A Study in Failure: Churchill at the Admiralty, 1939-1940

Every politicians rise to power is a story of success and failure, accompanied by tantalising what-might-have-beens.

The career of Winston Churchill was no exception, with his eight months prior to becoming Prime Minister as First Lord of the Admiralty marked by the loss of important warships, the planning of disastrous expeditions and the design of impractical weapons.

Based on archival and biographical research, this account argues that Churchill's actions at the Admiralty were for the most...