Changes

Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the popular imagination of the early days of World War II from 1939-40, known as the ''Phoney War''. We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, and Churchill coming in to save the day. Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, as Frederic Seager argues in this book, it was of vital significance in how the war played out.

The book follows the lead up to World War II, the declaration of war after the German invasion of Poland, and the early days of the war in which France fell, Hitler invaded Norway and the Low Countries, until Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in the middle of 1940.