On May 10, 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the same day Hitler invaded the Netherlands and Belgium. Weeks later, France would fall, and London would face nearly a year of nightly bombing. In this episode, Seth Winterhalter continues the MLDC Summer Series, Stories That Shape Leaders, with Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile — a vivid, deeply researched account of Churchill's first year as Prime Minister.
Seth breaks down why this book belongs on every municipal leader's shelf: the honest communication that built public trust even in Britain's darkest hour, the inner circle of advisors Churchill built and actually listened to, his insistence on one-page memos as a discipline of clear thinking, and the harder question of how leaders sustain themselves through a crisis with no clear end date. None of these are abstract history lessons...they're tools for anyone leading a city, county, or department through sustained pressure today.
