Rating: 
Summary: A Compelling Story
Review: This book is hard to put down. I have read it twice and will, no doubt, read it again. It is the story of a 5 day period when freedom hung in the balance. In May, 1940, as France was collapsing, British leaders were debating whether Britain would fight on or sue for peace. Winston Churchill, the newly installed prime minister wanted to fight on, but forces within the government and within the Conservative party wanted to treat with Hitler. Politically, Churchill's position was shaky. In the end, he prevailed, but he would probably have agreed with Wellington that it was a near run thing. Lukacs writes beautifully. His treatment of the players in the 20th Century's most critical drama is fair and understanding. Anyone who is interested in the Second World War should read this book. Anyone who values freedom must read it. Had Britain made peace with Hitler, there would have been no Normandy invasion and Europe would not be free today. How close we came to the abyss is both frightening and educational.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't read this - it's boring
Review: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. I went in with high expectations: I'd never read Lukacs, but my understanding was that his reputation was good. At a minimum, he's published a lot. Moreover, I liked the idea of an events-oriented narrative confined to a short, narrow time frame. What should have been high drama, however, was almost painful to finish. Plainly put, the book is boring.
As for (somewhat) related works: I'm not familiar with Churchill and this period, although I've read a bit of his memoirs and found them pretty good. A recent World War II read that I thought deserved its Pulitzer was Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn.
Rating:
Summary: Peering through a keyhole at history
Review: Lukac's history of Britain's perilous moment of truth is stripped bare of the mythology usually found in World War II history for the vox populi. This is whiskey without the water. A strangely vulnerable Churchill comes across in these pages - tired, too old , and dragging his snail's tail of disasters from Galipoli to his support of Edward the Abdicator. What serendipity led to his summoning to Buckingham, his face splashed with tears, wondering if it was too late? As in almost all of Lukac's works, the multidimensional quality of his insight is truly Shakespearian.
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