Senior Center Book Discussion: Five Days in London, May 1940

Please join the Wilton Senior Center as Michael Bellacosa leads a discussion of John Lukacs‘s “Five Days in London, May 1940.”

This group meets on the 4th Tuesday of each month from September through May, excluding December. Call the Senior Center for details and to register at 203-834-6240. Comstock Community Center, 180 School Road, Wilton.

The five days in 1940 from May 24 through May 28 in London were among the most consequential in world history. Just two weeks after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, and with the British Army bottled up backs against the English Channel at Dunkirk, the fate of Western Civilization hung in the balance. Historian John Lukacs takes us through a fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of the struggle inside Britain’s War Cabinet between Winston Churchill and Lord Halifax: Churchill advocating standing alone against Hitler even unto death; and Halifax arguing for a negotiated settlement with the Nazi dictator. Even though we know the outcome, the book reads like a tense political thriller. The Boston Globe said that it “is a relatively compact book, but it has the power and sweep of Shakespeare’s chronicle plays….One of Lukacs’ impressive strengths is a gripping narrative drive. He is lucid and splendidly readable, and furthermore, commands a host of dramatic characters.”