This is why books like Eric Larson's The Splendid and the Vile are essential. This biography of Churchill is not an all-encompassing womb-to-tomb comprehensive overview of his long and varied career but instead narrows the focus down specifically to the first year of Churchill’s service as British Prime Minister during World War II.
The history covered in this volume is well-known and extensively analyzed and this biography adds no startling new information to the archives of history. But then the point of this book is not really about the facts and dates and events of that momentous year. The point of the book is to offer a visceral and enthralling portrait of a true story so antithetical to what most Americans have experienced in their lives as to make it almost seem like a fable or fairy tale. What Winston Churchill does throughout a long and consistently engaging story lies far outside the realm of modern-day American experiences with politicians and their idea of leadership.
Reading this story about what happens when a politician who was just another typical politician transforms into a genuine statesman takes on a whole new dimension of possibility in light of the real-world parallel coincidentally offered to readers. In that span of just two years, the planet would find itself in a state of uncertain anxiety for the first time about the very real potential of World War III. The story of Churchill’s willingness to reject the cowardice of appeasement implemented by his predecessor and rise to the challenge to take his place as one of the truly monumental figures of the previous century becomes a story offering hope where that particular commodity was in preciously short supply when the biography originally hit bookshelves.
