Magisterial, eminently readable, and surprisingly fast-moving ... It resonates especially today, as tense negotiations and feuds over tariffs, defense, and trade, and fraught personal interactions with the leaders of nations both friendly and not so much, dominate American diplomacy.
In focusing on the multilateral bonds that were forged to defeat Hitler, this entertaining account offers fresh disclosures about the course of the conflict ... Can anything new be said about the second world war? Unexpectedly the answer is yes ... Tim Bouverie has reverted to a traditional form to present the past afresh ... This is a work of old-fashioned diplomatic history, which provides new perspectives on subjects that seemed familiar. One of its merits is to present the choices that faced the allied leaders as they appeared at the time, rather than with the benefit of hindsight ... Bouverie’s commentary is fair and his judgments judicious. Though he has obviously undertaken a vast amount of research, he never becomes overwhelmed by his material. On the contrary, his book is enjoyable to read. He writes lucidly and lightens his weighty subject matter with well-chosen vignettes ... Bouverie’s first book, Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War, published in 2019, was a dazzling debut. Allies at War fully confirms the promise shown by its predecessor.
A deeply researched and gracefully written account of the fractious yet effective alliance that vanquished the Axis powers ...Mr. Bouverie, a historian and the author of the superb Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War (2019), rightfully devotes the bulk of his attention to the Big Three: Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, 'the triumvirate that won the war and shaped the peace.' But the author also illuminates other lesser-known aspects of wartime diplomacy, including relations with Nationalist China and Vichy France, the vexatious issue of neutral Ireland, and the contributions of diplomats and other officials who served the Big Three.
An ambitiously all-encompassing study ... Although Allies in War rightly concentrates on the decision-making of the Big Three—Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin—that story has been told well and often. Where Bouverie is especially strong is in describing the much less familiar struggles going on elsewhere, which constantly feed back into the narrative of the Big Three’s interaction ... Bouverie commendably covers China and Vichy and all the profound diplomatic consequences they entailed for the Alliance ... Bouverie has not only been diligent in covering all the publicly available sources concerning the major players, but he has also worked in the papers from 100 private collections, those of foreign ministers, ambassadors, civil servants, emissaries, translators and observers ... Bouverie presents his new evidence from these fresh sources in an agreeably witty style, with vivid pen-portraits of the various eccentric figures that diplomacy tends to throw up, especially in wartime.
By concentrating on the diplomatic and political angle—at the expense of the military—Bouverie gives a fresh gloss to a familiar narrative ... The author provides pithy pen-portraits of the key characters ... Allies at War is not perfect .... [But] minor quibbles aside, Bouverie has produced a fine reassessment of Allied politics and diplomacy during the Second World War: impeccably researched, elegantly written and compellingly argued.
Bouverie offers readers drama, intrigue, and mordant wit as he recounts 'the politics and diplomacy of the incongruous alliance that ultimately defeated Hitler.' With vivid writing and diligent research—hobbled by confusingly microscopic asterisks to footnotes—Bouverie examines the alliances and rivalries of all Allied and neutral nations during WWII, going beyond the UK, the U.S., and the Soviet Union ... Bouverie’s wit and eloquence prove Churchill’s observation—and the book’s epigraph—'There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies and that is fighting without them.'
