Orwell’s War: False Dawn (1940-41)

About this episode

This episode explores George Orwell's reflections on World War II during 1940 and 1941, examining key events and his political views.

Today’s episode in our new series about how George Orwell tried – and failed – to make sense of WW2 as it was happening looks at the events of 1940 and 1941, from the collapse of France to Hitler’s invasion of Russia. Why did Orwell write in March 1940 that there is something ‘deeply appealing’ about Hitler? What convinced him that Churchill ‘must go’? How close did Britain get to revolution in the summer of 1940? Where did the revolution go? You can listen to David’s earlier episode about Orwell’s The Lion and the Unicorn from our Great Political Essays series on our website here ⁠⁠https://www.ppfideas.com/episodes/history-of-ideas%3A-george-orwell⁠⁠. Or scroll down in your podcast app to find it, originally broadcast on 3rd August 2023. To hear David’s conversation with Alec Ryrie about The Age of Hitler subscribe to PPF+ to get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening ⁠https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus⁠. We put that one out as a PPF+ bonus on 5th July 2025. Next time in Orwell’s War: Frozen In Time (1942-43) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: David Runciman

Guest: Alec Ryrie

Topics covered

• George Orwell
• World War II
• political analysis
• historical events
• British politics
• Hitler

Keywords

• Orwell
• World War II
• Hitler
• Churchill
• political revolution
• historical analysis
• British history

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Lion and the Unicorn, The Age of Hitler

Places: Britain, France, Russia

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