"Customers are raving about Five Days in London."—Amazon.com
"John Lukacs's account of five dramatic days in May 1940, when Winston Churchill and his Cabinet had to decide whether to negotiate or stand alone against Hitler, is a relatively compact book, but it has the power and sweep of Shakespeare's chronicle plays. . . . One of Lukacs's impressive strengths is a gripping narrative drive. He is lucid and splendidly readable, and furthermore, commands a host of dramatic characters."—Robert Taylor, Boston Globe
"This is a readable and rigorous little volume that is put down with difficulty in the middle and with regret at the end."—Conrad Black, Daily Telegraph
"This is as dramatic a moment in history as you are likely to get."—Forbes Magazine
"[A] word-of-mouth best seller (and Giuliani favorite) . . . [a] gripping story of how Churchill rallied the British at a crucial juncture."—Michael Glitz, New York Post
"Historian John Lukacs, who has written widely on World War II and on Hitler and Churchill, comprehensively traces the events of that long weekend, which culminated in Churchill's decision on May 28th to fight on, no matter what happened to France. He did not, in that weekend of courage and remarkable self-confidence, win the war, as Lukacs makes clear, but rather gave the first breath of the bellows to the desperate embers of hope for the Allies."—David Murray, New York Times Book Review
"Lukacs's scholarship re-creates with great immediacy the chaotic few days during which, according to the author, Hitler came closest to winning the war. . . . Lukacs concentrates on the struggle with the British War Cabinet, which pitted the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, against the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax. . . . Churchill's stubborn refusal won out. The author's equally stubborn digging uncovered a stunning amount of defeatism and intrigue against Churchill by contemporary statesmen."—New Yorker
"New York mayor Rudy Giuliani says he has been reading and is inspired by John Lukacs’ Five Days in London, May 1940."—USA Today
"Lukacs, who has written about World War II in several earlier books, reviews the British record at this moment through hypothetical Anglophobe eyes. . . . [A] fascinating work of historical reconstruction. . . . [Lukacs] gives us much to ponder in this intriguing—and perhaps still controversial—story."—Stanley Weintraub, Wall Street Journal
"This gem of a book, the distillation of an important historian's life work, is a compelling antidote for those afflicted with historical amnesia."—Kai Bird, Washington Post
"Eminent historian Lukacs delivers the crown jewel to his long and distinguished career with this account of five days—May 24-28, 1940—that could have changed the world.' Lukacs posits that it was during those five days in London 'that Western civilization, not to mention the Allied cause in WWII, was saved from Hitler's tyranny.' . . . This new work focuses on these five days with a microscopic view. It is the work of a man who lives and breathes history, whose knowledge is limitless and tuned to a pitch that rings true."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[Readers] are in for a treat that encompasses everything from grand strategy to British domestic politics, the behavior of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to the gritty diary of George Orwell, and even the glorious weather of those five crucial days. . . . Five Days in London is political history of a very high standard."—Morris Williams, The Daily Yomiuri
"Nobody has done more than John Lukacs to turn the short history book into an art form. His masterpiece, Five Days in London, 1940, was immediately recognized as a modern classic. The wonderful clarity of his thought led directly to the clarity of his prose. Lukacs, an American professor of Hungarian birth and the author of nearly 30 works, is undoubtedly one of the wisest thinkers on the period."—Antony Beevor, Toronto Globe & Mail
"A page-turner. . . . Painstaking, meticulous, and fascinating."—America
"Lukacs has constructed a gripping narrative. . . . This is a must for every World War II buff."—Jules Wagman, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"John Lukacs is one of the most original and profound of contemporary thinkers."—Paul Fussell
"No historian of the Second World War has John Lukac’s range, acuteness, intuition. He has written great works. Now comes a masterpiece. In the Five Days in London weare present, moment by moment, May 24 to May 28, 1940 as the British War Cabinet ponders whether to seek terms from Hitler, or fight on. Alone. . . . 'Not only the end of a European war but the end of Western civilization was near.' In the end Churchill prevails—just."—Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"I consider John Lukacs one of the outstanding historians of the generation and, indeed, of our time."—Jacques Barzun