Product Description

Published in time for the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, this history broadens and deepens our understanding of an event that passed instantly into legend.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282999 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 292 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of arguably the most important air battle in history, two academics from the University of Edinburgh have assembled this multi-faceted collection of essays on the Battle of Britain, offering a variety of new perspectives. Some of these are intriguing: for instance, Owen Dudley Edward's piece on "The Battle of Britain and Children's Literature" and, taking a similarly cultural rather than military approach, Tony Aldgate's "The Battle of Britain on Film"--although he is rather unfair on that superlative bit of celluloid stiff-upper-lippery, Reach for the Skies. Other essays seem pretty pointless: an essay on "The American Perspective"-unless, of course, the Battle was won by the Americans after all. The gems here, however, are Wallace Cunningham's "Memories of a British Veteran" and Nigel Rose's "An RAF Pilot's Letters to His Parents, June-December 1940," full of schoolboy jollity and have-at-'em spirit:

I'd no sooner arrived back when a crowd of Junkers 87s dive-bombed Tangmere and just about razed the hangars to the ground. We had a magnificent view of the whole affair and it was most thrilling to watch.

So, although this is no match for the sheer narrative thrill of Len Deighton's Fighter or Deighton and Max Hastings'Battle of Britain, there is still some good stuff here and provocative new ways of looking at a national legend. --Christopher Hart

From the Author
Reviews of The Burning Blue
'It is terrific. It's not only an acknowledgement of the heroism of the fighter pilots, but a serious contribution to the historical record. Seventeen contributors write about the Battle from pretty much every conceivable angle; and Addison and Crang have chosen them well.'

THE GUARDIAN

'This is a nugget of a book. Issued for the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, it assembles, most readably, a range of authoritative and international views on the Battle, its history and significance.'

RUSI JOURNAL

'This book is a first-class piece of work, stimulating, informative and concise.'

TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT

'This excellent book...whose lucid and concise summaries of current scholarship will please the general reader and delight generations of hard-pressed students lucky enough to have so useful a book drawn to their attention...Better still, it breaks new ground.'

JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY

'It's difficult to imagine how any work can provide a new perspective or any new information on this vastly oversubscribed topic - but this is precisely the feat which The Burning Blue manages to achieve...The Burning Blue is a fine work which certainly enhances our understanding of an event which has become increasingly indistinguishable from the myth and legend which has sprung from it.'

PC STRATEGY AND GAMES

'It offers fresh and stimulating insights into the Battle'.

WARTIME

'Jargon-free and refreshingly readable'.

DAILY MAIL

'Refreshingly astringent'.

SUNDAY TIMES

'Impressive breadth and depth'.

THE SCOTSMAN

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Customer Reviews

interesting but limited
This is a refreshing review of the well known events of the summer of 1940, analysing the "battle of Britain" and how the legend developed from many unusual perspectives. It, thankfully, does not bore the reader with pages of the usual rah-rah, biggles view of events nor does it fall into the kind of emotional rubbish that more populistic accounts have done in the past.

Fortunately, avoids the other trap of being reactionary, or anti-state which characterised Clive Ponting's earlier work on the events of 1940. The analysis is clear and cool and leaves the reader with a more informed picture of events without diminishing ones admiration for "the few".

The survey demonstrates how the battle became a myth within a (remarkably) short period and the essayists deconstruct the myth without the sense of it's emotional importance being patronised. As Richard Overy (who knows it's limited importance compared to the vital turning points of WWII) intelligently concludes, it was important because for the British it was perceived to be important.

If this review suffers from any faults, i would suggest that it does not sufficiently analyse how the battle is perceived today. Not to mention an assessment of it's contempory infulence. For instance, an evaluation of how the events of 1940 may or may not effect sentiment towards the Europen Union debate - maybe the authors avoided opening that can.

Also, i would add that not enough is done to portray the reasons for fighting the war, especially when one considers that the strong memories of the horrors of 1914-18 must have still haunted people. Today's public need to understand that challening the holocaust was not the motivating force as most people would comfortably assume today. The moral background was much different but equally valied and i felt this awareness is a requisite backcloth for a comprehensive understanding.

All in all this is a good read and hopefully encourages further reviews in this tone in the future. Certainly, for me, it put me in awe of the formidable challenge in terms of organisation and expediency that the command and pilots had to confront at the time. Not to mention the courage of the fighter pilots - which i once read had an average age of 19 -21 years.

Fascinating to consider how a far away generation - now mostly gone - dealt with a circumstance, that strikes very much in the imagination of all countries.

A rather "academic" read
This is not so much a cohesive book as a summary of the proceedings of an academic conference on the Battle of Britain run by the book's editors, who are lecturer's at the University of Edinburgh. As such it is not for the faint-hearted, is rather stuffy and is not much of an introduction to the subject for those readers not already well grounded in the subject. Keen amateur historians and academics will find much to like in this work, there are much better, more rounded texts for the rest of us.