The saga of Churchill's elevation to PM

The outcome of WWII wasn't preordained at all. In fact Hitler nearly won the war. There was a powerful element in UK that wished friendship with Nazi Germany, from the King down to aristocrats and the merchant class(represented by Chamberlain, himself coming from that background), and the Press(The Times, Daily Mail, Evening Standard, etc. Exception were Manchester Guardian & Daily Telegraph).
Isolationist force in America comprised of every ideological spectrum and was dominant in Congress.

The 1930s was truly the decade of Appeasement in that the world was very generous to fascist nations: even before Germany, there were Japan and Italy waging wars without much interference. Spain too for that matter. Hitler carefully noted the trend, then acted, crossing the Rhine in 1936. The rest is history.

The genius of Churchill was that he perceived early on that Hitler was a greater threat than Stalin. Many preferred Nazi Germany and thought both Germany and USSR duking out between them wasn't a bad idea. Churchill's decision was all the more remarkable in that he was the proponent of assisting the Whites during the Russian Civil War: he was a dedicated anti-Communist. But his pitiful political instincts hindered himself from taking power during the 30s.

So, what if UK reached an understanding with Germany? Or if they made truce? Would then FDR 'dared' to oppose Hitler? FDR himself had severe doubts of UK surviving the war in the early stages of the Blitz. It really was a near miss.

That's why the saga is most gripping, and that's why Churchill is regarded as the greatest PM ever: by his sheer force of will, he managed to sustain UK during those perilous times. In effect, he saved civilisation, along with FDR, and...Stalin lol(Soviet Russia really did all the fighting. The scale of the Eastern theater easily dwarfs the Western one).

So, that's why I began to read these books again lol.

http://www.amazon.com/Troublesome-Young-Men-Brought-Churchill/dp/0374531331/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387167932&sr=1-1&keywords=troublesome+young+men


http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lion-Winston-Churchill-1932-1940/dp/0316545120/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1387168026

And yes, USA indeed saved the world, they can brag lol, when Europe failed to do so.