| |  | Author: Lynne Olson
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
Buy New: $15.99
as of 9/6/2010 21:00 CDT details
New (36) Used (17) Collectible (2) from $13.17
Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 8,370
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1St Edition
Pages: 496
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 1400067588
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.531
EAN: 9781400067589
Publication Date: February 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 73
 Transports you to WWII England June 8, 2010
JH (Orange County, CA, USA)
Citizens of London is a gripping, thrilling read that transports you to WWII London and gives you insights into the personalities and personal relationships that were as critical to the outcome of the war as the fighting itself. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's narrative skills and was sorry when the book ended. This book is not a detailed work of history, it was meant to tell a story, not to provide an exhaustive historical account. FDR comes off as a disinterested party with self-serving perspectives on the war. Clearly there is more to his side of the story, but this portrayal added to the drama in the book. The book focuses beyond the three protagonists: Murrow, Harriman, and Winant and in fact for significant sections of the book makes no mention of them. But they are the driving force of the story, and this book makes me want to go out and read more about them, particularly Murrow and Winant. In summary, this is a book about a group of people and personalities whose conduct, actions, and relationships were crucial to the outcome of the war. A great story, a great period of time, and a completely enjoyable book.
Harriman, Murrow and Winant: England, America and the three men who helped build an alliance that defeated tyranny. May 30, 2010
J. Zeltzer (Bermuda Dunes, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a frequent reader of the events and players of the 20th century, the account of the efforts of these three men is astounding and riveting. Each, in his own way and for his own purposes, helped bridge the gap between the two great western democracies. England and America, with their many commom views and interests, came upon the World War not really understanding one another's peoples, culture and governments. Harriman's, Murrow's and Winant's unflailing efforts helped bridge the gaps which led to cooperation and victory. Churchill, Roosevelt, the citizens of London and many others play a critical part in this story. A tale of justice triumphing over self-interest.
 "Crossing the ocean doesn't automatically make you a hero." May 27, 2010
CodeMaster Talon (Orlando, FL United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like history, and 1938-1945 had enough history to pack a century. There are endless approaches to World War II, and despite the volumes and volumes of pages we already have a book like "Citizens of London" can still be fresh and interesting.
Ostensibly the book is about three Americans and their crucial effect on history, but it really extends to the panorama of London during the war. "Citizens of London" ebbs and flows through the lightning world of wartime England largely without getting bogged down by too much detail or detours from the main focus. Author Lynne Olson presents these men and women warts and all, but doesn't hesitate to call a hero a hero when the title is deserved (like resistance leader Andree De Jongh, saved from the Nazi firing squad only because the Nazis couldn't believe someone so young and so female could have organized such an elaborate operation). From moody Charles de Gaulle to morose Dwight Eisenhower, from poor neglected Janet Murrow to super-charmer pilot Billy Fiske (whom I now have a crush on) the story of the Allies is the stories of the people who lived it, and it's a fascinating one. The vividness of the writing makes these people come alive and stay in your memory after you've closed the covers.
"Citizens of London" isn't perfect; I think it delves too much into the romances of the subjects, even when the details are not really pertinent to anything. It's one thing to report how one person used another for state secrets, which is part of the story, and another to diverge from the action to detail for the umpteenth time how everyone threw caution to the wind in the whirl of excitement. Got it the first time. I like the nuts and bolts of World War II history: the code breaking, the troop movements, the narrow escapes. The love lives of arrogant businessmen just slow down the story for me.
That's a very personal preference though, and outside of that Olsen's writing is very interesting and fluid. This is a very readable book, for those of you either coming to this period for the first time or hundredth the book warrants:
GRADE: B
(I really do have a crush on Billy Fiske, because as his wife said of him and his fellow rich fly-boys, "They were arrogant and looked terrific". You can just imagine them in their mink-lined coats.)
 History rewritten May 24, 2010
H. Karol (New Jersey)
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
If you want to read a revised history of WW2, read this. I was in that war and I know this author has used incidents that really occured to change the actually meaning and results.
Well worth the read May 20, 2010
T. Gleason (Maryland, United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Review of "Citizens of London......The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour"
Much has been written and said, in popular culture, as well as by historians, about the brave inhabitants of London, who, during the dark days of 1940 and 1941, stood alone against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Blitz. What is often forgotten is that there were proud Americans who stood with them....few at first, and many by the wars' end. They witnessed the suffering of the British people up close, and suffered with them. Their story is told brilliantly by Lynne Olson in a new book "Citizens of London.....The Americans who Stood With Britain in its Darkest Finest Hour".
Olson tells the story of men such as Edward R. Morrow, Averell Harriman, and John Gilbert Winant as they live, work, thrive and survive in war-torn London. It sheds new light on the personal relationships between these men, and others, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and how these relationships were able to bring an intimate understanding to the American government, and in Morrow's case, the American people, of the problems of, and the courage of, the British people in their stand against Hitler. When the United States was drawn into the war by Pearl Harbor, and joined with the British against the Germans, it was this understanding that help to ease the friction that a war-time coalition between two great powers could naturally engender. It was this understanding that helped to win a World War.
Many of the Americans living and working in England during the war would go onto much success later. Some, such as Winant, whose life ended in his suicide soon after the war, would not. That being said, most all would concur, as Olson's book so vividly shows, that the trial by fire that being an American in England during the Blitz was for all was a high point of their lives. Eric Sevareid, one of "Murrow's Boys", who reported on the Blitz via radio to America, said at the time that "In years to come, men will speak of this war and say, "I was a soldier", "I was a sailor", or "I was a pilot". Others will say with equal pride "I was a citizen of London". These Americans truly were "citizens of London", and in reading Olson fine historical work, I was one, too.
Showing reviews 11-15 of 73
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