Churchill and the Politics of War, 19401941 [Paperback]

A new examination of Churchill's first year as Britain's wartime leader.This new examination of Churchill's politics of strategy and their background during his first year as Britain's wartime leader draws extensively on official archives as well as on the private papers of many of the political and military leaders.This new examination of Churchill's politics of strategy and their background during his first year as Britain's wartime leader draws extensively on official archives as well as on the private papers of many of the political and military leaders.This is a new examination of the politics of strategy and the background to them during Churchill's first year as Britain's wartime leader. It draws extensively both on official archives and on the private papers of many of the political and military leaders. Among the individual topics considered and reinterpreted are Churchill's relations with Chamberlain and the Conservative Party, the political repercussions of the fall of France and the Battle of Britain, and the emergence of a strategy for the Middle East and Greece that would affect the postwar settlement of Europe.Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Retrospect; Part I. Churchill, The Conservative Party and the War: 1. The opposition to Churchill and its causes; 2. Events and reactions - (I) the German attack on France and its aftermath; 3. Events and reactions - (II) the Battle of Britain; 4. Chamberlain, Churchill and the conservative party; Part II. The Middle East, Imperial Defence and The Balkans (October to December, 1940): 5. Churchill and the Middle East; 6. Eden and the Middle East; 7. Halifax and the Middle East; 8. The military and the Middle East; Part III. The Greek Decision (January to March, 1941): 9. The Greek decision: the background; 10. Churchill, Eden and the Greek decision, January to February 1941; 11. The military command at home and the Greek decision, January to February 1941; 12. The Middle East command and the lÓ