Joshua Levine
Levine
Eyeopening,
/Released to tie in with the summer blockbuster, this books is an insightful and informative take on the historic events surrounding the Dunkirk rescue during the Second World War.
Reading this has certainly increased my anticipation for the movie, This was a very interesting, informative read, It details the history behind Christopher Nolan's film Dunkirk, and the process of using the history to make the film.
Joshua Levine is incredibly thorough in his description of Operation Dynamo and uses stories from the soliders who were there, to really bring the history to life.
It is a long heavy read, but its honest depiction of the brutatily of war and the rawness of the stories told makes it a must read.
Informative if not a little meandering, I liked the interview between Joshua Levine and Christopher Nolan at the beginning more than the rest of the book.
A very interesting audio book with some new angles due to its 'base' in the film, Thus watching same first is a must in my opinion,
I watched the film the year it was released and I remember it as being much different from any other war film I have seen.
Maybe because the director, Christopher Nolan, made a 'survival film', not a 'war film'
Either way, I have to watch it again, soon
This is an interesting and riveting story about the Second World War attack that took place at Dunkirk.
Sad and full of the terrors of war, the book is well written and brings the reader into the action.
Very well told and entertaining, but not an introductory read rather a collection of personal stories, Recommended for readers who already have an understanding of the battle in the context of WWII, A very satisfying read and highly recommended for any history buff, A Unique Book
Well, I thought this book was going to be more historical that it was.
Im not saying it wasnt historical, but it is from the movie makers point of you and not a true historians.
The book drifted a bit not today retreat as ever action packed but thats in the hands of the writer.
The writer missed on this, but the story itself was so interesting that it its saved the writer,
Im mildly recommend, I read this book AFTER seeing the movie, I would advise, if you have an interest in this part of WWII history, you read the book first and then see the movie.
This bit of advice will appall the film's director, Christopher Nolan, who intends for his movie to be experienced from the point of view ofordinary individuals: a soldier on the beach waiting for rescue, a RAF pilot in the skies above the beach trying to buy the soldiers enough time to be rescued, and a civilian boat captain racing across the channel to save those he can.
None of these individuals has the whole picture of what is transpiring, none of them can predict the outcome of their efforts, and all of them are in constant, mortal danger from a steadily advancing enemy.
If you see the film first even if you know the rudiments of the historical event you will feel often confused, alternately terrified and relieved, and spend a lot of time shouting at your fellow moviegoers the movie is very loud, "Why did he do that Who are those guys, anyway Is he injured or just trying to hide" Now that I've read the book, which includes a lengthy interview with Christopher Nolan, I understand that THAT type of experience is exactly what the director was
trying to achieve, as it most closely resembles the experience of the actual participants in this pivotal moment in British history, based on extensive interviews with those who know best veterans still living who survived the evacuation at Dunkirk.
If you decide to tackle the book, be advised there is a lot of discussion of tactical strategy and, sometimes, of the lack thereof and horrific scenes of war all taken straight from first hand accounts that make me very glad that I have not nor has anyone I love ever had to be a soldier.
For film buffs, there is also a chapter on the actual nittygritty details involved in making a historical film of this magnitude that I found very interesting.
And finally, on a personal note, I wanted to see the film because I remember my father talking about the event.
At the time, he was a young paper boy hawking newspapers on a street corner, and the Dunkirk evacuation was in the headlines.
Apparently, sales were quite brisk, He found the heroism of the British inspiring, Author Levine makes a good point that, without that determined heroism including the miraculous rescue of more that,Allied soldiers at Dunkirk, Hitler might have ultimately prevailed, and the world for all of us would be a very different place today.
Really good summary of events from the BEF's arrival in France to the eventual evacuation especially if you're like me, and knew very little of the details beforehand.
Most of the book is concerned with the retreat towards Dunkirk, which is slightly less exciting stuff, but it adds context and depth to the events of the actual evacuation in the last few chapters.
He throws so many placenames, dates, names of officers, divisions and squadrons at you that it's impossible to keep track of them, but you get the big picture which I think is the idea.
When reading history books like this or any book in general, it is important to see the content and happenings through a Biblical worldview and the plain fact that man/the world is fallen.
. or you are left with a hopeless and sick feeling in your gut,
Enter: Dunkirk.
First of all the interview at the beginning is pure gold, Christopher Nolan gives insight into his thought process behind the story and how it all came together, That and the last chapter,
Throughout the book, I got fiction vibes within this nonfiction piece of art, It really got me into the 'characters' that I 'met' as the expansive story was told almost as a panoramic photo.
The girl working to feed her family, The young man looking for adventure: he joins up the war, The man who watches a line of bare chested men get shot against a wall, Another young man witnessing the horrors of war as he stand over dead, water logged bodies that look nothing like humans.
He puked.
I wanted to as well,
The little tangent at the beginning has to do with this little rabbit trail of mine: in this book there's a high body count, quite a few mentions of men frequenting brothels because they wanted a last taste at life the author says, and other things.
This is essentially a story of defeat, It's pretty hopeless. Yeah there's hope at the end because men were evacuated and they had boosted morale, . . but when you think of the price tag dangling from that slice of morale and etc etc you start to see that it was bloodied and soaked with death.
Seeing this piece of history and other pieces of history through the fact that there's hope at the end of life and a reason for living is essential.
This isn't a fun historical account about soldiers who won and held victory and hope in their hands,
Those things slipped between the fingers of men who fought with all they had, Grit and honor. This piece of art was a good look at what war is like from the the pov of many different people.
A slap of reality of what these men felt and said and did and how they cried and wanted to drown.
From all this, it might seem hopeless, . . and it was. But on the flip side I saw hope streaming through the cracks,
This was an amazing book, I would recommend it to anyone who
a loves history and the context of this particular event, So educational and insightful.
b loves the movie a lot of little behind the scenes type of stuff
and I normally don't add this, but for friends who want a little content warning: obviously lots of death and blood.
Mentions of brothels and one or two guys briefly 'summarizing' what they saw and some other stuff, Not too graphic but a little much for a historical nonfic about war in my opinion, Some language, but most if not all is from quoted sentences/paragraphs from veterans and others, A guy does a recent study on how the term teenager evolved and how teens started acting like teens, A really interesting study, but as you can imagine one little section is about sex and what's become different with that culture wise vs.
a hundred years ago. Again nothing graphic but some might not appreciate that, An amazing read for those who have watched the movie and are hungry for more, If you haven't watched the movie I don't recommend reading this first, Actually, I really would have rather the author mentioned a bit more history and a bit less about how the film was made.
Volumen escrito para aprovechar el tirón de la película de Chris Nolan y que aporta poco o nada con detalles golfos enfocados a lograr mayores ventas en Estados Unidos como es estudiar la juventud de este país y dejar de lado la francesa o la belga, mucho más importantes para la historia.
El libro podría calificarse de testimonios, con el problema que ello conlleva el propio autor reconoce que existen cientos o miles de ellos, yo diría que uno por cada uno de los implicados en la campaña y es que con ello apenas se logra un esbozo de lo que sucedió.
Si se pretende obtener una descripción militar, política, social o diplomática de la campaña mejor buscar otra opción.
Como detalle revelador, apuntar que ni siquiera aparece el dato oficial de los rescatados al final de la campaña.
Desde el punto de vista militar, la descripción es pobre y en la que abundan los tópicos, sin ofrecer una idea nítida de la campaña, únicamente salpicando algunas descripciones de combates que poco ayudan a crear una idea de la situación real de la batalla.
Apenas se menciona a los franceses y su papel fundamental en la defensa del perímetro de Dunquerque, Y si la descripción de la batalla terrestre es muy deficiente, en lo referido a la campaña aérea, a la que se decida un capítulo entero, o el aspecto naval es ya directamente inexistente.
At the end of the first world war, it was heartbreaking to see the loss of life, and the families that would never quite be entirely whole again.
But the loss of life was not enough to keep Germany from wanting to rebuild and reinforce their ideals, While most of the world wanted to relax and forget the horrors that has happened, Germany was on a race to rearm.
They were going to be sure that when war eventually happened again that they were going to be ready,
While the world celebrated and rejoiced at the end of war times, Germany was rewriting their education, looking at what would have to happen to get everyone thinking to their mindset.
The answer The youth. . the youth are the first answer to most issues that will arise, Forget those already in the blush of life, the youth are the ones that will push movements, Win the youth, the rest will eventually follow, Germany realized this and began the indoctrination and mind control that would become so effective in building and maintaining troops, even as it became clear that their objective would never hold.
The United States was seeing a new trend with their teenagers how has this not always been a term, but the example that was being set by teens in the US was spreading.
While British teens and most of Europe copied the styles coming form the states, Germany was horrified, Britain also realized the hold of the youth, and while they acknowledged the fact, it was easier to allow them to just be kids.
Let them enjoy life, and ease into maturity, But the mindset would not last, With the slow takeover by the Germans, the magic faded away, Now, while that sounds nostalgic, the reality was life was economically hard, Higher pricing, depressed markets, and loss of jobs led to many living in dire straights, What could possibly pull the world out of the extremes A war, War sadly brings economy back, But enough on that
Dunkirk was a resounding defeat for the forces that were trying to escape the beach, and while boats were constantly back and forth to take them to safety, so too were the planes.
Bombs and machine gun fire ripped effectively through the troops just wanting to leave and go home, While the German forces pushed forward to their location, the British were simply trying to retreat, Their positions had been overrun, and there was nothing they could do, Running low on ammunition and food, they were simply sitting ducks, huddled together waiting for their turn to flee, To the German army, Dunkirk was a prize to be had and held, literally stopping the British forces from moving forward.
By holding that position, they could keep anything from coming in, . . or out. But as with all forces, some of the German high command was at war with itself, While most of the top brass held views that would have pushed them closer to victory, they were constantly curtailed and second guessed from non other than Adolf Hitler himself.
Believing himself to be invincible, and with the brainwashed troops and citizens in thrall, he simply believed he could do no wrong.
But as we have seen, mistakes were made the cost them the war, Instead of relying on the leadership that he had within his military, he was constantly reversing and seconding guessing orders that were being given.
Within the British government, Winston Churchill was fighting his own battle, While the incumbent Prime Minister was doing what he thought was best, Churchill was waging his own propaganda war, to quite a stunning effect.
Where the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain was attempting to retain control, Churchill was rallying support and keeping support for the armed forces alive.
In his turn as Prime Minister, he was a hard person to crack, one to push were men needing pushing, and known for not backing down from his ideals when he felt that he was right which was pretty much all the time.
But he had a war to wage, and he knew that in order to do so, American support would be vital.
The United States held out as long as they could, but we know that as soon as Pearl Harbor occurred, war had arrived, and Americans have never been ones to roll over and surrender.
Dunkirk, was bloody, messy, and for the British, their own "Remember the Alamo",
This book was an interesting read, I appreciated the fact that it not only held to what the British and French, but also the German and American viewpoints.
It is quite simply, unlike most books ever written, While this is now a motion picture check your theater for release dates end of July, the fact that this was really a defeat somehow turned victory is amazing.
The history and the time that this book encompasses shows the authors attention to detail, details that we do not find together.
Take the young German girl who laughed at the ideals that were set forth during their education and had a Jewish friend, but refused to think anything about the treatement that was being meted out to Jews all over Germany.
I feel as though this book and the movie will appeal to many, It is a simple timeline, but begins a chain of events which will, quite literally, change the world, .
Eyeopening,
/Released to tie in with the summer blockbuster, this books is an insightful and informative take on the historic events surrounding the Dunkirk rescue during the Second World War.
Reading this has certainly increased my anticipation for the movie, This was a very interesting, informative read, It details the history behind Christopher Nolan's film Dunkirk, and the process of using the history to make the film.
Joshua Levine is incredibly thorough in his description of Operation Dynamo and uses stories from the soliders who were there, to really bring the history to life.
It is a long heavy read, but its honest depiction of the brutatily of war and the rawness of the stories told makes it a must read.
Informative if not a little meandering, I liked the interview between Joshua Levine and Christopher Nolan at the beginning more than the rest of the book.
A very interesting audio book with some new angles due to its 'base' in the film, Thus watching same first is a must in my opinion,
I watched the film the year it was released and I remember it as being much different from any other war film I have seen.
Maybe because the director, Christopher Nolan, made a 'survival film', not a 'war film'
Either way, I have to watch it again, soon
This is an interesting and riveting story about the Second World War attack that took place at Dunkirk.
Sad and full of the terrors of war, the book is well written and brings the reader into the action.
Very well told and entertaining, but not an introductory read rather a collection of personal stories, Recommended for readers who already have an understanding of the battle in the context of WWII, A very satisfying read and highly recommended for any history buff, A Unique Book
Well, I thought this book was going to be more historical that it was.
Im not saying it wasnt historical, but it is from the movie makers point of you and not a true historians.
The book drifted a bit not today retreat as ever action packed but thats in the hands of the writer.
The writer missed on this, but the story itself was so interesting that it its saved the writer,
Im mildly recommend, I read this book AFTER seeing the movie, I would advise, if you have an interest in this part of WWII history, you read the book first and then see the movie.
This bit of advice will appall the film's director, Christopher Nolan, who intends for his movie to be experienced from the point of view ofordinary individuals: a soldier on the beach waiting for rescue, a RAF pilot in the skies above the beach trying to buy the soldiers enough time to be rescued, and a civilian boat captain racing across the channel to save those he can.
None of these individuals has the whole picture of what is transpiring, none of them can predict the outcome of their efforts, and all of them are in constant, mortal danger from a steadily advancing enemy.
If you see the film first even if you know the rudiments of the historical event you will feel often confused, alternately terrified and relieved, and spend a lot of time shouting at your fellow moviegoers the movie is very loud, "Why did he do that Who are those guys, anyway Is he injured or just trying to hide" Now that I've read the book, which includes a lengthy interview with Christopher Nolan, I understand that THAT type of experience is exactly what the director was
trying to achieve, as it most closely resembles the experience of the actual participants in this pivotal moment in British history, based on extensive interviews with those who know best veterans still living who survived the evacuation at Dunkirk.
If you decide to tackle the book, be advised there is a lot of discussion of tactical strategy and, sometimes, of the lack thereof and horrific scenes of war all taken straight from first hand accounts that make me very glad that I have not nor has anyone I love ever had to be a soldier.
For film buffs, there is also a chapter on the actual nittygritty details involved in making a historical film of this magnitude that I found very interesting.
And finally, on a personal note, I wanted to see the film because I remember my father talking about the event.
At the time, he was a young paper boy hawking newspapers on a street corner, and the Dunkirk evacuation was in the headlines.
Apparently, sales were quite brisk, He found the heroism of the British inspiring, Author Levine makes a good point that, without that determined heroism including the miraculous rescue of more that,Allied soldiers at Dunkirk, Hitler might have ultimately prevailed, and the world for all of us would be a very different place today.
Really good summary of events from the BEF's arrival in France to the eventual evacuation especially if you're like me, and knew very little of the details beforehand.
Most of the book is concerned with the retreat towards Dunkirk, which is slightly less exciting stuff, but it adds context and depth to the events of the actual evacuation in the last few chapters.
He throws so many placenames, dates, names of officers, divisions and squadrons at you that it's impossible to keep track of them, but you get the big picture which I think is the idea.
When reading history books like this or any book in general, it is important to see the content and happenings through a Biblical worldview and the plain fact that man/the world is fallen.
. or you are left with a hopeless and sick feeling in your gut,
Enter: Dunkirk.
First of all the interview at the beginning is pure gold, Christopher Nolan gives insight into his thought process behind the story and how it all came together, That and the last chapter,
Throughout the book, I got fiction vibes within this nonfiction piece of art, It really got me into the 'characters' that I 'met' as the expansive story was told almost as a panoramic photo.
The girl working to feed her family, The young man looking for adventure: he joins up the war, The man who watches a line of bare chested men get shot against a wall, Another young man witnessing the horrors of war as he stand over dead, water logged bodies that look nothing like humans.
He puked.
I wanted to as well,
The little tangent at the beginning has to do with this little rabbit trail of mine: in this book there's a high body count, quite a few mentions of men frequenting brothels because they wanted a last taste at life the author says, and other things.
This is essentially a story of defeat, It's pretty hopeless. Yeah there's hope at the end because men were evacuated and they had boosted morale, . . but when you think of the price tag dangling from that slice of morale and etc etc you start to see that it was bloodied and soaked with death.
Seeing this piece of history and other pieces of history through the fact that there's hope at the end of life and a reason for living is essential.
This isn't a fun historical account about soldiers who won and held victory and hope in their hands,
Those things slipped between the fingers of men who fought with all they had, Grit and honor. This piece of art was a good look at what war is like from the the pov of many different people.
A slap of reality of what these men felt and said and did and how they cried and wanted to drown.
From all this, it might seem hopeless, . . and it was. But on the flip side I saw hope streaming through the cracks,
This was an amazing book, I would recommend it to anyone who
a loves history and the context of this particular event, So educational and insightful.
b loves the movie a lot of little behind the scenes type of stuff
and I normally don't add this, but for friends who want a little content warning: obviously lots of death and blood.
Mentions of brothels and one or two guys briefly 'summarizing' what they saw and some other stuff, Not too graphic but a little much for a historical nonfic about war in my opinion, Some language, but most if not all is from quoted sentences/paragraphs from veterans and others, A guy does a recent study on how the term teenager evolved and how teens started acting like teens, A really interesting study, but as you can imagine one little section is about sex and what's become different with that culture wise vs.
a hundred years ago. Again nothing graphic but some might not appreciate that, An amazing read for those who have watched the movie and are hungry for more, If you haven't watched the movie I don't recommend reading this first, Actually, I really would have rather the author mentioned a bit more history and a bit less about how the film was made.
Volumen escrito para aprovechar el tirón de la película de Chris Nolan y que aporta poco o nada con detalles golfos enfocados a lograr mayores ventas en Estados Unidos como es estudiar la juventud de este país y dejar de lado la francesa o la belga, mucho más importantes para la historia.
El libro podría calificarse de testimonios, con el problema que ello conlleva el propio autor reconoce que existen cientos o miles de ellos, yo diría que uno por cada uno de los implicados en la campaña y es que con ello apenas se logra un esbozo de lo que sucedió.
Si se pretende obtener una descripción militar, política, social o diplomática de la campaña mejor buscar otra opción.
Como detalle revelador, apuntar que ni siquiera aparece el dato oficial de los rescatados al final de la campaña.
Desde el punto de vista militar, la descripción es pobre y en la que abundan los tópicos, sin ofrecer una idea nítida de la campaña, únicamente salpicando algunas descripciones de combates que poco ayudan a crear una idea de la situación real de la batalla.
Apenas se menciona a los franceses y su papel fundamental en la defensa del perímetro de Dunquerque, Y si la descripción de la batalla terrestre es muy deficiente, en lo referido a la campaña aérea, a la que se decida un capítulo entero, o el aspecto naval es ya directamente inexistente.
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM CHRISTOPHER NOLAN
The epic history of Dunkirk, May: when more than,trapped Allied troops were dramatically rescued from destruction at the hands of Nazi Germany by an extraordinary seaborne evacuation.
The true history of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians involved in the evacuation during the nine days fromMayJunehas passed into legend.
Now the subject of an epic motion picture from director Christopher Nolan, starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Mark Rylance the story Winston Churchill described as a 'miracle' is narrated by bestselling author Joshua Levine in its full, sweeping context.
Including new interviews with veterans and survivors, this book goes behind the scenes to explore the real lives of those soldiers, bombed and strafed on the beaches for days on end, without food and ammunition the civilians whose boats were overloaded the airmen who risked their lives to buy their companions on the ground precious time and those who did not escape.
Told from the viewpoints of land, sea and air, Joshua Levines Dunkirk is a dramatic account of this glorious defeat.
At the end of the first world war, it was heartbreaking to see the loss of life, and the families that would never quite be entirely whole again.
But the loss of life was not enough to keep Germany from wanting to rebuild and reinforce their ideals, While most of the world wanted to relax and forget the horrors that has happened, Germany was on a race to rearm.
They were going to be sure that when war eventually happened again that they were going to be ready,
While the world celebrated and rejoiced at the end of war times, Germany was rewriting their education, looking at what would have to happen to get everyone thinking to their mindset.
The answer The youth. . the youth are the first answer to most issues that will arise, Forget those already in the blush of life, the youth are the ones that will push movements, Win the youth, the rest will eventually follow, Germany realized this and began the indoctrination and mind control that would become so effective in building and maintaining troops, even as it became clear that their objective would never hold.
The United States was seeing a new trend with their teenagers how has this not always been a term, but the example that was being set by teens in the US was spreading.
While British teens and most of Europe copied the styles coming form the states, Germany was horrified, Britain also realized the hold of the youth, and while they acknowledged the fact, it was easier to allow them to just be kids.
Let them enjoy life, and ease into maturity, But the mindset would not last, With the slow takeover by the Germans, the magic faded away, Now, while that sounds nostalgic, the reality was life was economically hard, Higher pricing, depressed markets, and loss of jobs led to many living in dire straights, What could possibly pull the world out of the extremes A war, War sadly brings economy back, But enough on that
Dunkirk was a resounding defeat for the forces that were trying to escape the beach, and while boats were constantly back and forth to take them to safety, so too were the planes.
Bombs and machine gun fire ripped effectively through the troops just wanting to leave and go home, While the German forces pushed forward to their location, the British were simply trying to retreat, Their positions had been overrun, and there was nothing they could do, Running low on ammunition and food, they were simply sitting ducks, huddled together waiting for their turn to flee, To the German army, Dunkirk was a prize to be had and held, literally stopping the British forces from moving forward.
By holding that position, they could keep anything from coming in, . . or out. But as with all forces, some of the German high command was at war with itself, While most of the top brass held views that would have pushed them closer to victory, they were constantly curtailed and second guessed from non other than Adolf Hitler himself.
Believing himself to be invincible, and with the brainwashed troops and citizens in thrall, he simply believed he could do no wrong.
But as we have seen, mistakes were made the cost them the war, Instead of relying on the leadership that he had within his military, he was constantly reversing and seconding guessing orders that were being given.
Within the British government, Winston Churchill was fighting his own battle, While the incumbent Prime Minister was doing what he thought was best, Churchill was waging his own propaganda war, to quite a stunning effect.
Where the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain was attempting to retain control, Churchill was rallying support and keeping support for the armed forces alive.
In his turn as Prime Minister, he was a hard person to crack, one to push were men needing pushing, and known for not backing down from his ideals when he felt that he was right which was pretty much all the time.
But he had a war to wage, and he knew that in order to do so, American support would be vital.
The United States held out as long as they could, but we know that as soon as Pearl Harbor occurred, war had arrived, and Americans have never been ones to roll over and surrender.
Dunkirk, was bloody, messy, and for the British, their own "Remember the Alamo",
This book was an interesting read, I appreciated the fact that it not only held to what the British and French, but also the German and American viewpoints.
It is quite simply, unlike most books ever written, While this is now a motion picture check your theater for release dates end of July, the fact that this was really a defeat somehow turned victory is amazing.
The history and the time that this book encompasses shows the authors attention to detail, details that we do not find together.
Take the young German girl who laughed at the ideals that were set forth during their education and had a Jewish friend, but refused to think anything about the treatement that was being meted out to Jews all over Germany.
I feel as though this book and the movie will appeal to many, It is a simple timeline, but begins a chain of events which will, quite literally, change the world, .