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I started calling this a review, but realized I’m probably not qualified or motivated to write an actual review on this book. I became interested in Winston Churchill and one of his ancestors while reading The Baroque Cycle and have picked up a couple of his excerpted histories. Churchill at War 1940-45 is the first biographical book I’ve read about him. It’s very interesting to compare items from Lord Moran’s diary that Churchill himself didn’t feel were worth mentioning.

It’s also fascinating to look at the beginnings of the Cold War with hindsight, and to wonder at FDR’s failing health as he ran for re-election in 1944. The conferences at Teheran and Yalta shaped the balance of world power for the second half of the twentieth century, and decisions made there continue to affect our world today. Could things have been different if the great American and British leaders had cooperated more effectively towards the end of the war? Churchill was impressed with Stalin as a man, but deeply troubled about the spread of Communism. He was also fighting to get re-elected, so even after FDR’s death and Truman’s renewed interest in cooperation with Britain, it is possible that it was too late for these Atlantic allies to reverse or even to halt the spread of Soviet communism across eastern europe.

I’ll continue reading on these subjects. I’ve got one or two more books on Churchill I want to read, then I think I’ll have to start on FDR and Stalin, then move on to post-war figures. Much of my childhood was spent living in a situation that largely resulted from these events — my father was in the US Army from the late 1960’s through the early 1990’s, and 10 of my years growing up were spent living in West Germany. My grandfather also fought in WWII, and returned with his family, including my grandma, my dad, and one or two of my uncles, to Germany shortly the war. Those may become topics for another day.