Subscribe now and receive weekly newsletters with educational materials, new courses, interesting posts, popular books, and much more!
Articles
Winston S. Churchill: The Official Biography Old and New
Readers of the Official Biography who own earlier editions have asked us how the new Document Volumes mesh with the eight biographic volumes, and why the byline of recent document volumes has expanded.
Document Volumes from 17 are edited by Sir Martin Gilbert and Larry P. Arnn. They are based on Sir Martin Gilbert’s “wodges” of documents, compiled before his death, covering virtually every day of Churchill’s life. They are produced by Hillsdale College Press, where Dr. Arnn is editor in chief (aided by a very able team).
The enormity of the task, as World War II reaches its climax, is suggested by the record size of volume 18. The following volume, covering eight key months from September 1943 to April 1944, will be no less comprehensive.
Old and new document volumes are differently numbered. Sir Martin renumbered the new ones sequentially, so they will run consecutively from 1 to 23—much less baffling than the old nomenclature. He also retitled one biographic and several document volumes, eliminating the confusion caused by the three 1990s War Papers (Companions to Bio. Vol. 6.) Happily, the pagination is unchanged between old and new volumes.
Here is a breakdown of the Hillsdale Biographic Volumes (bold face) and Document Volumes (with publication dates) in the order they appear on one’s shelf. The former Companion Volumes (CVs) are also noted.
Winston S. Churchill, Vol. 1, Youth 1874-1900 (2006)
Document Volumes:
1: Youth 1874-1896 (2006), was CV1 Part 1
2: Young Soldier 1896-1901 (2006), was CV1 Part 2
Winston S. Churchill, Vol. 2, Young Statesman 1901-1914 (2007)
Document Volumes:
3: Early Years in Politics 1901-1907 (2007), was CV2 Part 1
4: Minister of the Crown 1907-1911 (2007), was CV2 Part 2
5: At the Admiralty 1911-1914 (2007), was CV2 Part 3
Winston S. Churchill, vol. 3, The Challenge of War 1914-1916 (2008)
Document Volumes:
6: At the Admiralty July 1914-April 1915 (2008), was CV3 Part 1
7: “The Escaped Scapegoat” May 1915-December 1916 (2008), was CV3 Part 2
Winston S. Churchill, vol. 4 World in Torment 1916-1922 (2008)
—formerly The Stricken World 1916-1922
Document Volumes:
8: War and Aftermath December 1916-June 1919 (2008), was CV4 Part 1
9: Disruption and Chaos July 1919-March 1921 (2008), was CV4 Part 2
10: Conciliation and Reconstruction April 1921-November 1922 (2008), was CV4 Part 3
Winston S. Churchill, vol. 5, The Prophet of Truth, 1922-1939 (2009)
Document Volumes:
11: The Exchequer Years 1922-1929 (2009), was CV5 Part 1
12: The Wilderness Years 1929-1935 (2009), was CV5 Part 2
13: The Coming of War 1936-1939 (2009) CV5 Part 3
Winston S. Churchill, vol. 6 Finest Hour, 1939-1941 (2011)
Document Volumes:
14: At the Admiralty, September 1939-May 1940 (2011), was War Papers vol. 1
15: Never Surrender, May 1940-December 1940 (2011), was War Papers vol. 2
16: The Ever-Widening War 1941 (2011) was War Papers vol. 3
Winston S. Churchill, vol. 7, Road to Victory, 1941-1945 (2013) *
Document Volumes:
17: Testing Times 1942 (2014)
18: One Continent Redeemed, January-August 1943 (2015)
19: Fateful Questions, September 1943-April 1944 (2017)
20: Normandy and Beyond, May-December 1944 (2018)
21: The Shadows of Victory, January-July 1945 (2018)
Winston S. Churchill, vol. 8, Never Despair, 1945-1965 (2013)
Document Volumes:
22: Leader of the Opposition, August 1945-September 1951 (2019)
23. Never Flinch, Never Weary, October 1951-January 1965 2019)
* There’s a little confusion here: Sir Martin ends Biographic Volume 6 with Pearl Harbor, and Biographic Volume 7 takes up from there with Churchill’s visit to North America in December 1941. Thus it is subtitled “1941-1945,” even though the documents for the last three weeks of December appear in Document Volume 16.
How do I buy these and the other 17 volumes?
=
Order from the Hillsdale College Bookstore:
http://bookstore.hillsdale.edu/MerchList.aspx?ID=15446
Amazon also stocks them.
-Editors