1684 pages | ISBN 978-0-916308-26-1
History, Letters

Press: Hillsdale College Press
Cloth

Cloth $28.00

This volume of The Churchill Documents tells Churchill’s story from 1936 to 1939. It continues the story of a man out of office and out of favour with the government, building up an incredible array of personal contacts, who enabled him to collect much secret information about the events of the day.

Churchill’s letters to his wife, published here in full, provide a fascinating insight into Churchill’s struggles, hopes, and fears. Included in this volume are Churchill’s detailed notes on the abdication crisis and his assessment of the relationship between the King and Mrs. Simpson; many personal details of life at Chartwell; Churchill’s financial problems; and his son Randolph’s stormy outbursts and their affectionate reconciliations.

This volume reveals Churchill’s contracts with members of British Intelligence, serving Air Force, Army, and Naval officers, and senior government officials; his sources about Nazi Germany from inside the British Foreign Office; and his close links with leading political figures in France during the years when the Nazi menace grew and Hitler’s remilitarization of the Rhineland laid the fuse for war.

This volume shows how and why many individuals, from both the government and opposition in Britain, turned to Churchill for help and guidance during the Austrian and Czech crisis of 1938 and the Polish crisis of 1939.

Through these documents, Martin Gilbert presents a portrait in-the-round of Churchill, revealing many unexpected facets of his character as well as a vivid picture of British politics and international affairs during the four years leading up to the outbreak of war in September 1939.

Sir Martin Gilbert was born in England in 1936.  He is a graduate of Oxford University, from which he holds a Doctorate of Letters, and is an Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. In 1962 he began work as one of Randolph Churchill’s research assistants, and in 1968, after Randolph Churchill’s death, he became the official biographer of Winston Churchill.  Since then he has published six volumes of the Churchill biography, and has edited – to date – twelve volumes of Churchill documents.  As a Distinguished Fellow at Hillsdale College, Michigan, he is currently completing the Churchill document volumes.

During forty-eight years of research and writing, Sir Martin has published eighty books, including The First World War, The Second World War, The Somme: The Heroism and Horror of War, D-Day, The Day the War Ended, and a three-volume History of the Twentieth Century.  He has also written, as part of his series of ten historical atlases, Atlas of the First World War, and, most recently, Atlas of the Second World War.

Sir Martin’s film and television work has included a documentary series on the life of Winston Churchill.  His other published works include Churchill: A Photographic Portrait, In Search of Churchill, Churchill and America, and the single volume Churchill, A Life.

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