Kevin B. O'Brien reviewed The Grand Alliance by Winston S. Churchill
Review of 'The Grand Alliance' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is the third volume in Churchill's 6-volume history of World War II. It covers a key period that began with Britain standing alone against Nazi Germany. Then several key events changed all of that. The first was the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which brought the Soviets into the war as allies of Britain. The second was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the US into the war. Nut the third, just as important, is that Hitler followed the requirements of his alliance with Japan and declared war on the US. As a result, Roosevelt was able to adopt a "Europe first" strategy.
It is valuable as a view from a participant in the events of the war. As Churchill once said "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it," and he did do just that. That said, while he was a …
This is the third volume in Churchill's 6-volume history of World War II. It covers a key period that began with Britain standing alone against Nazi Germany. Then several key events changed all of that. The first was the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which brought the Soviets into the war as allies of Britain. The second was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the US into the war. Nut the third, just as important, is that Hitler followed the requirements of his alliance with Japan and declared war on the US. As a result, Roosevelt was able to adopt a "Europe first" strategy.
It is valuable as a view from a participant in the events of the war. As Churchill once said "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it," and he did do just that. That said, while he was a participant, this is clearly not a disinterested reading of history, and should be looked at with a small grain of salt, and supplemented with good collection of works from professional historians if you want a more balanced view. Churchill is always concerned to make himself look good, so you need to keep that in mind. Still, he is such a good writer that I enjoyed the whole series.
I listened to this as an audio book.