The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College

Hillsdale & Statesmanship

The study of statesmanship is central to the teaching mission of Hillsdale College, and the classics teach that the art can be best understood by studying those who have a reputation for it.

Why Churchill?

Churchill’s career presents an unsurpassed opportunity for the study of statesmanship, for he faced the great crises of the twentieth century and left behind one of the richest records of human undertaking.

Churchill & Hillsdale

Hillsdale College will promote a proper account of this record by combining the College’s educational expertise with its work both as publisher of Churchill’s Official Biography and as the repository of the Martin Gilbert papers.

Support the Churchill Project

for the Study of Statesmanship

Your generous support will build an endowment to fund national conferences, student scholarships, a faculty chair, and the completion and publication of The Official Biography of Winston Churchill.

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“Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace.”

—U.S. Congress, Washington, 26 December 1941
“We welcome any country where the people own the Government, and not the Government the people.”

—The Hague, Netherlands, 7 May 1948
"There is not one single social or economic principle or concept in the philosophy of the Russian Bolshevik which has not been realized, carried into action, and enshrined in immutable laws a million years ago by the White Ant.”

—“Mass Effects in Modern Life,” July 1927
“In war, Resolution. In defeat, Defiance. In victory, Magnanimity. In peace, Goodwill.”

—My Early Life, 1930
“We must always be ready to make sacrifices for the great causes; only in that way shall we live to keep our souls alive.”

—Oslo, 12 May 1948
“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

—On rebuilding the House of Commons, 28 October 1943
“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”

—Story of the Malakand Field Force, 1898
“All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Freedom; Justice; Honor; Duty; Mercy; Hope.”

—Albert Hall, London, 14 May 1947
“For myself I am an optimist—it does not seem to be much use being anything else—and I cannot believe that the human race will not find its way through the problems that confront it….”

—Guildhall, London, 9 November 1954
“The distinction between politics and strategy diminishes as the point of view is raised. At the summit true politics and strategy are one.”

—The World Crisis, vol. 2, 1923
“A man’s Life must be nailed to a cross either of Thought or Action.”

—My Early Life, 1930
“Nations which went down fighting rose again, but those which surrendered tamely were finished.”

—War Cabinet meeting, 28 May 1940

Recent Articles

Aug

Nolan’s Dunkirk: “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans”

Dunkirk, produced by Christopher Nolan, sets out to portray the 1940 rescue of the Allied armies from the clutches of Hitler’s Wehrmacht in terms of courage, heroism, survival, and a few examples of cowardice. In that he succeeds admirably. In terms of context—in conveying an understanding of what Dunkirk was about—he fails utterly.

Posted in: Explore,

May

Lessons in Statesmanship: Exchanging Classified Information in Wartime

It is not unprecedented for a head of state of a democratic nation to give classified information in wartime to the head of a despotism, including the Russian or the Soviet government. On April 3, 1941, Winston Churchill sent Joseph Stalin a message containing classified information for the purpose of informing him of German troop movements and military intentions.

Posted in: Explore,

May

Fake News from the Huffington Post

The Huffington Post presented five reasons why Churchill should not be featured on Britain’s five pound note. Four of these are common—but debunked—criticisms, and although the fifth is new, it holds up no better than the other four.

Posted in: Truths and Heresies,