Ministers at War
Winston Churchill and His War Cabinet
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Narrated by:
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Matthew Brenher
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By:
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Jonathan Schneer
About this listen
In May 1940, with France on the verge of defeat, Britain alone stood in the path of the Nazi military juggernaut. Survival seemed to hinge on the leadership of Winston Churchill, whom the king reluctantly appointed prime minister as Germany invaded France. Churchill's reputation as one of the great 20th-century leaders would be forged during the coming months and years as he worked tirelessly first to rally his country and then to defeat Hitler. But Churchill - regarded as the savior of his nation and of the entire continent - could not have done it alone.
As prizewinning historian Jonathan Schneer reveals in Ministers at War, Churchill depended on a team of powerful ministers to manage the war effort as he rallied a beleaguered nation. Selecting men from across the political spectrum - from fellow conservative Anthony Eden to leader of the opposing socialist Labor Party Clement Attlee - Churchill assembled a war cabinet that balanced competing interests and bolstered support for his national coalition government. The group possessed a potent blend of talent, ambition, and egotism. Led and encouraged by Churchill, the ministers largely set aside their differences - at least at first. As the war progressed, discord began to grow. It reached a peak in 1945. With victory seemingly assured, Churchill was forced by his minsters at war to dissolve the government and call a general election, which, in a shocking upset, he lost to his rival, Attlee.
Authoritatively recasting our understanding of British high politics during World War II, Schneer shows that Churchill managed the war effort by managing his team of supremely able yet contentious cabinet members. The outcome of the war lay not only in Churchill's individual brilliance but also in his skill as an executive and in the collective ability of men who muted their personal interests to save the world from barbarism.
©2014 Jonathan Schneer (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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The China Mission
- By: Daniel Kurtz-Phelan
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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As World War II came to an end, General George Marshall was renowned as the architect of Allied victory. Set to retire, he instead accepted what he thought was a final mission - this time not to win a war, but to stop one. Across the Pacific, conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists threatened to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. His assignment was to broker a peace, build a Chinese democracy, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III.
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A Previously Untold Story of a Failed Mission
- By Jonathan Love on 05-29-18
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Yalta
- The Price of Peace
- By: S. M. Plokhy
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 22 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning Harvard historian S.M. Plokhy delivers a “convincing revisionist analysis” ( Publishers Weekly) of the February 1945 Yalta conference. Bolstered by Soviet wiretaps, Plokhy’s engrossing narrative of Stalin, Churchill, and FDR’s negotiations reveals the West did better than previously thought.
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The depth and breadth of understanding
- By Robin LaCorte on 06-27-19
By: S. M. Plokhy
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The General vs. the President
- MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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From master storyteller and historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur squared off to decide America's future in the aftermath of World War II.
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A Vivid Dramatic Accounting
- By Jean on 11-11-16
By: H. W. Brands
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Traitor to His Class
- The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 37 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping, magisterial biography of the man generally considered the greatest president of the 20th century, admired by Democrats and Republicans alike. Traitor to His Class sheds new light on FDR's formative years; his remarkable willingness to champion the concerns of the poor and disenfranchised; and his combination of political genius, firm leadership, and matchless diplomacy in saving democracy during the Great Depression and the American cause of freedom in World War II.
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Talented writer and narrator, but too biased/long
- By todd on 01-24-20
By: H. W. Brands
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Eisenhower
- The White House Years
- By: Jim Newton
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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If you think of our 34th president as little more than the babysitter-in-chief during the prosperous fifties, think again. Dwight Eisenhower was bequeathed an atomic bomb and was the first American president not to use it. He ground down Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism until both became, as he said, "McCarthywasm".
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A simpler time?
- By Ray on 11-12-11
By: Jim Newton
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Lincoln and Churchill
- Statesmen at War
- By: Lewis E. Lehrman
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed historian Lewis Lehrman, in his path-breaking comparison of both statesmen, finds that Lincoln and Churchill - with very different upbringings and contrasting personalities - led their war efforts, to some extent, in similar ways. As supreme war lords, they were guided not only by principles of honor, duty, freedom, but also by the practical wisdom to know when, where, and how to apply these principles. They made mistakes which Lehrman considers carefully. But the author emphasizes that, despite setbacks, they never gave up.
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Outstanding book
- By Barmand on 03-07-18
By: Lewis E. Lehrman
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The Hopkins Touch
- By: David Roll
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The Hopkins Touch offers the first portrait in over two decades of the most powerful man in Roosevelt's administration. David Roll shows how Harry Hopkins, an Iowa-born social worker who had been an integral part of the New Deal's implementation, became the linchpin in FDR's - and America's - relationships with Churchill and Stalin, and spoke with an authority second only to the president's.
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Hopkins - the glue of the tripartite coalition
- By Chrissie on 05-19-13
By: David Roll
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Hitler
- Ascent 1889-1939
- By: Volker Ullrich
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 34 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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For all the literature about Adolf Hitler, there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood, to his failures as a young man in Vienna, to his experiences during the First World War, to his rise as a far-right party leader.
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Worthwhile if you haven't read a Hitler biography
- By Joshua on 11-03-16
By: Volker Ullrich
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The Duel
- The 80-Day Struggle Between Churchill and Hitler
- By: John Lukacs
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a day-by-day account of the 80-day struggle in 1940 between Hitler, poised on the edge of absolute victory, and Churchill, threatened by imminent invasion and defeat.
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The most aggravating history lecture ever
- By Sidney on 12-31-08
By: John Lukacs
What listeners say about Ministers at War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Reeka
- 07-01-21
Much Is Written on Team of Rivals
I find this version of that story far more compelling. not only was the fate of the Western world at stake, but how Churchill masterfully kept together a coalition government while winning the Second World War. This is the real deal.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-20-24
Well written
Informative without being daunting. Follows consistent timeline and does not jump back and forth like many historical authors do.
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- Mike From Mesa
- 05-02-15
Welcome addition to the literature of World War II
I have been reading books on World War II for more than 50 years now and all of those treat Winston Churchill as the single most essential figure in the defeat of Nazi Germany, properly in my view. I have also read numerous biographies of Winston Churchill and many of those concentrate on his actions during the war and how central a figure he was in how the US, Great Britain and its Empire pursued the war. In fact the concentration on Churchill and his actions is so pronounced in many of those books that it is easy to believe that Churchill alone was responsible for the decisions and actions taken by Great Britain in its fight against Germany, in both the strategic and public policy areas. Thus Mr Schneer's book describing the individuals of the British War Cabinet and how each helped prosecute the war comes as a welcome addition to my knowledge of the war.
Many of the figures in the British War Cabinet during World War II do not get sufficient mention in most histories of the war, often because their actions were less part of the public face of the war, even if no less essential, and this book attempts to correct that failing. Thus here we see how people like Ernest Bevin, Clement Attlee and Stafford Cripps took actions that were essential in helping Britain prepare for and pursue Britain’s war aims even though many of them were either political foes of Winston Churchill or competitors for the position of Prime Minister. Here we also see some of the sub rosa political fights that occurred and some of the plans to replace Churchill with someone else as Prime Minister. Some members of the cabinet, like Bevin, were dedicated solely to the successful prosecution of the war. Others, like Cripps, had designs on the highest office in Great Britain and pursued those designs believing that they would be a better Prime Minister. And here we see how Churchill handled his political foes and remained what the author calls the greatest British Prime Minister of the 20th century if not of all British history.
There is much in this book that was new to me and understanding the background politics of the war explained much that had been opaque to me before. While I found the entire book fascinating, it helped explain to me two things that had always puzzled me - why the British voted Churchill’s government out of office near the end of the war and why Churchill, superb politician that he was, never noticed the swing in public opinion. The book does a wonderful job of laying out what was happening, how the various people reacted and how they controlled (or, in some cases, failed to control) events. The only thing about the book that does puzzle me is why Mr Schneer himself fails to see why the British public felt free to vote Churchill out of office. When, at the early part of the war, they felt they were in danger they held fast to the one person who personified their defiance. When, toward the end of the war, they understood that they would win (or, at least, not lose), they felt free of fear enough to voice their grave reservations at some of the government’s economic decisions and what they felt the future held for them. The very fact that the British public finally felt that it could contemplate a future without seeing the specter of Adolph Hitler and all of the horror of Nazi Germany as inevitable shows just how great a job Churchill and the War Cabinet did in marshaling Britain’s forces.
This book is clear that Great Britain could not have won the war without the help of the US, the Soviet Union and the British Empire, but it explains much about how the essentially British institutions of the War Cabinet and Parliament helped Britain do its best given the resources it had and how it helped keep the country united during such a terrible time. Highly recommended for those interested in the European part of World War II.
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18 people found this helpful
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- John Ray
- 01-12-23
High Praise
Well researched and very well narrated. The in depth profiles of Stafford-Cripps, Beaverbrook, Clement Attlee, and the rest are illuminating and fascinating. Listen!
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- Nostromo
- 05-08-15
British Version of Team of Rivals
This book reminded of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals depicting Lincoln's War Cabinet during the civil war. The book was well written and narrated. It focused on Churchill's ascendancy to Prime Minister in 1939-40 and how he was able to manage the personalities that made up his cabinet. Unlike Lincoln's cabinet, Churchill created a true coalition government in which he included leaders of key opposition political parties (Lord Beaverbrook of the Conservative Party, Atlee and Bevin of the Labour Party and Archibald Sinclair of the Liberal Party to name a few) as well as potential rivals (such as Sir Stafford Cripps). The author did a great job providing a biographical background of each person in the cabinet and how Churchill was able for the most part to "head them off" from trying to take the leadership of the party until the waning days of the war in Europe. My only criticism of the book is that the author failed to discuss the impact that Churchill's World War I experience as a member of the Asquith ministry (he served as First Lord of the Admiralty and was responsible for the failed Gallipoli campaign when he was forced from power as part of a coalition government that took power after that campaign) impacted his actions as Prime Minister of his own government. The author states that Churchill "resigned" from the Asquith government (and provides no further discussion of the same) when in reality he was forced out. I believe that the mistreatment of him by Asquith must have impacted his actions in leading the coalition government in WW II- but the author ignores it. Otherwise, I believe that this book is well worth the listen.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Howard
- 10-31-15
Great introduction to major British political figures.
I am a student of Winston Churchill, and this book is a great supplement detailing the important World War II British political figures that he worked with, and the book also illustrates Churchill's political skills at their best.
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- Jean
- 05-09-15
Scholarly yet grippingly readable
I have read so much about Churchill over the years I hesitate to buy a new book about him. So much has been written; how can there be anything new on WSC. Schneer has actually said something original about Churchill that makes the book well worth purchasing.
Schneer writes a compelling portrait of Churchill’s cabinet members and puts emphasis on the importance of post war planning. The author discusses some remarkable characters such as Lord Beaverbrook, who wanted to mount a second front to support the Soviet Union and austere socialist Sir Richard Stafford Cripps who mounted a credible attack to WSC leadership.
Schneer stresses Churchill’s skill in managing such a disparate team of rivals in his three party administrations. Schneer demonstrates how this cabinet was driven by personal as well as political discord plotted to replace Churchill, but it was Churchill’s skills in management and administration that kept it altogether and focused on winning the War. He also explains why Churchill lost his post in 1945 in spite of his popularity.
If you are interested in Churchill or World War II you might want to read this book for some new information or view point. Matthew Brenher narrated the book.
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8 people found this helpful
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- JS
- 11-22-16
Excellent comprehensive history
Almost too much information, but an excellent telling of first hand historical resources. Highly recommended.
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- Garland H. Honeycutt
- 12-14-15
An Insightful, Fascinating Treatment of Churchill's Political "Battlefield"
I've always viewed Churchill as Britain's best loved wartime hero, garnering support from across the parliamentary political spectrum. But I've learned that Churchill's skill in military strategy pales in comparison to his skill in political strategy. An excellent treatment of the personalities and partisan antics of the British government's war cabinet.
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- MAC24211
- 06-01-21
Really enjoyable book. A lot of fresh detail aboutWinston Churchill’s cabinet
I found this one very interesting, it took a very detailed look Winston Churchill’s war cabinet.. there was a lot of details in there that I had not known before despite having studied Winston Churchill pretty thoroughly. If you like World War II history you will enjoy this.
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