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Summary: wonderful book!
Review: This book is just awe inspiring. To anyone out there who is wondering about the third book, I believe it is _not_ in the works. (read the foreword to "A World Lit by Fire" for further info...)
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Summary: Very readable. Lots of history. Likes Winston a bit much.
Review: It has one of the best first 30 pages of any biography I have read. Just gripping. Overall, I think Manchester likes Winston a little too much, and can't seem to integrate his faults -- he says them, but doesn't believe them and they aren't woven in, just little blurbs. Also, the biography is half history. Had he stuck to biography, it could have been 1200 pages and complete instead of 2400 and not done. It's a good read, with some poignant moments as he takes the wide reach of big history down to the random death of an individual soldier or the proud Polish calvaryman beating on a Panzer.
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Summary: An exhilarating learning curve
Review: I would like to join the ranks of those eminent critics who have recorded such appropriate accolades on the covers of the two volumes of Winston Churchill's biography. To the exclusion of all else except professional periodicals and newspapers I have spent the majority of 1998 reading and studying Mr Manchester's truly great work. It has had a profound effect on me and I have experienced being elated, depressed, angry, incredulous, frustrated and excited as I travelled through Winston Churchill's life up to 1940 on an exhilarating learning curve.At the end of the second volume I continued to read on through the source notes not only because I was fascinated by the enormity of the work but also because I could not bear to think I had reached the end of what to me had been a truly superb revelation into the life of such a great man. Please let's have Volume 3! (This text refers to the two paperback editions.)
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Summary: An Excellent History of Churchill's Early Years
Review: The beginning of William Manchester's (planned) three volume history of Winston Churchill, this book is an excellent history not only of Churchill, but of Victorian and Edwardian England, colonialism, Victorian social and sexual mores, World War I, and the 1920s. The book is diligently; one might say obsessively researched, and is written on a huge canvas. Many myths about Churchill are addressed and repaired in this work; and the full story of Gallipoli and Churchill's war as a battalion commander in the trenches is also addressed. Mr. manchester also does not shy away from the difficult task of addressing the death of Churchill's father from a progressively encroaching syphilis, or Churchill's mother's role in advancing his career. although Mr. Manchester is clearly an admirer of Churchill, he presents a very balanced view of Churchill's successes and failures. A marvelous book, eclipsed only by the second volume of this series.
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Summary: writing almost on a par with Churchill's own, in its own way
Review: Manchester's work is what is properly called an achievement. This is to Churchill what Shirer's works are to World War II in general. Mr. Manchester had the good taste not to attempt to ape Churchill's unique style, but in doing it his own way, achieved a height of his own: readable, fascinating, and astonishingly detailed. One is convinced he was Churchill's lifelong right-hand man as one absorbs the detail and clarity of his observations. How any serious student of modern European history could spurn this work is beyond me. Now if only the third volume would come forth, and perhaps even a fourth. All who appreciate excellence in authorship should wish Mr. Manchester long life and much motivation to practice his craft.
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Summary: An immense experience in reading
Review: William Manchester has done a remarkable job of weaving together an incredibly fascinating story. Churchill's experiences, friends and family, habits, strong points (which are many), faults (which are also many but far short of his strengths), and moods all combine to make him ont of the most fascinating persons ever to walk the earth. Read the intro, and you'll be hooked!
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Summary: Great, great book. Just the best!!
Review: The thick veil of history is pierced by Manchester in this fabulous volume. You can understand why Chamberlin was motivated to placate Hitler and why the French felt secure behind their unbreachable defenses. Like all good narrative historys you begin to wonder, part way through the book, just how it can end like we all know it does. This book, coupled with the dense "How war came", make for a fine graduate level primer for the origins of WWII in Europe.
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Summary: A look at one of history's most courageous figures
Review: Though I have not read the first of this series, I plan on doing so immediately upon finishing Volume 2. Manchester is a terrific writer, a portrayer of history as a kind of tragic story and not a conglomeration of facts and figures. Churchill's resoluteness in the face of English apathy in the 1930's is well-demonstrated, but this is no fluff piece; WSC is shown as a real man who had very real faults, and seeing these in relation to his accomplishments keeps him human in our minds. In addition to the tremendous story, it's first-rate literature. For those interested in the war period and the relations between Churchill and other allied leaders, may I suggest "No Ordinary Time" by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which details further the wartime relationship between FDR and WSC.
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Summary: Far more than a biography--you become steeped in the time.
Review: William Manchester does much more here than tell the story of perhaps the greatest person of the 20th century--he transports you back to the pre-WWII England to see the events that shaped Winston Churchill's life and political destiny. You not only come away with a true sense of who Churchill was (and he truely was the hand that slammed the door to Hell during WWII)--you also gain real insight into other key British politicial figures of the day including Lloyd George, Lord Halifax, Nevile Chamberlain and many others in the context of their often-changing relationships with Winston. I came away with a fresh perspective of the key people and geopolitical events of the time; and gained a wealth of useful historical information as well. This, and Manchester's first volume of Churchill's bigography should be required reading in any proper 20th century college-level history course. (They're crafted so well that students might actually read them!) Beware--you will not want to put it down once you start reading; I didn't.
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Summary: WOW! The best and most engaging biography I have ever read!
Review: This is simply a fantastic book about a man who was larger than life. Churchill is one of the most amazing characters in all of history and Manchester gives us an inspired work, so that we may better understand the man who dared to oppose Hitler's armies in 1940. If you enjoy 20th century history of Europe, READ THIS BOOK!
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