The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill
Volume II
Alone 1932-1940
By: William Manchester
Narrated by: Richard Brown
Length: 36 hrs and 21 mins

The essence of never giving up comes to the forefront when you look at Churchill in the interwar years. You see a man who is beset on every side with challenges and has lost much of his financial stability in the stock crash of 1929. Despite this, he continued to persevere and proclaim the dangers of fascism and communism, both of whom he saw as enemies to the free world. His constant pressure and holding to what he saw as true and right caused him to be seen as a washed-up politician who could not see the true future that was being created in Europe.

Hitler had brought Germany out of a time of despondency and directionless leadership. Providing a unifying goal for the people of Germany to rally behind. He gave the people purpose and instilled new life into the industries and economy of Europe. In England and France, the anemic economy continued to provide pressure to reduce the influence of the world powers abroad and deal with local issues. Welsh miners cared about living: putting food on the table not if the prince of Timbuktu was paying allegiance to His Highness the King.

This introverted view caused the continued contraction on military spending, as there was still no power in Europe that could compete with the alliance of France in England. Indeed, with Frances’s army and England’s navy, there was no threat that they could not beat. If Germany chose to violate the Treaty of Versailles, France could be in Berlin in a matter of weeks. To what purpose were these valuable Pounds and Francs being wasted.

Ultimately the people were war tired. Never in the recorded history of Humankind had such industrialized powers gone to war in such a fashion as seen in The Great War. The mere thought of doing so again was a fiction in the mind of many. This put together with the nearly universal despondent outlook for the future of many made the inward focus common and thus common sense. Winston Churchill was a man of the past. Out of place in the modern world.

This time was truly dark for Churchill. Financially he was broke and it was only through roundabout methods that friends were able to donate to his and stave of insolvency. This kept him at his helm. A small vessel, true. But one that had a purpose. To champion a better living for those of the empire at large. To keep that empire strong. In this, he did not line up with the values of the labor party who wanted to spend there way out of poverty. Nor did he truly align with the old guard of the conservatives who often ignored the plight of the common man. He found himself in no man’s land. Where his small bark seemed in constant danger of being broken on the rocks. But still, he trimmed his sails and attempted to beat upwind. To him, the dangers on the horizon were being ignored. In the distance, he saw a man who was dangerous. He began to call out to his people, that the empire was in danger.

Even as Hitler was slowly swallowing countries in Europe whole, and what we now see with hindsight was only the beginning of a much greater conflict than that of The Great war. We see Winston, the prophet of truth, professing the dangers to come outlining with great detail the dangers lurking in the Teutonic lands. When reality does set in and the realization that instead of preparing a peace that they had begun a war, they had a man to turn to. A man created for such a time as this. Who understood the enemy and had the energy and fortitude of days gone by. A man who was inspired by that true and noble empire and believed that it had a place in the modern world. He was prepared for a modern war.