History Study Group (HSG)

  • BLOG
  • SUGGESTED READING

"Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War" by Lynne Olsen

12/26/2017

0 Comments

 

December 21, 2017

A groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler, from the New York Times bestselling author of Citizens of London and Those Angry Days

When the Nazi blitzkrieg rolled over continental Europe in the early days of World War II, the city of London became a refuge for the governments and armed forces of six occupied nations who escaped there to continue the fight. So, too, did General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed representative of free France.     

As the only European democracy still holding out against Hitler, Britain became known to occupied countries as “Last Hope Island.” Getting there, one young emigré declared, was “like getting to heaven.”

In this epic, character-driven narrative, acclaimed historian Lynne Olson takes us back to those perilous days when the British and their European guests joined forces to combat the mightiest military force in history. Here we meet the courageous King Haakon of Norway, whose distinctive “H7” monogram became a symbol of his country’s resistance to Nazi rule, and his fiery Dutch counterpart, Queen Wilhelmina, whose antifascist radio broadcasts rallied the spirits of her defeated people. Here, too, is the Earl of Suffolk, a swashbuckling British aristocrat whose rescue of two nuclear physicists from France helped make the Manhattan Project possible.

Last Hope Island also recounts some of the Europeans’ heretofore unsung exploits that helped tilt the balance against the Axis: the crucial efforts of Polish pilots during the Battle of Britain; the vital role played by French and Polish code breakers in cracking the Germans’ reputedly indecipherable Enigma code; and the flood of top-secret intelligence about German operations—gathered by spies throughout occupied Europe—that helped ensure the success of the 1944 Allied invasion.   

A fascinating companion to Citizens of London, Olson’s bestselling chronicle of the Anglo-American alliance, Last Hope Island recalls with vivid humanity that brief moment in time when the peoples of Europe stood together in their effort to roll back the tide of conquest and restore order to a broken continent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/books/review/last-hope-island-lynne-olson.html?mcubz=3&_r=0

http://www.historynet.com/review-last-hope-island-lynne-olson.htm​
​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Group Leader: Alan Rubin

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    1491: Americas Before Columbus
    1493 America After Columbus
    1919 Boston Molasses Tank Failure
    A Biography
    A Distant Mirror
    Albert Einstein
    American Creration
    A Woman Of No Importance
    Bible Myths
    Blood
    Candy Bombers
    Carnegie
    Caste
    China's Grand Strategy
    China Today
    Cia
    Citizens Of London
    Cotton Kingdom
    Cuba
    Devil In The Grove
    Do Morals Matter?
    Energy: A Human History
    Everything In Its Path
    Facing The Mountain
    Fear City
    Fields Of Blood
    Forgotten 500
    Forgotten-Trump Voters In PA
    God's Shadow
    Greek Revolution
    Heart Of Atlanta
    Henrietta Lacks
    History Shock
    Hitler
    Hitler: A Biography
    How Democracies Die
    How To Hide An Empire
    HSG Blog
    Indian World Of George Washington
    Jane Crow
    Korean War
    Madame Forcade
    Map That Changed The World
    Marshall Plan
    McNamara's Folly
    Mexican War
    Middle East
    Money Changes Everything
    One Hot Summer
    On Her Own Ground
    Polly Adler
    Powder And Residue
    Presidents Of War
    River Of The Gods
    Rough Crossings
    Samuel Adams
    Sapiens
    Second Coming Of The KKK
    Shattered Sword
    Stalin: Waiting For Hitler
    Strangers In Their Own Land
    Thank You For Being Late
    The Back Channel
    The Code
    The French Blue
    The Great Flu Influenza
    The Half Has Never Been Told
    The Howe Dynasty
    The Kerner Report
    The Lives Of The Constitution
    The Moralist
    Theodore Roosevelt For The Defense
    The President Is Dead
    There Is Nothing For You Here
    The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
    The Rothchild's
    The Sediments Of Time
    The Seventies
    The Woman Who Smashed The Codes
    The Women's Hour
    The Wright Brothers
    Walking With Destiny
    War Is A Racket
    Warriors Dont Cry
    What Has God Wrought?

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly