A Splendid War Companion

A Splendid War Companion

Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938–1941 By Alan Allport. Alfred A. Knopf, 2020. Hardcover, 590 pages, $35. Reviewed by John P. Rossi There is nothing an author fears more than that his or her book will appear shortly after one with a similar...
Churchill’s Summer of Destiny

Churchill’s Summer of Destiny

John P. Rossi Winston Churchill was the greatest orator of the twentieth century. His most famous speeches rank with those of giants like Lincoln and Martin Luther King. A master of rhetoric with a gift for the memorable phrase, six of his speeches were transformative...
The Winter Sportsmen-Soldiers

The Winter Sportsmen-Soldiers

The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America’s Elite Alpine Warriors by Maurice Isserman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. Hardcover, 318 pages, $28. Reviewed by William F. Meehan III I judged Maurice Isserman’s book by its cover...
An Imitation of Christ

An Imitation of Christ

The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather. Custom House, 2019. Hardcover, 528 pages, $29. Reviewed by Joseph Barnas If you have heard of Witold Pilecki, odds are you know him as “the man who...
Champagne Flute with an Iron Spine

Champagne Flute with an Iron Spine

Dystopia and Providence in Five Novels Eve Tushnet The political upheavals of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries bore all kinds of names, from the euphemistic “people’s republic” to the dystopian “total war.” It’s hard to name precisely what was born of these...