Order Description

You are to read the book The Battle of Britain: Myth and Reality and write a critical review of the book. This review should address the major themes and ideas contained in the book. State the thesis of the book clearly near the beginning of your review. Avoid excessive summation. This assignment is not a summary, it is a critical review. Having stated the thesis and the basic premise(s) of the book, no further summary of the film is necessary. Use the allotted space for analysis rather than summary. In a short assignment such as this one, avoid lengthy and frequent direct quotations. Learn to paraphrase. Use footnotes or endnotes to cite the ideas you quote or paraphrase.

The Battle of Britain was one of the early turning points in the Second World War – the first time the West had been able to thwart Germany from achieving its goals after an unbroken string of victories. Much has been written of this struggle and most people associate it with the immortal words of Winston Churchill, the British prime minister: “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.” The “few” he referred to were the fighter pilots who defeated the Luftwaffe in the skies over Britain. Since Churchill made this statement, some historians have suggested that this idea of the “few” was really a myth and the outcome of the Battle of Britain was more complex than this. This is an example of one of the themes you should explore in this paper.

To help you contextualize the film, you may wish to consult a small number of resources (ie. Book reviews or other scholarly treatments of the Battle of Britain) to help you contextualize the material in the book. Use these resources to supplement NOT replace a discussion of the main ideas in the assigned book.

Length: no more than 3 pages.

Your review will be graded out of 20 marks as follows:

50 percent for style and content

50 percent for quality and suitability of analysis

12th grade english, double spaced, 4 sources