Into Battle, 1937-1941

Britain's War

'An energetic, ambitious, provocative work by a young historian of notable gifts, which deserves a wide readership' Max Hastings, The Sunday Times 
 
'Bold and breathtaking... I have never read a more daringly panoramic survey of the period' Jonathan Wright, Herald Scotland 
 
The most terrible emergency in Britain's history, the Second World War required an unprecedented national effort. An exhausted country had to fight an unexpectedly long war and found itself much diminished amongst the victors. Yet the outcome of the war was nonetheless a triumph, not least for a political system that proved well adapted to the demands of a total conflict and for a population who had to make many sacrifices but who were spared most of the horrors experienced in the rest of Europe. 
 
Britain's War is a narrative of these epic events, an analysis of the myriad factors that shaped military success and failure, and an explanation of what the war tells us about the history of modern Britain. As compelling on the major military events as he is on the experience of ordinary people living through exceptional times, Todman suffuses his extraordinary book with a vivid sense of a struggle which left nobody unchanged - and explores why, despite terror, separation and deprivation, Britons were overwhelmingly willing to pay the price of victory. 
 
This volume begins with the coronation of George VI and ends with the disasters in the Far East in December 1941. A second volume will tell the story from 1942 to Indian independence in 1947.

This is an energetic, ambitious, provocative work by a young historian of notable gifts, which deserves a wide readership

A gifted historian...he tells the big story well but also illustrates his themes with many small stories and appealing anecdotes.

Todman explores every aspect of the British experience of the war...rich in telling detail and reliant on the records kept by a host of ordinary Britons as they came to terms with the events going on around them...what ordinary people thought about the time they were living through provides a texture and depth that older wartime narratives have often lacked.

[Dan Todman] has succeeded in creating something that adds to our perception of what happened during this critical period...It is a compliment to Todman that time and again in reading his book I found myself thinking that I wanted to know more about this or that aspect.

The first volume of Dan Todman's new history of Britain and the Second World War is a tour de force. Taking the story up to the end of 1941, Todman provides us with a judicious guide to the road to war and its catastrophic first phase, offering in addition a shrewd portrait of Churchill which is worth the price of the book alone. Total history at its best.

Bold and breathtaking... I have never read a more daringly panoramic survey of the period...Todman has taken on a mammoth task but, at half-time, he shows every sign of completing it triumphantly.

Daniel Todman is Professor of Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London. He was named The Times Young Academic Author of the Year in 2005 for The Great War: Myth and Memory. He previously taught in the Department of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy and was the co-editor of Lord Alanbrooke's bestselling War Diaries. The first volume of Britain's War (Into Battle: 1937-1941) was published to great acclaim in 2016.

The most terrible emergency in Britain's history, the Second World War required an unprecedented national effort. 
 
Britain's War is a narrative of these epic events, an analysis of the myriad factors that shaped military success and failure, and an explanation of what the war tells us about the history of modern Britain. As compelling on the major military events as he is on the experience of ordinary people living through exceptional times, Todman suffuses his extraordinary book with a vivid sense of a struggle which left nobody unchanged - and explores why, despite terror, separation and deprivation, Britons were overwhelmingly willing to pay the price of victory.

Daniel Todman

A stunning achievement, offering a new generation of readers and students an authoritative and original version of the greatest event in human history.

The best one-stop shop for those wanting to understand our country during its last existential crisis ... epic, compendious, written with confidence and verve.

Magisterial. Virtually no aspect of British life is left untouched ... I cannot recommend this history highly enough.

The book is a superb work of research and synthesis, and with its predecessor it completes an account of the British war that will prove hard to surpass... Todman takes us to the threshold of the world in which we live in. One of the prime ordinances of history is that it should help those who read it understand why we are where we are, who we are and how we are. Todman achieves that goal magnificently.

This second volume is as skilful as the first ... Todman brings youth, energy, industry and, above all, rare historical talent to his formidable task.

Deserves to become a classic ... Todman is superb at human detail; but he is equally at home discussing grand strategy, war economics, campaigning, socio-cultural aspects and the political-military interface... a magnificent book.

Exceptional ... Todman's angle of vision does not follow the conventional Anglo-American narrative of the last three years of war. He rightly sees the imperial dimension as a critical factor in the formation of British strategy.

A staggering look at this country and the second world war... Todman is as good on the social aspects of the war as he is on the political and military. Both volumes come highly recommended.

Meticulously researched and densely detailed, shrewdly observed... excellent.

Dan Todman has written a truly global history of Britain's Second World War.  His second volume opens in December 1941.  Even then, Britons knew that victory would come; not when, not at what cost, but they knew victory would be theirs one day.  How they got there is at the core of this book.  His account is particularly striking on the tides of war in the Middle East and in Asia; on the Labour party electoral victory of 1945, and on the origins of the Cold War.  Fast-paced, accessible, comprehensive; in short, a triumph.

Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University

A New World, 1942-1947

The second part of Daniel Todman's epic history of the Second World War opens with one of the greatest disasters in British military history - the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Unlike the aftermath of Dunkirk, there was no redeeming narrative available here. Britain had been defeated by a far smaller Japanese force in her grandly proclaimed, invincible Asian 'fortress'. 
 
The unique skill of Daniel Todman's history lies in its never losing sight of the inter-connectedness of the British experience. The agony of Singapore, for example, is seen through the eyes of its inhabitants, of its defenders, of Churchill's Cabinet and of ordinary people at home. Each stage of the war, from the nadir of early 1942 to the great series of victories in 1944-5 and on to Indian independence, is described both as it was understood at the time and in the light of the very latest historical research. 
 
Britain's War is a triumph of narrative, empathy and research, as gripping in its handling of individual witnesses to the war - those doomed to struggle with bombing, rationing, exhausting work and above all the absence of millions of family members - as of the gigantic military, social, technological and economic forces that swept the conflict along. It is the definitive account of a drama which reshaped our country.

Daniel Todman

Praise for Britain's War

A stunning achievement, offering a new generation of readers and students an authoritative and original version of the greatest event in human history.

The best one-stop shop for those wanting to understand our country during its last existential crisis ... epic, compendious, written with confidence and verve.

Magisterial. Virtually no aspect of British life is left untouched ... I cannot recommend this history highly enough.

A stunning achievement, offering a new generation of readers and students an authoritative and original version of the greatest event in human history.

The best one-stop shop for those wanting to understand our country during its last existential crisis ... epic, compendious, written with confidence and verve.

Magisterial. Virtually no aspect of British life is left untouched ... I cannot recommend this history highly enough.

A stunning achievement, offering a new generation of readers and students an authoritative and original version of the greatest event in human history.

The best one-stop shop for those wanting to understand our country during its last existential crisis ... epic, compendious, written with confidence and verve.

Magisterial. Virtually no aspect of British life is left untouched ... I cannot recommend this history highly enough.

Books by Daniel Todman

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