Four Random Books 8: Churchill

Robin Denniston's study links Churchill's determination to keep Turkey out of the Second World War with the benefits and organizational costs of concentrating secret intelligence in the prime minister's hands.

A Foreign Office assessment treats Turkey as a linked Soviet, British, and American diplomatic problem whose complete wartime picture could be assembled only in London.

A Japanese report that Turkey might lean toward Germany is set against Ankara's effort to preserve room for manoeuvre by sending friendly signals to both sides.

Robert K. Massie's Dreadnought introduces a counterfactual in which Britain might have financed and supplied France and Russia rather than entering the First World War directly if Germany had not built a large navy.

Massie's broad narrative is recommended as an accessible framework for the naval race, provided readers follow it with specialized studies for disputed details.

A passage on the First Moroccan Crisis shows British leaders defending the Entente while treating any German Atlantic base as a threat to routes around South Africa and the Cape.

Massie's companion volume moves from Dreadnought's prewar rivalry into Britain and Germany's Great War at sea, setting up the detailed Falklands passage that follows.

Heavy-calibre shell splashes and the sighting of British warships force Spee to abandon the attack, concentrate his squadron, and withdraw at full speed.

Glasgow's captain is ordered to trail and report rather than attack alone while Sturdee's ships raise steam and clear the harbour for the pursuit.

Exceptional visibility compensates for the British squadron's delayed response and creates ideal conditions for a long-range pursuit and gun action.

Massie's portraits may reinforce or complicate a reader's judgments of Sturdee, Jellicoe, and Beatty even when the reader disputes parts of the narrative.

A collection of Churchill speeches closes the review with the logic behind his famous call to resist defeat and persevere.