This day-by-day account of the maneuvering between Britain and Germany in 1940 is "a wonderful story wonderfully told" (George F. Will, New York Times-bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner).During the late spring and early summer of 1940, Hitler was poised on the edge of absolute victory, having advanced rapidly through a large part of Europe—and Britain was threatened by imminent invasion and defeat. From the acclaimed author of Five Days in Lon...

A "gripping [and] splendidly readable" portrait of the battle within the British War Cabinet—and Churchill's eventual victory—as Hitler's shadow loomed ( The Boston Globe).From May 24 to May 28, 1940, members of Britain's War Cabinet debated whether to negotiate with Hitler or to continue what became known as the Second World War. In this magisterial work, John Lukacs takes us hour by hour into the critical events at 10 Downing Street, where Winston Church...

A distinguished historian and Budapest native offers a rich and eloquent portrait of one of the great European cities at the height of its powers.Budapest, like Paris and Vienna, experienced a remarkable exfoliation at the end of the nineteenth century. In terms of population growth, material expansion, and cultural exuberance, it was among the foremost metropolitan centers of the world, the cradle of such talents as Bartók, Kodály, Krúdy, Ady, Molnár, Koestler, Sz...

The great themes woven through John Lukacs's spirited, concise history of the twentieth century are inseparable from the author's own intellectual preoccupations: the fading of liberalism, the rise of populism and nationalism, the achievements and dangers of technology, the continuing democratization of the globe, and the limitations of knowledge.

"Lukacs convincingly portrays a leader of an empire in irreversible decline and a towering, if flawed, hero of our time."— Publishers WeeklyIn previous works, John Lukacs told the story of Winston Churchill's titanic struggle with Adolf Hitler in the early days of World War II. Now, he turns his attention to the man himself, the workings of his historical imagination, and his successes and failures as a visionary statesman.Chapter by chapter, Lukacs...

In May 1940, the course of history hung in the balance for five long days while Churchill's War Cabinet debated whether to negotiate with Hitler or continue opposition. In this compelling narrative, scholar and renowned author John Lukacs draws on memoirs and papers to convey the drama of those troubled times. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, regarded by many to be hotheaded, has only been in office for a fortnight when a quarter of a million British solders become trapped by the Germans ...

One of the most important developments of Western civilization has been the growth of historical consciousness. Consciously or not, history has become a form of thought applied to every facet of human experience; every field of human action can be studied, described, or understood through its history. In this extraordinary analysis of the meaning of the remembered past, John Lukacs discusses the evolution of historical consciousness since its first emergence about three centuries ago.

In a career spanning more than sixty-five years, John Lukacs has established himself as one of our most accomplished historians. Now, in the stimulating book History and the Human Condition, Lukacs offers his profound reflections on the very nature of history, the role of the historian, the limits of knowledge, and more.Guiding us on a quest for knowledge, Lukacs ranges far and wide over the past two centuries. The pursuit takes us from Alexis de Tocquevill...