Warlord

Reviews

“Carlo D’Este, among our very best military historians, has found in Winston Churchill a subject worthy of his talent. Warlord takes the familiar subject of Churchill’s amazing life and makes it glitter anew.”

“Carlo D’Este, one of the finest historians of the Second World War, brings to his new book all his skills as a military analyst. The author’s judgments are acute and unsparing as ever, though his admiration for his subject never flags. Even those who think Churchill’s life familiar will find this a wonderfully stimulating study.”

“Carlo D’Este focuses a brilliant spotlight on Winston Churchill the warrior and warlord. This is no hagiography but a warts-and-all account of the military side of a complex man whose impact on his nation and the world shaped and changed both throughout the twentieth century. A unique view of Churchill and a magnificent historical gift.”

“This is the best single-volume work on Winston Churchill the soldier ever written. Warlord exudes scholarship, fine writing, and wisdom in equal measure.”

“An engaging narrative…Well-researched, balanced, and highly readable…Carlo D’Este provides us with a very human look at Churchill’s lifelong fascination with soldiering, war, and command…with an eye for colorful quotation and telling anecdote.”

“Masterful…D’Este provides a blow by blow on all of the events of World War II. He is especially good at rendering the devastation Britain faced during the Blitz and the preparations for the Normandy Invasion.”

“Epic…A briliantly exciting narrative…D’Este has given us, finally, the lion not only in winter, but at war: impetuous, brazen, misguided, but indefatigable, indomitable, and magnanimous: the greatest and most energetic generalissimo of the 20th century.”

“D’Este is a master analyst of 20th-century military leadership, and this book may be his finest yet. Showing a remarkable knowledge of archival and printed sources, he tells the complex story of a statesman and warrior…D’Este camouflages neither personal weaknesses nor questionable policies…Elegantly written, this tour de force belongs in every library addressing the 20th century.”

“D’Este, a biographer of Patton and Eisenhower, has long detected an absence of objectivity about Churchill’s military career. Here he astutely lauds Churchill’s soldierly courage but questions how Churchill-the-politician acted as, in effect, an operational general…Neither idolator nor revisionist, D’Este yields an ambivalent impression of Churchill that, while no denigration of his heroic leadership of Britain in 1940, underscores his paradoxes…It is just such paradoxes that render him perennially intriguing to the reading public.”

“With eloquent prose and an abundance of anecdotes [D’Este] imparts insights into Churchill’s character…[Weiner’s] consistency of speech permits listeners to focus on the rich language and details of British history. Although Weiner’s treatment abounds with nuance and expression, he avoids mimicking Churchill’s famous speaking voice…but the complex character depicted will allow readers to form their own opinions.”

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