Date: 22 May 2020
Location: Zoom
About 15 Happy Bookers met up via Zoom to discuss Erik Larson’s lastest book. Thanks to Annie for hosting the Zoom session.
This is the fourth book by Larson that the Bookers have read, and it seems that we all enjoyed it. (There was a little grousing about its length of over 500 pages, but it could have been worse–remember War and Peace?)
Larson followed the same format he has used in his other works–discussing well-known historical events interspersed with detailed and often intimate descriptions of some of the key participants, typically drawn from the participant’s personal journals and diaries. In The Splendid and the Vile Larson presents a compelling description of Winston Churchill, his family and associates, and the people of Britain during the first year of Churchill’s role as Prime Minister, from May 1940 to May 1941. This covers the time known as the ‘Battle of Britain’ and the ‘Blitz’ when Britain stood alone against the awesome might of the German military.
The Splendid and the Vile was the third non-fiction WW II work that we have read this year, and we may be saturated with the topic. Nevertheless, during our discussions Claudia mentioned the book by Lynne Olson, Citizens of London. This is a wonderful book focusing mainly on three prominent Americans–Gilbert Winant, Edward R. Murrow and Averell Harriman–who lived and worked in London during the war. For those wanting to know still more about that era, this is highly recommended.
It is sobering to think about how close the world came to being a very different place. Britain was in serious trouble, and, although the the US was providing some aid to the British, we were firmly isolationist and unwilling to enter the fray as a belligerent. Of course, Pearl Harbor changed all that! And we have to wonder, without that attack would the US have entered the war in time to save Britain?
Fascinating reading.
— Bob