Churchill, Hitler and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World

Patrick J. Buchanan

May 2008 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Don Leslie

About this audiobook

Were World Wars I and II–which can now be seen as a thirty-year paroxysm of slaughter and destruction–inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Were the bloodiest and most devastating conflicts ever suffered by mankind fated by forces beyond man’s control? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen–Winston Churchill first among them–the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins. Half a century of murderous oppression of scores of millions under the iron boot of Communist tyranny might never have happened, and Europe’s central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations.

Among the British and Churchillian blunders were:
• The vengeful Treaty of Versailles that mutilated Germany, leaving her bitter, betrayed, and receptive to the appeal of Adolf Hitler • Britain’s capitulation, at Churchill’s urging, to American pressure to sever the Anglo-Japanese alliance, insulting and isolating Japan • The greatest blunder in British history: the unsolicited war guarantee to Poland of March 1939–that guaranteed the Second World War

Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, CHURCHILL, HITLER AND “THE UNNECESSARY WAR” is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future that no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.

Ratings and reviews

Excellent book, very detailed and objective. Probably the only book out there with such a factual Axis prospective. Pat failed to mention the real reasons why Germany lost WW1 including the Uboats' assaults that surrounded & choked the UK and the massive Union strikes in Germany, for the German army was Not defeated on the battlefield. In addition, the Roudolf Hess peace initiative to Great Britain. Pat, I enjoyed watching u on Crossfire. Please continue to roast Shawn Hannity on TV...Thank u.

About the author

Patrick J. Buchanan was a senior adviser to three American presidents; ran twice for the Republican presidential nomination, in 1992 and 1996; and was the Reform Party candidate in 2000. The author of more than a dozen books, including the bestsellers Right from the Beginning; A Republic, Not an Empire; The Death of the West; State of Emergency; and Day of Reckoning, Buchanan is a syndicated columnist and founding member of three of America's foremost public affairs shows: NBC's The McLaughlin Group and CNN's The Capital Gang and Crossfire. 

Don Leslie has enjoyed a wonderful voiceover, stage, television, and film career. He has appeared on Broadway in The Dresser and Rose. He’s worked at such regional theaters as Buffalo Studio Arena, Hartford Stage Company, Portland Stage Company, and several others. He’s appeared in over 20 films and as many television episodics. His recent audiobook narrations for BOT include The State of Jones by Sally Jenkins, The Man Who Owns the News by Michael Wolffe, and The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin.