One of World War II's iconic photographs silhouettes London's St. Paul's Cathedral against a sea of fire, which invites the image of Britain standing alone and defiant. Gaskin digs into the person-in-the-street experience of the German air raid during which the picture was taken to gauge what the popular mood was under air attack. She finds in diaries and memoirs a spectrum of sentiments from fatalism to fear, but she also finds much to support the impression that solidarity was genuine, with people doing their best to withstand Hitler by carrying on with ordinary life. For instance, as the bombs fall, moviegoers continue watching The Great Dictator. Where did such imperturbability come from? Perhaps from an appreciation of history, of London as the center of a global empire: the author develops that notion with historical allusions to venerable buildings and their fire wardens, for the German target was the 2,000-year-old center of the metropolis, the City of London. With block-by-block detail, Gaskin richly portrays London's civic personality during one terrible night in wartime.