Jonathan Fenby, CBE, has been the editor of The Observer and the South China Morning Post. He is currently China Director at the research service Trusted Sources.
A book which focus's is on the leaders of the Second World War. A step by step on the political issues surrounding the Alliance between U.S.A., U.K., and U.S.S.R. One constant strain on the alliance was Stalin, U.S.S.R. dictator wanting to regain the older frontier, the frontier that would potentially influence the future of Europe after the Second World War. The concern in this book is only for the social aspects of the three leaders and the cultural difference, alongside the hardships each faced. The strategies discussed are only superficially mentioned. An understanding is rarely given for why each side opposed it or wanted a particular strategy.
This is a detailed and fascinating insight into the relations between the leaders of the allies, focusing on each of their meetings during the course of the second world war. It shows how Europe ended up divided, the distrust between the allies, the level of Stalin's paranoia, and most shockingly the naivety and foolishness of Roosevelt in siding with Stalin against what he saw as the archaic British Empire, and the extent of communist infiltration of the US administration.
Edi莽茫o em portugu锚s. Livro descreve os bastidores da II Guerra Mundial por meio da rela莽茫o entre Reino Unido, Estados Unidos e R煤ssia. O Reino Unido teve import芒ncia muito grande ao longo de toda guerra, mas principalmente na resist锚ncia inicial a Alemanha, at茅 que a entrada dos Estados Unidos propiciasse os recursos humanos, materiais e financeiros para que os aliados derrotassem o Eixo. A R煤ssia desempenhou papel essencial, as custas de muitas vidas. 脡 interessante ver que a postura expansionista atual da R煤ssia n茫o 茅 diferente da posi莽茫o do pa铆s durante a II Guerra e tamb茅m n茫o 茅 diferente da postura dos Czares do Imp茅rio Russo. A hist贸ria n茫o prediz o futuro, mas se repete...
very readable, but very anti-communist (or, just maybe, persistently anti-russian. Hard to tell with those cold warriors). Embarrassingly pro-Churchill and, rather surprisingly, quite hostile towards Roosevelt. It can get a bit shrill and jarring on the nerves too
I'm not really into politics, so I found this book for the most part boring. There were some interesting portions, especially the personal parts, but there were many parts that could have been changed: the author needs to include the interpretations of his Latin and French words; also, what is a CIGS? And the spelling could have been checked again: desert is not the meal that comes after dinner.
A history of the World War 2 allies as seen through the personal interactions of the three leaders. I learned some stuff here. Stalin comes across as a cold hearted bastard who could be charming when he wanted something, and Roosevelt is treated as not as clever and manipulative as he thought he was. Stalin won. Rated PG for some coarse language. 3/5
6/10 Good coverage of all the WWII conferences between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. It focuses on the conferences and not battles. It loses points for the bad Kindle formatting, which is not the author's fault, but it's the publisher's fault for not fixing this. It's not divided by chapters, and opening a footnote caused my Kindle to crash and reboot.
"Alliance" provides the unbelievable experience of diving into this "behind the closed door" negotiation process. It gives the understanding that even most influential world leaders are still humans, with stomach aches and hangovers, and they tend to get vulnearable sometimes, too. Yet, they're ones, who have been chosen to determine the destinies of the millions.
One of my Favorite books. It offers a marvelous insight into war,peace, politics and diplomacy. Also read - "WW2 - behind closed doors" by Laurence Rees.
I found this book really insightful into how the personalities and the relationships of the "Big Three" played into creating the Alliance, but also the subsequent Cold War.