On 4 June 1940 Winston Churchill warned the House of Commons and the British people not to assign the �'attributes of a victory�' to the Dunkirk evacuation; "wars," he warned, "are not won by evacuations". Churchill�'s words remind us that for much of this period the future of Great Britain hung in the balance. How did the British people respond to war in 1939? How did they cope with defeat in France, the threat of invasion and the Blitz? How serious were the debates about negotiating with Hitler in late May 1940? These are some of the questions we will consider during this course dedicated to the men and women, the leaders and the led, during Britain�'s �'finest hour�'.