David Churchill Somervell's Books

Revival: Between the Wars (1948)

By: David Churchill Somervell

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Revival: Between the Wars (1948)

By: David Churchill Somervell

In Between The Wars Mr Somervell examines those twenty-one years of uneasy peace which elapsed between the First and Second World Wars, and analyses the gradual deterioration in international relations which marked the period. The victorious, all-powerful Allies of 1919, by founding the League of Nations with its prospects of open diplomacy and its machinery for negotiation, hoped to set up new standards of behaviour between sovereign states and eliminated war as a method of settling disputes. How were these good intentions thwarted? Why did a second catastrophe engulf Europe in 1939? Mr Somervell ranges widely over world events of the inter-war years in his search for answers to these questions. He shows how in most countries democracy, that form of Government which the creators of the Versailles Treaty fervently hoped to secure in the world, seldom imposed a rational will on its statesmen; on the contrary, public opinion inclined to the extremes of apathy and hysteria. He also demonstrates how the discoverers of misapplied science offered tempting new weapons to fanatical dictators avid for world power. We have just lived through the war that resulted from that epoch of muddle and drift; now is the moment for us to examine it critically as a chapter of history. Mr Somervill offers us valuable help in his detached and lucid survey.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

129

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351346679

ISBN 13

9781351346672

A Study of History: Abridgement of volumes VII-X

By: Arnold Toynbee,David Churchill Somervell

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

A Study of History: Abridgement of volumes VII-X

By: Arnold Toynbee,David Churchill Somervell

Arnold Toynbee's ten-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations is acknowledged as one of the great achievements of modern scholarship. D.C. Somervell's extraordinary two-volume abridgement has captured the method, atmosphere, texture, and, in many instances, the very words of the original. This volume contains the second half of Toynbee's masterpiece.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

442

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195001990

ISBN 13

9780195001990

The Building

A Biography of the Pentagon

By: David Alexander

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Building

A Biography of the Pentagon

By: David Alexander

The inside story of the Pentagon: the building and the personalities and politics that have brought it to life.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

424

Publisher

Zenith Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

076032087X

ISBN 13

9780760320877

Allied Master Strategists

The Combined Chiefs of Staff in World War II

By: David Rigby

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Allied Master Strategists

The Combined Chiefs of Staff in World War II

By: David Rigby

Awarded NASOH's 2012 "John Lyman Book Award for Best U.S. Naval History," Allied Master Strategists describes the unique and vital contribution to Allied victory in World War II made by the Combined Chiefs of Staff. Based on a combination of primary and secondary source material, this book proves that the Combined Chiefs of Staff organization was the glue holding the British-American wartime alliance together. As such, the Combined Chiefs of Staff was probably the most important international organization of the Twentieth Century. Readers will get a good view of the personalities of the principals, such as Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke and Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. The book provides insight into the relationships between the Combined Chiefs of Staff and Allied theater commanders, the role of the Combined Chiefs regarding economic mobilization, and the bitter inter-Allied strategic debates in regard to OVERLORD and the war in the Pacific. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the British American alliance in World War II. Careful attention is paid in the book to the three organizations that contributed the principal membership of the Combined Chiefs of Staff; i.e., the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the British Chiefs of Staff Committee, and (in the case of Sir John Dill) the British Joint Staff Mission in Washington. After providing a biographical background of the principal member so the Combined Chiefs of Staff, Rigby provides information on wartime Washington, D.C. as the home base for the Combined Chiefs of Staff organization. Detailed information is given regarding the Casablanca Conference, but the author is careful to distinguish between the formal nature of the big Allied wartime summit meetings and the much less formal day-to-day give and take which characterized British-American strategic debates between the British Joint Staff Mission in Washington and the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Indeed, it is a major contention of the book that it is critical to remember that more than half of the meetings of the Combined Chiefs of Staff took place in Washington, D.C. in a regularly scheduled weekly pattern and not at the big Allied conferences such as Yalta. The role of the Combined Chiefs of Staff in directing the war in the Pacific and in planning the OVERLORD cross-channel invasion of western Europe, respectively, is covered in detail. These were the two most contentious issues with which the Combined Chiefs of Staff had to deal. Rigby attempts to answer the question of why two combative, fearless, warriors like Churchill and Brooke would be so unwilling to go back across the Channel, and to explain the tug-of-war the British Chiefs of Staff had to conduct with Churchill before a British battle fleet could join the American Central Pacific Drive late in the war. The book also provides a wealth of information on the role played by members of the Combined Chiefs of Staff in the spheres of economic mobilization and wartime diplomacy. Most of all, what Allied Master Strategists does is to give the Combined Chiefs of Staff what they have long deserved—a book of their own; a book that is not weighted towards the U.S. Joint Chiefs on the one hand or the British Chiefs of Staff on the other; a book that is not strictly a “naval” book, an “army” book, or an “air” book, but a book that like the western alliance during World War II, is truly “combined” in an international as well as an interservice manner.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

234

Publisher

Naval Institute Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1612513042

ISBN 13

9781612513041

Revival: Between the Wars (1948)

By: David Churchill Somervell

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Revival: Between the Wars (1948)

By: David Churchill Somervell

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

129

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351346679

ISBN 13

9781351346672

A Study of History: Volume I: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI

By: Arnold J. Toynbee

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

A Study of History: Volume I: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI

By: Arnold J. Toynbee

Arnold Toynbee's analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations has been acknowledged as one of the great achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. D.C. Somervell's abridgement of this monumental work is a great achievement in its own right. While reducing the work to one sixth of its original size, he has succeeded in preserving its method and character. The first volume of the abridgement presents Toynbee's philosophy of history as it appears in the first six volumes of the original work. This volume includes the Introduction; The Geneses of Civilizations; The Growth of Civilizations; The Breakdowns of Civilizations; and The Disintegrations of Civilizations. The second volume comprises volumes 7-10 of the original, including Universal States; Universal Churches; Heroic Ages; Contacts Between Civilizations in Space; Contacts Between Civilizations in Time; Law and Freedom in History; The Prospects of the Western Civilization; and Conclusion.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

630

Publisher

Oxford Paperbacks

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195050800

ISBN 13

9780195050806

The School and the World

By: Victor Gollancz,David Somervell

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The School and the World

By: Victor Gollancz,David Somervell

Sir Victor Gollancz (1893-1967) was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian. He was commissioned into the Northumberland Fusiliers in 1915, although he did not see active service. In 1916 he transferred to Repton School Junior Officers' Training Corps. In 1917 he became involved in the Reconstruction Committee, an organization that was making plans for postwar Britain. Gollancz formed his own publishing company in 1927; the writers he published included George Orwell and Ford Madox Ford. His works include: Industrial Ideals (1920), Is Mr. Chamberlain Saving Peace? (1939), The School and the World (with David Somervell) (1919) and Political Education in a Public School (with David Somervell). David Churchill Somervell (1885-1965) was a teacher at Tonbridge School in England. He was a historian, and prolific author. He is probably best known for his abridgement of Arnold J. Toynbee's A Study of History He also wrote a very useful book titled A Short History of Our Religion, published in 1922.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409943445

ISBN 13

9781409943440

In Command of History

Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

By: David Reynolds

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

In Command of History

Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

By: David Reynolds

Winston Churchill was one of the giants of the twentieth century. As Britain’s prime minister from 1940 to 1945, he courageously led his nation and the world away from appeasement, into war, and on to triumph over the Axis dictators. His classic six-volume account of those years, The Second World War, has shaped our perceptions of the conflict and secured Churchill’s place as its most important chronicler. Now, for the first time, a book explains how Churchill wrote this masterwork, and in the process enhances and often revises our understanding of one of history’s most complex, vivid, and eloquent leaders. In Command of History sheds new light on Churchill in his multiple, often overlapping roles as warrior, statesman, politician, and historian. Citing excerpts from the drafts and correspondence for Churchill’s magnum opus, David Reynolds opens our eyes to the myriad forces that shaped its final form. We see how Churchill’ s manuscripts were vetted by Whitehall to conceal secrets such as the breaking of the Enigma code by British spymasters at Bletchley Park, and how Churchill himself edited the volumes to avoid offending postwar statesmen such as Tito, Charles de Gaulle, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. We explore his confusions about the true story of the atomic bomb, learn of his second thoughts about Stalin, and watch him repackage himself as a consistent advocate of the D-Day landings. In Command of History is a major work that forces us to reconsider much received wisdom about World War II. It also peels back the covers from an unjustly neglected period of Churchill’s life, his “second wilderness” years, 1945—1951. During this time Churchill, now over seventy, wrote himself into history, politicked himself back into 10 Downing Street, and delivered some of the most vital oratory of his career, including his pivotal “iron curtain” speech. Exhaustively researched and dazzlingly written, this is a revelatory portrait of one of the world’s most profiled figures, a work by a historian in full command of his craft. “A fascinating account that accomplishes the impossible: [Reynolds] actually finds something new and interesting to say about one of the most chronicled characters of all time.” –The New York Times Book Review A New York Times NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A BEST HISTORY OF THE YEAR SELECTION –The New York Sun NOTE: This edition does not include photographs.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

1014

Publisher

Random House

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307824802

ISBN 13

9780307824806

Book's by David Churchill Somervell

Revival: Between the Wars (1948)

Revival: Between the Wars (1948)

A Study of History: Abridgement of volumes VII-X

A Study of History: Abridgement of volumes VII-X

The Building

The Building

Allied Master Strategists

Allied Master Strategists

Revival: Between the Wars (1948)

Revival: Between the Wars (1948)

A Study of History: Volume I: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI

A Study of History: Volume I: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI

The School and the World

The School and the World

In Command of History

In Command of History

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email