The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz

A quick read. Nice glimpse into the times when Churchill came into power & how he handled leadership responsibilities in a difficult time for England.

A very special biography in which Churchill is seen from the very depths

Very interesting book well written as are all his books. I wish history books had been like this when I was at school!

If you ever find yourself in conversation with someone and they admit, "I really never liked history," allow me to suggest the perfect rejoinder: "Apparently you haven't read Erik Larson." History is taught poorly in most schools, losing the 'story' aspect of the subject and instead focusing on memorizing dates, names of leaders, etc. Erik Larson "Devil in the White City," "In the Garden of Beasts," "Dead Wake," and others) rejects that style of history and instead focuses entirely on the story . . . and he has the knack for picking *great* stories. From a serial killer at large during the Chicago World's Fair to the descent of Germany into Nazi madness to other tales, Larson either has the gift or labors hard to find captivating stories and tells those stories in a captivating, seemingly effortless way. (As anyone who has ever tried to write will tell you, making writing look effortless takes Herculean effort.) With "The Splendid and the Vile," Larson takes the reader to the inner circle of Winston Churchill during the outbreak of World War II, and most particularly, the Blitz, when Germany rained bombs down on Britain seemingly at will. When Americans study World War II, we usually focus on America's role - that the war helped yank America out of the Great Depression and America went to war to help struggling allies. "The Splendid and the Vile" gets into the grit of the struggle one of America's staunchest allies went through . . . and oh, the humanity. Winston Churchill looms large over this story, and all the usual anecdotes are there - the excessive drinking, the bizarre fashion sense, the childlike delight in gadgets as well as 'playing soldier,' and so on. But we also get to see Churchill's family - the wastrel son who gambles and drinks away his fortune, the daughter who comes of age during the chaos of war, and so on. We also see the chaos of the Blitz. It's one thing to read, "The English were tough and endured horrific bombing." It's another to read details of the carnage unleashed on a glamorous nightclub when bombs rip it apart mid-show, or the vanishing of a church, or a bomb blasting a building where dozens of children are sleeping. Larson puts this in context - we see the Germans trying to pound the British into submission, getting angrier and angrier at the British refusal to submit. We also see Churchill trying to woo in the Americans into the fight while simultaneously building up the British ability to strike back at Germany on its own - Churchill may have understood that America was essential to the British effort, but the average Brit sure didn't want to depend entirely on the second-class Americans. And from the British perspective, one gains an understanding of how frustrating it must have been to endure nightly bombing only to be told that "Lend-Lease" is the best President Roosevelt could do, due to isolationists in the American Congress. Wonderfully written, reveling in the humanity of the struggle (Larson writes with great sensitivity and humor about the increased British sex drive that the Blitz inspired), "The Splendid and the Vile" is a wonderful history . . . and a reminder of what a genuine struggle actually is. Highest recommendation.

This is a well told story with some new aspects that I haven't seen before. This is a story that has been told many times, of the events to knock Great Britain out of WW II using air power - The Blitz as it has been described. I've read a good number of books on this topic as well as most of the major sources around Winston Churchill. I was pleased to see a new view of the historic events described from a different perspective with several story arcs tying the facts to what people were experiencing. The story mostly focuses on those close to Churchill with some additional material from diarists and minor embellishment to the facts around some of the many lives lost - much more interesting to get some minor feel for a person than to learn of their death as another number. I enjoyed finding that the title comes from paraphrasing a diarist's entry and it was fun to find it and remember reading their memoirs many years ago. It builds on works previously published, using first source material and keeping the major events in place while adding a new look at some of the more mundane aspects of life to deliver a story that shows the ordinary and extraordinary coexisting against the backdrop of war. The sources, bibliography and index were excellent. Despite the many story arcs presented, I had no problem keeping it straight over the intermittent reading of the story. A very satisfying read.

Not yet finished