56 pages • 1 hour read
Erik LarsonThe Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Importance of Anglo-American Alliance
Churchill persistently seeks an alliance with the United States to help Britain win the war and defeat the Germans. He firmly believes that America is the world’s most powerful democracy and that only her economic and military might can help Britain. Indeed, Churchill sees Britain and America as the two leading democracies in the world and the only forces that can win the war. This view was notably implied in his multi-volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples, written over several decades and published in 1956, which ends with a chapter on “The Great Democracies.”
Churchill seeks, first, to secure military aid from the United States and then hopes to have the US join the Allies in the war. This is all finally accomplished after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which forces the US into the war. It is the US diplomat Harry Hopkins who, more than anyone else, solidifies the feeling of an Anglo-American alliance among the British people. He does this by visiting with Churchill and his ministers and appearing at public events in which he gives speeches assuring the British people of America’s friendship with their country.
The Misuse of Science Is Endemic to the 20th Century
In a speech before the House of Commons on June 18, 1940, Churchill declares that if the Nazis win, the world will enter a new “dark age” marked by “the lights of a perverted science” (92). Throughout the book we see the terrible effects of the lust for power and destruction harnessed to scientific progress. The Nazis build ever more powerful bombs, tanks, and planes to achieve their objectives of world domination. They develop a sophisticated new form of radar to guide bomber planes to their destination with “startling precision.” Armed with their airborne weapons of destruction, they succeed in striking devastating blows on London and other British cities such as Coventry and Liverpool. By contrast, Churchill’s scientific experts use scientific knowledge in a defensive capacity to thwart the Nazis at their own game—such as by developing tools to interfere with the Germans’ navigational beams and misdirect their planes.
However, the RAF eventually goes on the offensive and enacts retaliatory attacks on German cities that also inflict considerable damage. Larson brings out the moral complexity of the situation of the Germans versus the British; both were exploiting science for the purposes of war. The Prof, in charge of devising new weapons for the British armed forces, views everything “through the icy lens of science” and espouses measures for attacking the enemy that “veer toward the ruthless” (261). For example, he suggests poisoning water wells used by Italian soldiers in the Middle East and using flaming oil to burn advancing troops (261).
The War Invaded the Everyday Lives of Civilians
Throughout the book we see how the war affected civilians in their everyday lives as well as those actively fighting it. In particular, the Blitz affects the lives of all of London citizens as they must take precautions to protect themselves against attack. Some take refuge in bomb shelters, others in hotels or hotel lobbies. Rationing limits the amount of tea, butter, eggs, and other basic food items people can buy. When bombs hit people’s homes, they must have them rebuilt and take refuge in public bomb shelters in the meantime. The bombs hit civilians and their homes randomly and indiscriminately; some buildings are utterly destroyed, others unharmed.
The dread of attack is mainly concentrated at night. During the day, life takes on “a strange normalcy” (241) as people go to work and engage in other activities without fear. There are piano concerts at the National Gallery and sunbathing in Hyde Park (241). Even at night, parties are held at various night clubs, where people brave the risk of being bombed—and some pay the price, as in the Café de Paris (383). In the countryside, people strolling watch air battles being fought directly overhead and deal with shrapnel falling to the ground or over their roof. These and similar scenes have a surreal aspect to them (238), in the way that the violence and heroism of the war invade everyday contexts.
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By Erik Larson
