The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume 2: Alone, 1932-1940

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Overview

ALONE is the second volume in William Manchester's projected three-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In it Manchester challenges the assumption that Churchill's finest hour was as a wartime leader.

During the years 1932-1940, he was tested as few men are. Pursued by creditors, he remained solvent only by his writing. He was disowned by his party, dismissed by the establishment as a warmonger and twice nearly lost his seat in Parliament. ...

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The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume 2: Alone, 1932-1940

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Overview

ALONE is the second volume in William Manchester's projected three-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In it Manchester challenges the assumption that Churchill's finest hour was as a wartime leader.

During the years 1932-1940, he was tested as few men are. Pursued by creditors, he remained solvent only by his writing. He was disowned by his party, dismissed by the establishment as a warmonger and twice nearly lost his seat in Parliament. Churchill stood alone against Nazi aggression and the British policy of appeasement.

Manchester brings new insight to this complex, fascinating period of history without ever losing sight of Churchill the man--a man with limitations--but a man whose vision was global and whose courage was boundless.

The long-awaited second volume of the best Churchill biography reveals the true portrait of this ambitious world leader. Discussion centers on the alarm he sounded about the terrible plot being hatched inside Hitler's deranged mind. Two 8-page photos inserts.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
“Manchester has such control over a huge and moving narrative, such illumination of character . . . that he can claim the considerable achievement of having assembled enough powerful evidence to support Isaiah Berlin’s judgment of Churchill as ‘the largest human being of our time.’”The New Yorker
 
“Memorable.”San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Stirring . . . As Manchester points out several times, it’s as if the age, having produced a Hitler, then summoned Churchill as the only figure equal to the task of vanquishing him. The years Alone are the pivotal years of Churchill’s career.”The Boston Sunday Globe
 
“The best Churchill biography [for] this generation . . . Even readers who know the basic story will find much that is new.”Newsweek
 
“A triumph . . . equal in stature to the first volume of the series.”Newsday
 
“Vivid . . . history in the grand manner.”—The Washington Post
 
“Compelling reading.”The Times (London)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780385313315
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 9/28/1989
  • Edition description: Reissue
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 800
  • Sales rank: 93790
  • Product dimensions: 5.38 (w) x 8.11 (h) x 1.72 (d)

Meet the Author

William Manchester was a hugely successful popular historian and biographer whose books include The Last Lion, Volumes 1 and 2, Goodbye Darkness, A World Lit Only by Fire, The Glory and the Dream, The Arms of Krupp, American Caesar, The Death of the President, and assorted works of journalism.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 16 )
Rating Distribution

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(14)

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  • Posted Sun May 24 00:00:00 EDT 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    One of the Best..

    ..Quite simply an outstanding account of Churchill and his involvement in the events leading up to 1940. It is a terrible loss that Manchester passed away before he could complete his third volume on his great subject.
    In some ways the book reads like a thriller, as ominous events occur throughout Europe, he brings us Churchill, barking his warnings from the backbenches of parliament....Banished there because of his stance on India, and kept there by his loyalty to a flawed King...
    ..an account that brings clarity to this particular time-period like no other

    9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Feb 24 00:00:00 EST 2004

    Okay, so now I like history.

    I enjoyed this book maybe not so much for how it was written but for the man whose life is revealed. I thought I knew Winston Churchill from PBS and other passing bits of information, but now I realize I had no idea. Mr. Manchester, author, has a talent of getting out of Winston's way and just letting the man's life tell its own story. If you're a big fan of the life on Neville Chamberlain - don't read this book. If you're not in favor of world leaders being proactive and even preemptive the examples shown here may challenge your thinking. Be advised that where the titles of these two books leave you with the impression that this is a trilogy, sadly Mr. Manchester isn't going to write the third book. Still really good reading.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    Pretty sure most of the West would be speaking German if not for this man!

    A man of his time as well as all time.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Dec 04 00:00:00 EST 2012

    This is the best book of the trilogy, outlining the circumstance

    This is the best book of the trilogy, outlining the circumstances that led up to WWII as well as the steadfastness of Churchill during the time he was warning that civilization was being threatened and was ignored, patronized and ostracized for his stance.  Excellent.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Wed Oct 16 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    A classic biography. Thoroughly researched and well written. B

    A classic biography. Thoroughly researched and well written. Brings to life one of the great characters of the 20th century.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sat Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    A Volume of What Ifs

    What if England had listened to Churchill and learned that Adolf Hitler was not an hororable man. What if the French had left the safety of the Maginot Line and had crossed the Rhine to challenge Hitler and the Naxis. What if the Royal Navy had at least gone and threatened Germany's northern coast line. What if the French had left the Maginot Line in 1939 to challenge the western border of Germany during the invasion of Poland. Hindsight is 20/20 but how the the victors of World War 1 have lost the peace?

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Wed May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    more from this reviewer

    I've read numerous biographies of Churchill and Manchester's is

    I've read numerous biographies of Churchill and Manchester's is the best written and researched.  Sir Winston was the greatest
    political leader of the 20th century and one of most effective in England's long history, all of which is clear in Manchester's 
    wonderful masterwork. 

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Mon Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2008

    more from this reviewer

    .......not a secret anymore......, (2 of 2)

    (1 of 2) is posted in Vol I, 1874-1932 ....<BR/><BR/>Russia, the protector of the Greek Orthothox Armenian population, sent her best troops in the Caucasus. The Turkish, Vice-Generalissimo Enver Pasha, supreme commander of the ex Ottoman Empire armed forces, was a very ambitious man. His aim and everpresent dream was to conquer central Asia. Enver Pasha, like Winston Churchill, was not a practical soldier. He launched an offensive with 100,000 soldiers against the Russians in the Caucasus in December of 1914. <BR/><BR/>His main enemy was the severe Weather conditions. <BR/><BR/>Insisting on a frontal attack against Russian positions in the mountains , Enver lost over 80% of his troops at the Battle of Sarikamis, in the heart of the tough winter season. <BR/><BR/>In 1917, Russian Grand Duke Nicholas assumed senior control over the Caucasus front. Nicholas tried to have a railway built from Russia (Georgia) to the conquered territories with a view to bringing up more supplies for a new offensive. But, in March of 1917 (February in the pre-revolutionary Russian calendar), the Czar was overthrown in the February Revolution and the Russian army began to slowly fall apart. <BR/>Hence, the protector of the Armenians was gone. <BR/><BR/>Winston Churchill blunder in Gallipoli, opened patched over wounds and re-ignited animosities between the Turks and their Armenian neighbors. In 1915, the Armenians were the victims of his cowardice. The Turks committed a HOLOCAUST against the Armenians that immediately started after WC debacle in Gallipolis. <BR/><BR/>The mass murder of the Armenians was indeed the first Holocaust of the twentieth century.

    0 out of 24 people found this review helpful.

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