The Fear and the Freedom Reviews

 

‘‘Beautifully written and profoundly perceptive, The Fear and the Freedom confirms Lowe as one of our finest historians.’’ Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad, Berlin: The Downfall 1945 and Ardennes 1944

The Fear and The Freedom is a deft blend of historical research, moving interviews, and challenging psychological insights. Lowe writes with elegance and perception. A truly illuminating read.’ Jonathan Dimbleby, author of The Battle of the Atlantic

‘Provocative, insightful and at times profoundly moving, this stunning book vividly demonstrates why the legacy of the most devastating conflict the world has ever known still has such extraordinary and wide-reaching resonance even to this today. I hope everyone – and our politicians especially – will read it and learn its vitally important lessons.’ James Holland, author of The War in the West

‘This richly-documented and wide-ranging book stimulates thoughts about the effects of war in general, and not only about WW2. It could have been entitled True Tales of the Unexpected, showing that history is fuller of surprises than any fiction. I wish schools would use books like this to introduce pupils to the complexity of the problems that face them.’ Theodore Zeldin, author of The Hidden Pleasures of Life and An Intimate History of Humanity

‘a concise, lucid and highly readable book’ Juliet Gardiner, author of Wartime: Britain 1939–1945

“a testament to the convoluted, contradictory and, in Lowe’s hands, thoroughly compelling impact of the bloodiest war in human history”

Sunday Times (London)

“This is an important book, impossible to summarise, profound in its humanity, bold in its confrontation of sacred myths. “The war” is still with us, not in a Cenotaph sense, but because it shaped almost all of us alive since 1945 with a certain understanding – some of it accurate, some of it self-serving, some of it self-protective – about how the world functions. It has served us surprisingly well, but it needs to be understood for what it is. Believing a mythology knowing that it is a mythology is the greatest freedom. Believing it to be simple truth is a delusion.”
– The Herald (Glasgow)

“a very fine work of history” Literary Review


“a masterpiece” – Daily Telegraph (London)


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UK Edition
BUY AT: AMAZON

BUY AT:WATERSTONES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

US Edition
BUY AT: AMAZON

BUY AT: Barnes & Noble

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BACK TO BOOKS PAGE

 




 

.