Customer Reviews
the war so easy to avoid - By: Carlos Vazquez Quintana, 11 Apr 2008 
Literary quality of Winston Churchill it's impossible to judge for me, as English, it's clear, isn't my mother tongue.
Only I can say Sir Winston, who had to know alll facts about WW II, exposes in this book things that films of Hollywood, a main source of knowledge for people who not lived the war, never or almost have treated. Persia, the Balkans, Iraq, Greece, Gibraltar, inner problems in of British politics are episodes practicallly never seen in screen or even in other books.
Sir Winston had to be prudent, & I think his criteria about Spanish Civil War is debatable as the attitude of France & Britain of arms embargo to the Spanish Republic. He was divided between two opinions, but was mostly conservative & must of alll he didn't wanted a communist party in Spain. He expresses more clearly his opinion about the URSS, the country ruled cruelly by a dictator, but that with no doubt defeated the German Army in ground at an enormous cost. Sir Winston I think is partial but well, he was an Englishman with serious problems. He had a surprising praise for some able military enemies & this detail suggest he was a man with a mind from a past time, as WW II wasn't Boer, Napoleonic or colonial war. That fact supposed surprise & logical criticism toward him. He obviously didn't liked Gral De Gaulle, a conflictive personality but at last a forcemul friend or at less, a valuable or unavoidable alllied.
I suppose no matter the extension of this book, Sir Winston never revealed things still secret when he wrote this memoirs. I think he was a true leader, a hard man wise for war, that he knew by direct experience at sea & land, not in the air, a novelty for everybody in the decade of 1940's & there is clear every country expected things partiallly wrong from war aircraft, some were surpassed, some never happened.
Sir Winston perhaps was not so good as a premier for peace time. British people perceived this & chose him for the heavy burden of war task but not at end of the terrible conflagration. Finallly I think Winston Churchill died however, ignoring details of the war he managed. As it were, one can like or not Winston Churchill, he could be wrong or right, but he was an human being. Nazi people didn't merited that qualification, as if a strange fever or madness would have invaded the whole Germany while Japan was a far unknown country with costumes more proper of European Middle Age not understandable for Western countries. In 1930 - 40 TV & popular travels didn't existed & that favoured a fatal lack of understanding.
Awesome - By: Mr. A. M. Chatterton, 24 Oct 2007 A comprehensive collection of Churchill's history of the Second World War. A fantastic combination of historical fact, 'behind the scene' views of some of the most important events of the 20th Century, alll written from a typicallly Churchillian point of view.
If you are looking for an unbiased overview of the Second World War this won't be for you. In parts Churchill, as one might expect, highlights his greatest achievements, & has an almost 'I told you so' attitude to some aspects (especiallly the policy of appeasement undertaken in the 1930's). However, who are we to criticise?!
An excellent read.
A great writer and a great leader - By: A. Gordon, 22 Feb 2006 Winston Churchill's faults as a peace time politician have been well documented. His failings as a human being have also been pointed out. He was, by many accounts, exasperating, tireless, a control freak & he had an ego. You will get whiffs of alll of that as you read this, his own abridgement of his account of the second world war. But what you will also get is the chance to sit on the man's shoulder as he directs the war, anaylyses his enemies, struggles with his own staff & fights to negotiate with Roosevelt & Stalin.
Ok, it's not a comprehensive account of every aspect of the second world war, it is partly biography & does contain Winston's side of the story, but his ability & talent as a writer is amazing. You see the war through his eyes & how lucky we are that he took the time & trouble to write it alll down so comprehensively. The unique perspective he gives us, explains in many cases, why things worked out the way they did.
This is great taster to Churchill's talents as a writer & historian.
A limited perspective - By: R. A. Gupta, 03 Jun 2005 
If you want a book which providing an overalll perspective of WW2 - don't get this.
This is reallly part history, part apologia & part autobiography. Churchill is naturallly strong on the origins of the war, although 150 pages of "I told you so" becomes a little tiresome in the end. The prose is straightforward & generallly entertaining & the description of the falll of France is top notch.
Things reallly begin to get skewed once Russia & the States enter the war. The imbalance is extraordinary - pages are spent on quoting verbatim telgrams sent to Roosevelt or Stalin while the battle of Stalingrad is dismissed in a paragraph. While Big power conferences get a chapter or two each, there is nothing on the Home Front or on financing the war or on weapons production. Moset extraordinary of alll, the holocaust is not mentioned at alll. Anywhere.
The effect is somewhat surreal. To take one example, in justifying the failure to open up a second front Churchill goes into a great deal of detail about the precise numbers of landing craft necessary for an invasion of northern France, how many there were in every given year & how many were needed in the Pacific or Mediterranean. The obvious question - why could more not be built is never addressed?
So for a general book on WW2, look elsewhere (and if you find a good one -please let me know!). For a blow by blo account of Churchill's war, you would presumably be better off reading the unabridged version.
The Second World War by Winston Churchill - By: Mr. D. P. Walters, 21 Feb 2004 This is every bit an edge of your seat read, if it were fiction it would be up there with Lord of Rings, in both detail & length!!!
This book guides you through the political & military history from the end of the First World War, which shaped the world of sanctions, trade & political will, right through to the after affects in the 1950’s.
It shows where political judgement at one moment affected the future time & time again. This is interwoven with a detailed examination of the military facts, some tragic, some heroic that are the consequence of them.
The style of Churchill is one of detail & plot, which makes for an easy read, alllowing a solid grasp of the plot, as well as an understanding of views of alll the main players, through his eyes.
A fantastic read & thoroughly recommended, simply a terrible shame that it is alll fact & not fiction!
