Advance Britannia
The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1942-1945
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Advance Britannia
Narrated by:
Ric Jerrom
Buy Now for £30.09
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Narrated by:
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Ric Jerrom
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By:
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Alan Allport
About this listen
"[An] elegant and unsparing history of London’s role in World War II. . . . Overturns one piece of conventional wisdom after another." —The New York Times Book Review
“The Japanese, gone berserk, have struck in the Pacific, joined up with the Axis, declared war on us,” one British soldier wrote in his diary. “So the Yanks are now our comrades in arms, and the whole world’s ablaze.”
By 1942, Churchill found himself facing a vastly different war than the one he’d inherited from Neville Chamberlain back in 1940. In the East, the Soviets were now a co-belligerent (if not exactly a firm ally). And the aid he’d so longed for from across the Atlantic had finally arrived, when Pearl Harbor pushed America to end its “dithering and buggering about.” But with Parliament and the public losing faith in him, Churchill had to manage a war that now stretched into the Pacific and Indian Oceans, threatening Britain’s colonies, all the while negotiating a new relationship with Roosevelt and Stalin—two jostling, unpredictable comrades-in-arms fully prepared to carve up the world to their own satisfaction.
In this sequel to his prizewinning Britain at Bay, Alan Allport completes his superlative history of Britain’s role in World War II, once again weaving together the political, military, social, and cultural to tell a multifaceted story of a country forced to endure the profound stresses of total war. Now, Britain is no longer at bay. But any victory remains far off, and its costs will be great. Can the British win the war without sacrificing so much along the way that they then lose the peace?
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Critic reviews
"[An] elegant and unsparing history of London’s role in World War II, [including] the perspectives of the victims of British colonialism as well as its perpetrators. . . . Allport is a fluid writer, a conjurer with the rare ability to sustain a gripping narrative without resorting to Vaseline-lensed sentimentality. He overturns one piece of conventional wisdom after another." —Kevin Peraino, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
“Weighty but never dull. . . . There is no silly sensationalism in this book, merely sound storytelling and measured judgments. . . . What matters is that Allport seems right about most things, which is more than many of us manage. The author’s peroration is admirably provocative.” —Max Hastings, Sunday Times (London)
"Alan Allport has followed up Britain at Bay with another tour de force. Advance Britannia ranges widely from the battlefield to the home front, from the cabinet war rooms to factory floors. It is as complete and compelling a picture of Britain in the Second World War as one could hope to read." —Phillips Payson O'Brien, author of The Strategists
“Allport succeeds in making stories that many of us thought we were familiar with feel fresh, urgent and timely. He has the true storyteller’s gift. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in what really happened in World War II.” —Anne Sebba, author of The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz
"There isn't a better history of the Second World War than this remarkably fresh account. It is a history liberated from the pious sentimentalities of both left and right, a story not of a nation but an empire at war, partly with itself. In prose which zings along it authoritatively dispatches one myth after another, comes to thoughtful and clear judgements on people and events, and surprises the reader on every page. It is an extraordinary achievement, a book which deserves to be read by all who pretend to know British history." —David Edgerton, author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation
“Allport’s great achievement is to capture this extraordinary global upheaval without losing sight of the poignant human dramas that were intertwined with it.” —Richard Vinen, author of The Long ’68
“Allport has done it again—a highly readable, analytically provocative and original interpretation of Britain’s experience of war. For many years to come, Advance Britannia will be an authoritative account and explanation of these pivotal years of the war.” —Julie V. Gottlieb, author of Guilty Women
“Weighty but never dull. . . . There is no silly sensationalism in this book, merely sound storytelling and measured judgments. . . . What matters is that Allport seems right about most things, which is more than many of us manage. The author’s peroration is admirably provocative.” —Max Hastings, Sunday Times (London)
"Alan Allport has followed up Britain at Bay with another tour de force. Advance Britannia ranges widely from the battlefield to the home front, from the cabinet war rooms to factory floors. It is as complete and compelling a picture of Britain in the Second World War as one could hope to read." —Phillips Payson O'Brien, author of The Strategists
“Allport succeeds in making stories that many of us thought we were familiar with feel fresh, urgent and timely. He has the true storyteller’s gift. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in what really happened in World War II.” —Anne Sebba, author of The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz
"There isn't a better history of the Second World War than this remarkably fresh account. It is a history liberated from the pious sentimentalities of both left and right, a story not of a nation but an empire at war, partly with itself. In prose which zings along it authoritatively dispatches one myth after another, comes to thoughtful and clear judgements on people and events, and surprises the reader on every page. It is an extraordinary achievement, a book which deserves to be read by all who pretend to know British history." —David Edgerton, author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation
“Allport’s great achievement is to capture this extraordinary global upheaval without losing sight of the poignant human dramas that were intertwined with it.” —Richard Vinen, author of The Long ’68
“Allport has done it again—a highly readable, analytically provocative and original interpretation of Britain’s experience of war. For many years to come, Advance Britannia will be an authoritative account and explanation of these pivotal years of the war.” —Julie V. Gottlieb, author of Guilty Women
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