A superb work of scholarship that gives a new and fascinating insight into what Britain was really like during the initial stages of the second world war. This combines social history from diary entries and survey findings with the political story, leaving the military history largely in the background.
There is much here that was new to me, such as the enormous (and not particularly effective) diplomatic effort to get America to enter the war, or at least turn its industrial might towards arming Britain and Russia. Not entirely surprising given the rather underhanded way Churchill wanted to maintain Britain’s hold on its empire and Imperial preference in trade. There were also interesting insights into the always fragile relationship with Russia and the contortions necessary to support a communist regime without encouraging socialism at home.
I was also surprised to see how soon after the war began that debate and planning was taking place about how things would be done after the war. Certainly once the threat of a German invasion of the British mainland had receded there seemed to be this unshakeable faith that the war would end and that there be a country (and an empire) still there to be continued with. This seems strange to me, but then I suppose that most those involved had already lived through the first war, which, despite the appalling loss of life was never the “total” war that affected home life as did the second.
The author choses to break his volumes at the twin shocks of Pearl Harbor and the loss of Force Z near Singapore, which seems a sensible decision as this does represent a real changing point, at least for Britain. The next volume is high on my list for reading soon.