The second volume in William Manchester’s “The Last Lion” Winston Churchill trilogy is titled “Alone 1932-1940.”

The nearly 700 pages of narrative covers Churchill’s “Wilderness” years when he alone sounded the alarm about Adolf Hitler and the military escalation of Nazi Germany. Churchill was still in Parliament but was out of power and mostly out of favor with the British prime ministers of that time period.

While prime ministers, such as Neville Chamberlain, appeased and capitulated to Hitler, Churchill called on Britain to quit caving into Hitler’s demands and halt the rising tide of Nazi Germany.

Given the hundreds of thousands of young men lost by England, France and others during World War I, the Allies were reluctant to enter another great war.

Soon, the victors of World War I were having terms dictated to them by the vanquished. Chamberlain and members of his cabinet wrongly assumed that Hitler wanted certain things but believed he was like them – he didn’t want war. They were wrong. Hitler wanted lands and he wanted war.

He built a massive mechanized army with more than seven million Germans in uniform, while Britain, France and other European nations dawdled. Britain and the allies had numerous opportunities when they could have successfully stopped Hitler, possibly even ending his career as the Fuhrer, but they instead gave into him while Germany grew stronger.

Once Chamberlain, his cabinet and others realized Hitler wanted conquest and war — what Churchill had been warning for years, it was too late to stop Nazi Germany.

While he may have been “alone” in his calls to stop Hitler, and openly taunt Hitler, Churchill was supplied information by numerous individuals inside the government. He had a vast ring of informants supplying him with data and intelligence. That coupled with his insightful mind, Churchill often had a better understanding of situations than Chamberlain and his ministers. Churchill often knew things prior to the prime minister.

As Churchill wrote numerous articles, made several speeches regarding Hitler and British response to Nazi Germany and attended to his parliamentary duties, he wrote epic histories for publication, designed and built brick walls on his property, painted canvasses, entertained numerous guests, smoked his cigars, drank his daily ration of alcohol and lived and worked with great energy all while in his 60s.

Manchester captures the flavor of Churchill in “Alone” but also the detailed negotiating and agonizing of numerous British leaders as well as the intimidating menace of Hitler during these fraught years. Manchester gives a hard-nosed assessment of the era of appeasement and capitulation.

An era that once ended saw Churchill elevated to Prime Minister as the rest of Europe fell under Hitler’s heel. Churchill was no longer alone in the Wilderness but he and Britain were alone against Nazi Germany.