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CHURCHILL AS WAR LEADER

A judicious if somewhat clotted popular history of Churchill's wartime leadership, by British historian Lamb (The Drift to War, 1991, etc.). Lamb is particularly adept at uncovering errors that have crept into the historical record because of the dominance of Churchill's own account of the war, which arose not only from his six-volume history but also from his insistence, after he became PM in 1951, that he approve all references in the official histories to his wartime decisions. There are, Lamb contends, many instances of Churchill's sanitizing references to his leadership, and of official historians refusing to consider critical drafts that they knew would anger the PM. ``Almost his biggest wartime error,'' says Lamb, was Churchill's refusal to accept the assurances of the French navy that it would not permit French ships to fall into German hands. His bombardment of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir was done against the advice of the Admiralty, turned most of the French forces against Britain, and led to significant British casualties. Another error that has received too little attention by historians was Churchill's insistence on the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. The fear felt by Churchill that any suggestion of negotiations might weaken British resolve or cause Stalin to make a separate peace seems inadequate when compared to the large additional casualties sustained by the Allies as a result of their refusal to contemplate terms. Overall, though, Churchill emerges here—for all his impetuosity and inclination to dissipate resources rather than to concentrate on important objectives—as the soul of British resistance, and his judgment, so often questioned, looks good even in the easy light of hindsight. A bit short on reflection and analysis, and containing errors likely to dismay an American audience (e.g., that Truman, who fought in France during WW I, had never been overseas)—but revealing at times, and covering a subject of enduring fascination.

Pub Date: April 15, 1993

ISBN: 0-88184-937-5

Page Count: 400

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1993

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955

ISBN: 0670717797

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955

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IN MY PLACE

From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-374-17563-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992

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