Summary of John Lukacs's Five Days in London, May 1940

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 Churchill’s speech was inspiring, but what he didn’t mention was the struggle he had to get his plan accepted in the War Cabinet. It had been his plan to summon this extraordinary meeting of the Outer Cabinet, where his supporters were potentially vocal and actually numerous.

#2 The widespread perception is that Hitler was a fanatic who started a war and turned most of the world against him. But this view does not take into account the fact that he was not bound to fail.

#3 Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933. His abilities as a statesman went largely unrecognized for a while. In three years, his Third German Reich replaced France as the leading power in Europe, despite France’s multiple alliances.

#4 In 1938, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, and within a few months had broken up the country. He added millions of German-speaking people to his Greater German Reich, and reduced the rest to a near-satellite status. This was despite the fact that Czechoslovakia had military alliances with Soviet Russia and France.