Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941

Here is the many-faceted, world-historically significant story of Britain at war. In looking closely at the military and political dimensions of the conflict's first crucial years, Alan Allport tackles questions such as: Could the war have been avoided? Could it have been lost? How well did the British live up to their own values? What difference did the war make in the end to the fate of the nation? In this bold and bracing retelling of Britain's entrance into the war and its efforts to survive it, Alan Allport reexamines our assumptions to paint a vivid picture of this pivotal moment in world history. Drawing on a lively cast of characters from statesmen and military commanders to ordinary Britons, Allport builds a complex and compelling account of the sea change that took place in wartime British society and culture. Britain at Bay gives us a fresh look at the opening years of the war, and illuminates the integral moments that, for better or for worse, made Britain what it is today.