A groundbreaking new account of the Battle of Britain from acclaimed Cambridge historian James Holland The Battle of Britain paints a stirring picture of an extraordinary summer when the fate of the world hung by a thread. Historian James Holland has now written the definitive account of those months based on extensive new research from around the world including thousands of new interviews with people on both sides of the battle. If Britain's defenses collapsed, Hitler would have dominated all of Europe. With France facing defeat and British forces pressed back to the Channel, there were few who believed Britain could survive; but, thanks to a sophisticated defensive system and the combined efforts of the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and the defiance of a new Prime Minister, Britain refused to give in. From clashes between coastal convoys and Schnellboote in the Channel to astonishing last stands in Flanders, slaughter by U-boats in an icy Atlantic and dramatic aerial battles over England, The Battle of Britain tells this epic World War II story in a fresh and compelling voice.

This book addresses the social, political and economic turbulence in which the UK is embroiled. Drawing on Cultural Studies, it explores proliferating crises and conflicts, from the multiplying varieties of social dissent through the stagnation of rentier capitalism to the looming climate catastrophe. Examining arguments about Brexit, class and ‘race’, and the changing character of the state, the book is underpinned by a transnational and relational conception of the UK. It traces the entangled dynamics of time and space that have shaped the current conjuncture. Questioning whether increasingly anti-democratic and authoritarian strategies can provide a resolution to these troubles, it explores how the accumulating crises and conflicts have produced a deepening ‘crisis of authority’ that forms the terrain of the Battle for Britain.

Published in association with the Imperial War Museum in London to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, this book brings one of the most important battles of World War II to life. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, contemporary art and propaganda posters, and accompanied by numerous first-hand accounts, The Battle of Britain captures the reality and the romance of a defining chapter in British history. Moreover, it offers a detailed analysis of the events immediately preceding the battle, the key strategic decisions by opposing commanders that altered the course of the battle, as well as the development of criticial weaponry and defenses that dramatically changed the way aerial combat was fought. Moore's book pays tribute to visionaries such as R. J. Mitchell and Air Chief Marshall Lord Dowding, who ensured that, rather than simply a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, this was a battle for which Britain's Fighter Command was uniquely prepared. Such preparation nearly guaranteed that although the British were vastly outnumbered, they could confidently counter the German fighter planes and bombers that darkened the skies throughout the summer of 1940. It was this small band of men and women, covered in detail in this title, that were the first to successfully oppose the seemingly unstoppable tide of the Nazi war machine, irrevocably altering the course of the rest of the war.

The Battle of Britain is the epic story of the fight for control of the skies over England in the bitterly long summer of 1940. Bestselling author Patrick Bishopâ??s compelling day-to-day chronicle is enhanced with eye-witness accounts, diary extracts and pilot profiles, as the horrific reality of air combat is vividly portrayed in this account of the life and death struggle between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. This is the story Britainâ??s "finest hour," a fight for national survival that had a profound impact on servicemen and civilians alike, and ultimately proved to be a key a turning point in the course of the war.