Allport explores Great Britain’s WWII experience
In his new book, "Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of
the Second World War: 1938-1941"(Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group), Maxwell
history professor Alan Allport traces the history of Great Britain in the early
years of the Second World War. Allport begins his analysis in 1938, situating
Britain’s social and political climate to contextualize its internal tensions
leading up to the war. Allport describes Britain’s entrance into the war, the
challenges it faced, and how by September 1941 it had endured
almost-catastrophic defeats to imagine a possible road to victory.
Starting with Britain’s 20th century
national character, Allport explores life in Northern Ireland and its tense relationship
with the British mainland. He argues that Great Britain was never a homogenous
nation, but rather socially and politically fragmented. Allport also evaluates
the caricatures of early war Conservative Party British PM Neville Chamberlain,
challenging mainstream narratives about his feebleness; he describes Chamberlain
as a tough, stubborn, and vigorous statesman whose failures were often due to
his self-belief and his unwillingness to compromise. In the second half of Britain
at Bay, Allport reviews Germany’s victory over France in 1940, how the war progressed
into the Battle of Britain, and how it was transformed by Hitler’s attack on the
Soviet Union. He plans to continue the story to the end of the conflict in a
second volume.
Allport is currently an associate professor of
history at the Maxwell School. His research interests include 20th
century Great Britain history with a focus on the First and Second World Wars.
He has a previously written two books published by Yale University Press: "Browned
Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939-1945," and "Demobbed:
Coming Home After the Second World War," for which he received the Longman
History Today Book of the year award.
To learn more about Allport’s book, please see read
the New York Times review, “Rethinking
Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain.”
11/16/20