An accessible starting history of Dunkirk

Robert Jackson's short history is valued for a clear, well-formed narrative that can be read in an afternoon. It includes useful maps but no photographs, and its citations and source list are much lighter than an academic monograph's. Those limits are acceptable for an introductory work, though the book is not exhaustive scholarship. A reader can use it to gain enough grounding in the Dunkirk evacuation to follow later debate and move into more detailed studies.