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

The second volume of William Manchester's masterful account of Winston Churchill's life. Alone is the second volume of William Manchester's brilliant three-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In this volume, we witness the war within, before the colossal war to come. During this period, Churchill was tested as few men are: relentlessly pursued by creditors, disowned by his own party, vociferously dismissed by the press as a warmonger, and twice nearly lost his seat in Parliament. Yet despite his personal and political troubles, Churchill managed to assemble a vast, underground intelligence network-both within the British government and on the continent-which provided him with more complete and accurate information on Germany than the British government. Recognizing the horrifying truth, Churchill stood almost alone against Nazi aggression and the sordid British and French policy of appeasement. Manchester's luminous portrait never loses sight of Churchill the man-a man with limitations, especially his callousness toward others (including his supporters) and his recklessness, which could border on the foolhardy; but also a man whose vision was global and whose courage was boundless. Here is Churchill as a light in the approaching darkness, readying himself for the terrible stand to come. Alone is the second volume of William Manchester's brilliant three-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In this volume, we witness the war within, before the colossal war to come. During this period, Churchill was tested as few men are: relentlessly pursued by creditors, disowned by his own party, vociferously dismissed by the press as a warmonger, and twice nearly lost his seat in Parliament. Yet despite his personal and political troubles, Churchill managed to assemble a vast, underground intelligence network-both within the British government and on the continent-which provided him with more complete and accurate information on Germany than the British government. Recognizing the horrifying truth, Churchill stood almost alone against Nazi aggression and the sordid British and French policy of appeasement. Manchester's luminous portrait never loses sight of Churchill the man-a man with limitations, especially his callousness toward others (including his... Biography & Autobiography / Political, History / Modern - 20th Century, History / Military - World War Ii, History / Europe - Great Britain

For years, Churchill warned the British government against the growing Nazi threat. For years he was ignored. Politically isolated in Parliament, sometimes jeered at and scorned, Churchill stood alone, a beacon of reality amid the gathering storm. This book tells of perhaps the Last Lion's finest hour in the historical context not only of the 1930s, on which this volume focuses, but of the events that preceded the decade. In the Author's notes Manchester writes:
``In the view of this writer, there can be no enlightening life which does not include an account of the man's times. This need for context is even greater when the central figure is a towering statesman. It is impossible to understand Churchill and his adversaries in the 1930s, for example, without grasping the British revulsion against the horrors of World War I.''

This second volume in William Manchester's three-volume biography of Winston Churchill 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 (at one point he had to put up his home for sale), he remained solvent only by writing an extraordinary number of books and magazine articles. He was disowned by his own party, dismissed by the BBC and Fleet Street and the social and political establishments as a warmonger, and twice nearly lost his seat in Parliament. Churchill stood almost alone against Nazi aggression and the British and French pusillanimous policy of appeasement. Manchester tracks with new insights this complex, fascinating history without ever losing sight of Churchill the man, a man whose vision was global and whose courage was boundless NUMBER 10 Downing Street, at that time the most famous address in the world, is one of three gracious seventeenth-century houses built by George Downing, a Harvard man who returned to the country of his birth, became a Cromwellian civil servant, and designed No. 10, No. 11, and No. 12 as "large and well-built houses, fit for persons of honour and quality, each house to have a pleasant prospect into St. James' Park." The second volume of Manchester's biography of the great British statesman covers a period of failure in Churchill's life, when he was disowned by his party, dismissed by the establishment as a warmonger and twice nearly lost his seat in Parliament, only to rise again to national prominence when Britain faced the threat of Nazi aggression Details the life of a man whose ambitions and serious flaws made him one of the world's most powerful leaders, placing Churchill's career against the backdrop of the Second World War and the collapse of the British Empire Volume 2 of a three-volume biography. A perspective on Chuchill during the years 1932-1940