Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture Paperback – Illustrated, June 27, 2017

Great book. Just a little tedious in parts but overall a very good read. It's a very good companion to the motion picture. I happen to have read it before seeing the motion picture and it made the experience much better. Although seeing the movie first would not spoil the book. They compliment each other not matter which one was seen or read first.

Mr. Levine succeeds in both presenting an accurate historical account of the events leading up to, including, and following the evacuation, while giving us a backstage pass into the making of the film. As I write this I am 3 days away from seeing the movie and the book has certainly whetted my appetite.

Christopher Nolan, the creative genius behind The Dark Knight (Batman), Inception and Memento turns his eye next to Dunkirk, which tells the true story of a major British military evacuation off the coast of Belgium during WWII.Dunkirk is based on a book of the same name by historian Joshua Levine. Levine's 2011 book has been updated for the upcoming movie release, and it is bookended with an interview between Levine and Nolan at the beginning of the book about why Nolan chose this project, and a chapter at the end of the book discussing the process of making the movie, including comments from members of the production team. Movie buffs will love these extra chapters, giving them a fascinating insight into the process of moviemaking.History buffs will love the actual story of Operation Dynamo itself. I confess to not being a big military history reader, so the sections of the book I found most intriguing had to do with the historical perspective of the events that led up to Britain's involvement in WWII.Great Britain was still reeling from the effects of WWI, fought nearly twenty years prior. They lost an entire generation of men in WWI, and the thought of losing another generation to a war with Germany was not one that many people wanted to contemplate.The worldwide depression severely impacted Great Britain, with unemployment high. With no system of welfare, there was tension between the classes, and extreme political parties were able to gain a foothold exploiting this. One can see echoes of this in today's world events as well.Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain believed that he could work with Hitler's Nazi government to avoid war. He was accused of appeasement, and this led to the election of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of Great Britain during the most trying time in history.Churchill approved the plans for Operation Dynamo, which called for the evacuation of as many as 40,000 British troops from Dunkirk. The Germans were about to surround the British and French troops, and in order to save the troops from a certain slaughter or capture, they must arrange for an evacuation. Failure to save these troops would mean that the Allies would most likely lose the war, and the world today would be a much different place if that had happened.The book goes into great detail about the actual logistics of the evacuation, a monumental task. Every available military and private ship and boat was recruited to make the trip to Dunkirk to ferry the soldiers back to England. There are many remembrances from people who make that voyage, and they are so interesting.The troops were sent to the beach, and with tens of thousands of soldiers along the beach, some for many days, it became a little city of its own. Men played cards, built small shelters, and waited and waited until it was their turn to wade out in to the sea to be rescued, all while being attacked from the sky by German airplanes.Levine compared this scene to the one of refugees from war and poverty who are taking any form of floating apparatus to get to the shores of Greece and Italy, an apt comparison.Dunkirk is a fascinating look at a historical event that many people don't know about. While some people felt that this event was a story of a failed battle, Levine looks at it as an incredible story of survival. The goal was to save 40,000 troops, and the reality was that over 260,000 troops were rescued from the shores of Dunkirk, an astonishing number.England used Dunkirk as a rallying cry and people in England today still speak of the "Dunkirk Spirit" when talking about bucking up and working together to achieve a goal that seems unattainable.I highly recommend Dunkirk for movie fans, history and military history buffs.

Historically, Dunkirk was superb. I appreciated the events (militarily) leading up to the evacuation itself. I am a close combat veteran, so was able to "feel" the actions described by the Brits, Germans and French. Amazing. On the down side, I was unable to keep up with what was happening: I didn't have a 1:25,000 scale map available and that was necessary. Too many repetitive interviews, and British outfits hard to follow. Finally got to be sorta' boring.

This is a decent account of the evacuation of the (mostly) UK army from the continent, marred significantly by extensive references to the eponymous movie. The cover announces that the book is associated with the movie, so this is not deceptive, but, still, I didn't enjoy the frequent references to the movie and skipped reading those parts. Did you like the movie? I think a different narrative would have told the story better, don't you?

When you see a book like this, a mass market paperback with the cover ripped directly from the movie poster, you tend to think that you're in for an awful adaptation or an annoyingly formatted classic. Dunkirk completely flips the script on this trend and offers unique and interesting takes on the battles leading up to the evacuation at Dunkirk. This is also more of a companion to the movie than a substitute for it, and if anything made me want to watch the film more than the trailers did. Would definitely recommend if you are interested in history, war stories, or just like a good underdog tale.

The book Dunkirk by Josh Levine brought the fantastic survival event to life for me! I had seen the movie, so the insights into the writing and filming of the movie enhanced my appreciation of the magnificent historical event!!!

Well done although so heavily dependent on anecdotes that the totality of the military miracle is missed.

A history with a difference. Rather than a straightforward retelling of the historical storylines, this explains the history that is relevant to the Christopher Nolan 2017 film, Dunkirk.The author, Joshua Levine, was the historical consultant for the film, and he mentions a couple of the historical liberties that the film took for cinematic purposes. He also explains at length the purpose of the different timelines used in the film, and also the total lack of Germans. Simply put, both are how the storyline would have appeared to those taking part at the time.British, German, French and Belgian leaderships soon after the event, and down the years have all used the Dunkirk story for their political purposes. The author explains this well.Where were the RAF? That is patiently explained as well... the reasoning being that they couldn’t be seen fighting the Luftwaffe over the beaches, precisely because they were fighting them elsewhere, or that the Luftwaffe avoided the Dunkirk area when the RAF did make brief visits due to the critical fuel range problems they faced from the airfields they flew from.The final chapter is devoted to the making of the film, the cinematography, the visual effects (mostly in camera, not CGI), and the casting. All these are linked to the historical context.A very enjoyable book.

This is an interesting read about the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk. It gives a lot of detail about it but the reason I have given the book 4 stars & not 5 was due to the amount of detail leading up to the evacuation. The first half of the book is the lead up whereas I wanted to know more about the evacuation itself.Nevertheless, a good read.

Great . Really thought out report.

For anyone interested in history, Dunkirk or to be honest who's a citizen of the world this is a good read. It brings the famous story of deliverance to life. Both by putting it into historical context (how did the BEF get to this point) and by providing personalised, individuals stories for the reader. Highly recommended!

Great companion to movie