The Duel: The Eighty-Day Struggle between Churchill and Hitler

by John Lukacs

Overview

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 London, May 1940, this book tells the story of two leaders facing off against each other, and the decisions they made that shaped the eventual outcome of the Second World War.

“Powerful…An impressive study [written] with elegance and panache.”—The New York Times

“A master of narrative history on a par with Barbara Tuchman and Garrett Mattingly.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“An often witty and always fascinating—even entertaining—writer.”—TheWashington Post

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300180978
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	08/11/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	271
Sales rank:	442,266
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Lukacs is the author of numerous books, among them The Hitler of History, The End of the Twentieth Century and the End of the Modern Age, Five Days in London, and A Thread of Years. The last two are available from Yale University Press.

What People are Saying About This

Peter Stansky

It is salutary to be reminded in this powerful study how close Hitler came to winning in 1940. . . . An impressive study . . . [written] with elegance and panache.
—New York Times

George F. Will

A wonderful story wonderfully told.

Editorial Reviews

It is salutary to be reminded in this powerful study how close Hitler came to winning in 1940. . . . An impressive study . . . [written] with elegance and panache.

Peter Stansky

A wonderful story wonderfully told.

George F. Will

"It is salutary to be reminded in this powerful study how close Hitler came to winning in 1940. . . . An impressive study . . . [written] with elegance and panache."—Peter Stansky, New York Times

"Like all the great historians, this Hungarian-American [Lukacs], also is a great philosopher of history. He is best known for developing his idea of 'historical consciousness' and as a historian of World War II, the Cold War and democracy in America."—John Seiler, Orange County Register (CA)

"Mr. Lukacs is one of the more incisive historians of the 20th century, and especially of the tangled events leading to World War II."—Joseph C. Goulden, Washington Times


"A master of narrative history on a par with Barbara Tuchman and Garrett Mattingly."—Kirkus Reviews

"A masterful book—masterful in its portrayal of its protagonists, masterful in its overall understanding of the death-struggle in which they engaged, masterful, above all, in its vivid, suspenseful chronicling of the most momentous eighty days in the history of this century."—Geoffrey Ward

"This is a marvelous book. John Lukacs has lucid, unsentimental insight into the mind and character of both Churchill and Hitler."—Conor Cruise O’Brien


"A wonderful story wonderfully told."—George F. Will

From the Publisher