The Second World War, vol. 2: Their Finest Hour

by Winston S. Churchill

The second of six volumes, Their Finest Hour takes us through the momentous year of 1940 beginning with the start of the Battle of France and the ascension of Winston Churchill to the Prime Ministership. In many places this volume is more gripping than the one that precedes it - the Norwegian campaign, which I found was discussed at too far a length, is almost immediately forgotten about as the real show in France takes center stage. Churchill describes the Battle for France in an excellent manner, rightly describing it as the preventable high tragedy that it was. Much to my surprise, and happiness, the descriptions of the interplay between the British and French governments hold center stage through most of this first half of the book. Churchill shows with remarkable ease the sense of hopelessness that rapidly came to dominate French thinking. Their principal military leaders - Gamelin and Weygand - are either incompetent or unable to react in step with events (in one remarkable scene Churchill describes meeting with the French government in a chateau with only one phone, located in the restroom of all places). The French political leadership is almost as bad, but its strongest figures such as Paul Reynaud are simply not up to the task.

Following the Battle of France the rest of the book looks at the Battle of Britain, Home Defenses in Britain, negotiations to keep the French fleet out of German hands, relations with Vichy France and Nationalist Spain, Lend-Lease, and the situation in the Middle East. On a large degree these lack the tempo that the first half of the book has, and took me much longer to get through until the pace improved dramatically near the end with the British victory over Italian forces on the Egyptian border. Still, this second volume is just as good as the first - their is still a large number of high quality maps included and almost a hundred pages of appendixes of which a large portion are Winston Churchill's private correspondence. My only complaint is the amount of run on shown by some of the correspondence put directly into the text, and the lack of responses to those letters - especially from figures such as Franklin Roosevelt.

***** out of *****

Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

I very rarely read fiction these days, but I grabbed Heart of Darkness the last time I went to Pennywise Books right next to my bank after having had it alluded at several times in King Leopold's Ghost which I read last year.

While small this book was really packed deep. Haunting really, as I read onwards my heart increasingly palpitated as I got further into the story as Marlow - narrating from the deck of a ship in the Thames - recounts his voyage up the Congo river towards a man named Kurtz. Kurtz as we are told - in hushed tones early in the work - is the head of the Central Station up the river, the most successful ivory trader by far, but alone in the wilds he's gone mad. The backdrop of the Congo Free State is pitch perfect as an element of late nineteenth century colonial Africa in the wake of the "scramble" for that continent. Conrad rather quickly - and effectively - shows the horrors and moral darkness of the peculiar form of colonialism that existed in the Congo at that time. Non-whites are shown with distain - at best just "niggers," but more often referred to as savages who can barely be excised from the jungle, or as cannibals. Coexisting with that most evident form of darkness is the theme of personal moral darkness as Marlow goes up the river and sees the trappings of civilization collapse, culminating in the most savage of sights at Kurtz's station. On the whole, I very much liked Heart of Darkness. It kept me enthralled throughout and managed to get much more meaning into just over a hundred pages than most books manage to get in four or five times that much.

***** out of *****

The Second World War, vol. 1: The Gathering Storm

by Winston S. Churchill

It wouldn't be an understatement to call this one of the most important works of history of the twentieth century. The first of six volumes by Winston Churchill this book chronicles the period between the end of the First World War, through the growing German and Italian threats to the peace, and into the war as far as the Battle of France. To say that this book is well written would be a substantial understatement. Churchill has a way with the English language that is very rarely seen which serves to enliven a story that has been done to death in the decades since this was originally published. As a participant at the highest levels of government throughout most of the period of this book, and especially after the start of the war, there is an added level of clarity, moral force, and insights that are often lost in most examinations of the period. Of particular note I found were the various descriptions of those principal actors such as Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov. Contrary to my expectations, Chamberlain himself is not vastly attacked by Churchill in any substantially prolonged way, especially after Munich when his demeanor changed drastically - a better accounting of the failures of the prewar government fall to Baldwin as it stands in this account for putting party over country. On the whole much of the emphasis in this volume is placed on the prewar era, and rightfully so - while the period described from September 1939 to May 1940 is also of the highest quality it does drag at some points with Churchill's descriptions of the Norway campaign which are perhaps too long considering the rapidly approaching thunderstorm that was making its way to fruition on the continent.

This said, while this series can be viewed as a history of the war it is better viewed as a serious of war memoirs from one of the most important figures of the war and should inevitably rest on the shelves of any respectful reader of the Second World War.

Of note for this volume itself are several very nicely done maps - particularly as they relate to the Polish campaign, Scapa Flow, the naval battle against the Graf Spee, and the Norway campaign. A variety of useful appendixes are also included, particularly those relating to naval affairs considering Winston's position as First Lord of the Admiralty from the start of the war until his assumption of the duties of the office of the Prime Minister.

***** out of *****

Roman Warfare (Smithsonian History of Warfare)

by Adrian Goldsworthy

A brief, but highly enjoyable and important introductory text to Roman warfare. I'll admit that my study of ancient warfare has been to this point almost non-existent - particularly as it relates to Rome and this book has really done a lot to get rid of that. Goldsworthy in the space of only about two hundred pages describes the Roman military - starting from its earliest role as a citizens militia, through the Punic Wars, the wars of Julius Caesar, and up till the fall of the Western Roman Empire. With little space Goldsworthy gets more than a fair share of important facts into the text such as the composition of Roman Legions (and how they changed throughout the various periods), what weapons were used, the role of the military in Roman political life and Roman society at large. While the text itself is often exceedingly well written - I never really had to reread passages to soak up the details and overall themes of what Goldsworthy was talking about - it is also well supported by a variety of maps and illustrations, particularly the battle maps (Cannae, Zama, Magnesia, the Siege of Jerusalem, and Strasbourg).

Included at the end of the text is a well needed glossary of Latin terms used in the text, along with brief biographies of the most prominent Roman generals and of the most important primary sources consulted by the author.

***** out of *****