Howard...communicates the tension during those fateful days." ( AudioFile)
"[This book] is lucid and splendidly readable, and furthermore, commands a host of dramatic characters....[It] has the power and sweep of Shakespeare's chronicle plays." ( Boston Globe)
"Eminent historian Lukacs delivers the crown jewel to his long and distinguished career with this account....It is the work of a man who lives and breathes history, whose knowledge is limitless and tuned to a pitch that rings true." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
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A superb work of histroy very well presented.

Excellent history

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This book manages to get over the difficulties that Churchill faced when taking over the reigns of government in 1940, for me as someone far removed from this period in our history it can be a little confusing to follow all of the details and fully grasp then, I suspect that another listening would help.

It is a gripping tale, and one that we should all be thankful ended in the right way.

A seminal period in UK history

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The "included" catalogue is a bit hit and miss, isn't it? Rest assured, you have found a gem.

This is a really well researched history, with loads of primary source material from diaries, minutes of political meetings, newspapers and mass observation reports. Commentary from the people at the time is helpfully interspersed with hindsight context e.g. "this was so" or "this was not so, there was no such meeting between X and Y that day" etc.

There is quite sophisticated analysis here, e.g. discussions of the difference between public opinion and public sentiment; distinctions between perceptions and the underlying truth of a thing and how these can merge in the near term; how an individual's decisions can have multiple purposes and multiple motives before being retrospectively disguised as something else again. The applications of these kind of frameworks marks Lukacs as a superior historian.

Lukacs argues fairly convincingly that May 1940 was an absolutely crucial period of the war, when Europe almost fell to Hitler's vision for a German hegemony across the continent. This was before the USA and USSR entered the war, which changed the game for Hitler and reduced his achievable war aims to merely surviving to a stalemate. But before that, there was the briefest of periods where he might have won it all.

You Have Found a Gem

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A brilliant analysis of a pivotally crucial few days in early WWII.

A must read for WWII enthusiasts

Brilliant Analysis

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An excellent book about a time when the world held its breath. Well written and well narrated.

Great listen

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