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The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College > Search results for 'robert rhodes james'
Great Contemporaries: Sir Robert Vidal Rhodes James, 1933-1999
18
Apr
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Though his best-known work was Churchill: A Study in Failure,” Robert was an admirer who had hoped to write a sequel, "Churchill: A Study in Success." His eight volumes of Churchill’s speeches are simply indispensable. True, he was a curmudgeon, but also a grand raconteur, full of stories about Churchill and Parliament. Our colleague Paul Addison remembered “what fun he was to be with. Such a warm and generous character, sparkling with gossip and full of enthusiasms.”
Winston Churchill’s Unknown Canon, Part 1: Contributions to Other Works
17
Feb
2020
1
By RONALD I. COHEN
We all benefit from Hillsdale’s twenty-three volumes of The Churchill Documents, Robert Rhodes James’s Complete Speeches and the 332 Churchill articles in the Collected Essays. Vital as these contributions are, they do not capture everything Churchill wrote or said. There is far more. The task I set myself, all those years ago, was to find everything else, too. - Ronald Cohen
Great Contemporaries: Leopold Amery
24
Jun
2019
1
By BRADLEY TOLPPANEN
Of all those appointed to his cabinet in May 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had known Leo Amery the longest—back to when they were schoolboys. Despite the longevity of their relationship, they were never very close. Rather, as Robert Rhodes James wrote, “there was always a definite restraint, a lack of warmth, a noticeable caution and reserve” between them. Nevertheless, Amery played a notable part in ensuring Churchill’s premiership.
The Churchill Day Book: “Nothing Surpasses 1940”
06
May
2024
By BRADLEY P. TOLPPANEN
“We may, I am sure, rate this tremendous year as the most splendid, as it was the most deadly, year in our long English and British story....[N]othing surpasses 1940.... The soul of the British people and race had proved invincible. The citadel of the Commonwealth and Empire could not be stormed. Alone, but upborne by every generous heartbeat of mankind, we had defied the tyrant in the height of his triumph.” —WSC, 1949
Churchill’s Critics: Jibes, Ripostes and Insults
03
May
2024
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
We were struck by the good humor of some critics. Aside from Samuel Hoare and Aneurin Bevan, relatively few expressed real malice. Many others were delivered with or for laughs. A few evidenced genuine affection. It was another world, when decorum in political debate was expected.
Great Contemporaries: Stanley Baldwin, A Case for Magnanimity
29
Apr
2024
1
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
“As I was his chief critic my words are upon record.... The tragic course of events belied his judgment, but not all who now claim superior wisdom foresaw what was approaching. Here, then, there is erected this simple monument to the virtues and services of a good Englishman, who loved his country and faithfully sought the advance in the well-being of those whom it is now the fashion to call ‘the common people,’ but who were always dear to his heart.” —WSC
Churchillisms: “Take This Pudding Away—It Has No Theme”
26
Apr
2024
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“[The government] have no theme.... They have deluded the masses of their supporters in the country into believing they are about to bring into being some vast, splendid, new world. They have climbed and ensconced themselves upon the structures of Capitalism, and they are shouting to the mob below that they are going to pull them down.” —WSC, 1930
The Zinoviev Letter and 1924 “Red Scare”: Was Churchill Involved?
11
Apr
2024
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
The effect of the Zinoviev Letter on the 1924 election was negligible, but Churchill’s political use of it was interesting. In campaigning for office, he took full advantage. Even if it were forged, he said, it was nothing new where Bolsheviks were concerned. Calling Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald a “futile Kerensky,” he even published an article about it, criticizing MacDonald's reaction to the Letter but skirting the issue of genuineness.
Poland vs. Russia & Germany: Did Churchill Pick the Right Enemy?
26
Mar
2024
1
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
In June 1941, with Russia invaded and America still neutral, Churchill was desperate for allies. Until 1939, the Russians had not moved beyond their own territory. He had long concluded that Germany not Russia was the main expansionist threat. No one could see far ahead, yet no one worked harder than he for Poland’s independence after the war, and those efforts are on record.
“The World Crisis” (5) Dardanelles to Gallipoli: Failure is an Orphan
09
Mar
2024
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
What a story! A prime minister unwilling to be prime; a war minister reluctant to make war; backbiting among colleagues; idle babble to outsiders; changes of tune; dreams about the spoils of war; unwillingness to hear those who understood. It doesn't sound so far removed from the criticism now thrown at Western governments who have inherited the mistakes of a generation, and are expected to mend them overnight.
Churchill in Film and Video: Part 1, Dramatizations
23
Feb
2024
1
By GWEN THOMPSON, DAVE TURRELL, AND RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Churchill bio-films began well and generally of high quality for decades. Four of the all-time classics appeared early: “Young Winston” (1972), “The Wilderness Years” “The Gathering Storm” and “Jennie” (1974), and “The Wilderness Years” (1981). A long, mixed spell ensued, though there were many honorable mentions. In 2018, Garry Oldman starred in another superb production, “Darkest Hour,” proving that there is hope yet.
Pericles and Churchill: Matching Leadership, Millennia Apart
15
Feb
2024
By JUSTIN D. LYONS
Pericles sought to preserve Athens, its glory, power and reputation. Churchill demanded struggle not only for Britain, but for the very meaning of Britain—something larger than its borders, more powerful than its military strength and, ultimately more important than its survival: liberty. Churchill’s war was a battle for the freedom of man, to be defended first at home and then upon whatever far-flung fields the conflict would rage.