Five Days in London, May 1940

By John Lukacs

Categories: History

Five Days in London, May 1940 (1999) is a history by John Lukacs. Lukacs recounts the five days when Winston Churchill persuaded the British War Cabinet—against Lord Halifax's preference for exploring peace terms with Hitler—to keep fighting after France's collapse. Drawing on diaries and cabinet minutes, he treats those May 1940 struggles as a hinge on which World War II turned.

Recommended by 1 person

• Fareed Zakaria: “My book of the week is John Lukacs "Five Days in London: May 1940." If you watched "Dunkirk" or "Darkest Hour" and you want more, this is a short, compelling case that Adolf Hitler almost conquered Europe in May 1940, with France of the verge of defeat, Britain alone with virtually its entire army surrounded by Nazi forces on the French coast. But one man fought back and turned the tide -- riveting reading.”