| The Blast of War 1939-1945
(1968)
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| Front Cover |
Book Details |
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| Genre |
Biography; Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
World War, 1939-1945 - Great Britain |
| Publication Date |
1968 |
| Format |
Hardcover (9.4
mm)
|
| Publisher |
Harper & Row |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
|
| Personal Details |
| Acquire Date |
6/10/2010 |
| Condition |
Very Good/Good |
| Rating |
0 |
| Links |
Library of Congress
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| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
D750 .M24 1968 |
| Dewey |
940.5342 |
| Edition |
[1st ed.] |
| Cover Price |
$11.95 |
| No. of Pages |
623 |
| First Edition |
Yes |
| Rare |
No |
|
| Notes/Review |
I shouldn't be surprised, as the subject is so vast, that no matter how many books I read about the Second World War I continue to uncover topics and stories that are completely new to me.
This is the second book of memoirs written by Macmillan. I have not read the others, although I intend to read about some of the more important British Prime Ministers. I know that Macmillan was PM for a few years ending in the early 1960's, but I didn't have him on my list of those to-read. That is, I didn't read this book because I want to read about an important British PM. I read this book because it was part of a large pile of books about WW II that I was given. It's not one that I'd have bought had I seen it in a book store, but having had it on my bookshelf for a number of years, it more or less bubbled to the top.
Based on the title, "The Blast of War", I was more or less expecting a combat book. Not the sort of combat book written by a soldier at the tip of the spear, but perhaps like a book written by an officer who, although not facing death daily, nonetheless survived the blast of war. Macmillan did come under fire on occasion, but this is not a book about combat. It's a political book.
I've read many books that have mentioned the events Macmillan covers here. Often, those mentions have been a single sentence or a paragraph. Of course, anything viewed from a great height can be summarized that way. Just as "the Germans fought their last offensive battle in the Ardennes in December of 1944" can be told as a book about covering that whole campaign or as a personal narrative written by a soldier's viewpoint from the foxholes in Bastogne, it's obviously also possible to write a book about the capitulation of the Italian government or the Allied negotiations with de Gaulle in Algiers.
Although the vast majority of war books are about combat, there's much more to war than the fighting. After the combat it is important to set up some sort of government in the liberated (or conquered) areas. This book is about Macmillan's role in the politics of getting some of those governments set up. The bulk of the book covers negotiations with the French in North Africa, the Italians during the entire course of that campaign, and his contribution during the Greek rebellion.
Macmillan makes extensive use of excerpts from his diaries along with a liberal sprinkling of references to other works published after the fact. There's an index and a few photographs, but no end notes or bibliography (which I more or less expect in a memoir). |
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