The Hinge of Fate by Winston S. Churchill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the fourth volume in Churchill’s 6-volume history of World War II. As the book starts things look bad for the allies. The German army threatens to take Stalingrad, Rommel is running wild in North Africa, and Singapore falls to the Japanese. Then things turn around. The Soviets finally repulse the Germans at Stalingrad and start the long process of pushing the Germans back to Berlin. And in the Pacific, the victories at Midway and Guadalcanal began the turnaround against the Japanese.

It is valuable as a view from a participant in the events of the war. As Churchill once said “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it,” and he did do just that. That said, while he was a participant, this is clearly not a disinterested reading of history, and should be looked at with a small grain of salt, and supplemented with good collection of works from professional historians if you want a more balanced view. Churchill is always concerned to make himself look good, so you need to keep that in mind. Still, he is such a good writer that I enjoyed the whole series.

I listened to this as an audio book.



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