In Command of History or Exodus 1947

In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

Author: David Reynolds

Winston Churchill fought the World War II twice over-first as Prime Minister during the war, and then later as the war's premier historian. From 1948-54, he published six volumes of memoirs. They secured his reputation and shaped our understanding of the conflict to this day.

Drawing on the drafts of Churchill's manuscript as well as his correspondence from the period, David Reynolds masterfully reveals Churchill the author. Reynolds shows how the memoirs were censored by the British government to conceal state secrets, and how Churchill himself censored them to avoid offending current world leaders. This book illuminates an unjustly neglected period of Churchill's life-the Second Wilderness Years of 1945-51, when Churchill wrote himself into history, politicked himself back into the prime-ministership, and delivered some of the most important speeches of his career.

The New York Times - Max Boot

To Reynolds's credit, while he is intent on pulling back the curtain a bit, he does not conclude, as have more fervent debunkers, that the emperor has no clothing. In the end, Reynolds's respect for Churchill as writer and statesman appears undiminished by the lengths to which he went to shape his own reputation.

Publishers Weekly

For many, the fact that Churchill won his Nobel for literature comes as a surprise, but he was a prolific-and very well paid-historian and journalist. Awarded Britain's Wolfson History Prize, this highly readable book by Cambridge historian Reynolds supplies the backstory to Churchill's massive postwar publishing project: the epic The Second World War. As the author notes, he's writing "a book about personal biography and public memory," beginning with Churchill's crushing defeat in the July 1945 election and offering a unique perspective on WWII, the onset of the Cold War and Churchill's determination to write the history of the 20th century's signal conflict. But Reynolds's real achievement is his grasp of the motives behind that determination: "Churchill's sense of the fickleness of fame... impelled him to be his own historian." He quotes a 1944 letter to Stalin in which Churchill writes, "I agree that we had better leave the past to history, but remember if I live long enough I may be one of the historians." Packed with detail and vivid characterizations (but still clearly a scholarly, thoroughly researched work), it's a different take on one of the few men capable of both making history and writing it. 16 pages of b&w photos. Agent, Irene Skolnick Agency. (On sale Nov. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Interesting book: Unfiltered or Labor Economics and Labor Relations

Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched a Nation

Author: Ruth Gruber

On July 18, 1947, American journalist Ruth Gruber stood on a wharf in Haifa as the Exodus 1947 limped into harbor. The evening before, this unarmed ship, crammed with more than 4,500 Holocaust survivors, had been rammed and boarded by sailors of the British Navy to prevent her desperate human cargo from seeking refuge in Palestine. Gruber rushed to the scene and began witnessing the events as they unfolded, ultimately spending the next several months pursuing the exiles from port to port on the Mediterranean.
Gruber’s quest produced riveting dispatches and vivid photographs published in the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Post that shaped worldwide perception of the plight of the DPs and arguably influenced the U.N. to create the state of Israel. This gripping book contains Gruber’s moving images and text, plus additional reporting on the wretched camps in Europe where the refugees lived before boarding the Exodus 1947, as well as details of many passengers’ eventual fates. In this edition marking the sixtieth anniversary of the voyage, Gruber’s masterpiece remains as stirring and unforgettable as ever.

Table of Contents:

	List of Photographs
	Introduction
1	The DP Camps of Europe	3
2	Haifa	45
3	Cyprus	101
4	Port-de-Bouc	131
5	Hamburg	181
	Epilogue	187
	Afterword	189
	Acknowledgments	191
	Index	195