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

The Last Lion: Volume 2: Winston Spencer Churchill   Alone 1932-1940 by William Manchester

I thoroughly enjoyed Volume 1 of this trilogy, yet that book was incredibly dense.  It was 1,000 pages long, and covered the first 58 years of the life of Winston Churchill.  So even though it was a gratifying experiencing to read such a piece of work, it was a bit exhausting as well.  I pledged I would take a “break” before tackling this, the second volume.  This one actually intimidated me a bit more than the first – it was almost as long (about 800 pages) yet only covered eight years of the man’s life as opposed to fifty-eight.   Eight years in 800 pages??  I was prepared to be very overwhelmed.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the case.  This book was actually, in my judgment, better than the first.  Although many may disagree, you can’t argue that this book is significantly different in its presentation.  The first volume was truly a biography, but this book didn’t really feel like a biography.  This one was more of a history lesson of the English government during the 1930s.  A country that was exhausted and decimated by “The Great War” the ended a little over a decade ago.  A country that truly wanted to believe that the particular conflict was truly “The War to End All Wars”.  A country that was anxious to move on and forget such an awful nightmare.  Trouble is, there’s an odd little man in Germany named Adolph Hitler that is stirring up the pot, and seems to have an insane notion that his nation will rule the world with himself at the helm.  Pretty much no one believes this lunatic, except for Winston Churchill.  So this sets the story in motion.

We must first remember that Churchill is at the lowest of lows in 1932 politically speaking.  He’s a very brash, forward politician, and many of his decisions and opinions have sunk him in terms of credibility.  He’s almost a laughing stock, or embarrassment, to the British government.  This book begins with a quick recap of book one, and then, as sort of a preamble, details Winston’s daily activities from the moment he wakes up, until he goes to bed (usually about 20 hours later).  Once this formality is out of the way, the real story begins.

There are a lot of movers and shakers in the English government around this time.  I would recommend having an easy access to Wikipedia handy if you’re not too familiar with names such as Stanley Baldwin, David Lloyd George, Edward VIII, Duff Cooper, Lord Halifax, and/or Neville Chamberlin.  Ahh..Neville Chamberlin.  This book, in many ways, is his story as well as Churchill’s.  Chamberlin was Prime Minister of England during the majority of this time, and he comes across as a dim-witted dolt of a dullard.  It’s a wonder that England survived.   Had it not been for Churchill, it probably would not have survived.

As Adolph Hitler starts to slowly build up Germany’s military, Neville Chamberlin and his cronies simply look the other way.  After all, nobody wants a war again.  So the majority of the Parliament scream “Appeasement”, and as Hitler bullies his way through Europe, Chamberlin comes across as a quiescent dog who won’t stand up to the man.  We see Hitler not only conquer places like Austria and Czechoslovakia, but enslave the people, enforce cruel pogroms on the Jews, and sending everyone who won’t pledge their loyalty to the lunatic away to concentration camps. Yet Chamberlin is constantly turning the other cheek.  

Well, as history shows us, things go from bad to worse, and Churchill starts to slowly gain (back) respectability and trust.  The masses start to realize that this man had been right all along, and when war is (finally) declared after Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Churchill finally receives a respectable post in the cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty.  There’s a lot of work to do.  England has fallen behind.  Way behind.  The only real ally they have at this time is France, yet that country has become a bit of a joke at this point with no real government nor respectable military, so England falters in many places, loses many lives at sea, and must slowly rebuild.

This book concludes when Winston is made the new Prime Minister in 1940.  The country now knows they need this man, yet he never gloats, never smirks with an attitude of “I told you so!”, he simply steps into what must be one of the hardest jobs of history that anyone has had to endure.  Fortunately, since we know the outcome (which will come in volume 3), it’s a bit easier to read through this sad time in history, yet we still feel incredibly daunted by what Churchill, and the entire country, must have felt at the time.

Throughout this book, there are small detours away from politics, and we do read a bit about the man himself.  We read at times about vacations he took, or relationships with family members, yet oddly these seem like an annoying commercial during an intense television program.  We simply don’t care as much, and want to get back to the real story.  As a companion piece to this book, I would recommend William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”.  Many of the scenarios and sentiments are identical, the only difference being Shirer uses Hitler as the “main character” of the story.  Ironic because Shirer (a well-respected journalist at the time) is mentioned quite frequently within these pages.  More ironic for myself, was that it was while I read the Shirer account, that it piqued my interest further in Churchill, which is why I decided to read more about this amazing man.

A final thought about this book is that it sadly teaches, at least in my opinion, that we have an awful long way to go on this globe before we can ever achieve world peace.  We have too many unstable countries run by authoritarian dictators to ever preach appeasement.  Although the peace mongers truly have good intentions and dreams, I’m thoroughly convinced that, just like England in the 1930’s, if we truly want peace on our homeland, we must arm for war.  Whatever the cost.  A truly great lesson, albeit a sad one, can be learned from within these pages.