Surmounting the Barricades: Women in the Paris Commune Book

This was a fascinating look at the Dunkirk evacuation in May-June 1940 during World War II.

I was inspired to read a book on this topic after seeing Christopher Nolan's excellent film "Dunkirk." There are several nonfiction works available, and I chose Walter Lord's version because I had so enjoyed his book A Night to Remember, which was about the sinking of the Titanic.

For The Miracle of Dunkirk, Lord interviewed hundreds of survivors and people who were involved in the evacuation. He weaves the stories together in a loose chronological order, and the reader gets a real sense of the chaos and confusion of that period of the war. It was also inspiring when the hundreds of local boats arrived to carry soldiers across the channel. (That image was with me while watching news footage from Hurricane Harvey in Texas, and the hundreds of people who took out small boats to try and rescue people trapped in the rising floodwaters. The spirit to help others in trouble is alive and well.)

I love a good history narrative, especially one that makes you feel as if you are in the middle of the action. This book did that. Highly recommended for history fans.

Favorite Quotes
"It is customary to look on Dunkirk as a series of days. Actually, it should be regarded as a series of crises. Each crisis was solved, only to be replaced by another, with the pattern repeated again and again. It was the collective refusal of men to be discouraged by this relentless sequence that is important. Seen in this light, Dunkirk remains, above all, a stirring reminder of man's ability to rise to the occasion, to improvise, to overcome obstacles. It is, in short, a lasting monument to the unquenchable resilience of the human spirit."

"But the significance of Dunkirk went far beyond such practical considerations. The rescue electrified the people of Britain, welded them together, gave them a sense of purpose that the war had previously lacked. Treaty obligations are all very well, but they don't inspire men to great deeds. 'Home' does, and this is what Britain was fighting for now."

"Another ingredient was the sense of national participation that Dunkirk aroused. Modern war is so impersonal, it's a rare moment when the ordinary citizen feels that he's making a direct contribution. At Dunkirk ordinary Englishmen really did go over in little boats and rescue soldiers. Ordinary housewives really did succor the exhausted troops reeling back. History is full of occasions when armies have rushed to the aid of an embattled people; here was a case where the people rushed to the aid of an embattled army."