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The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College > Articles
Churchillisms: “Take This Pudding Away—It Has No Theme”
26
Apr
2024
“[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
Churchill’s Travels: Fifty-six Countries, Ninety Years
22
Apr
2024
1
Churchill, a grand traveler, visited at least fifty-six countries. Here are the dates of first visits and what he did and said about each. We omit places where we cannot confirm he went ashore, such as Port Said, Egypt en route India in 1896. If his remarks were addressed to anyone in particular, they are identified. The presentation is chronological by year or alphabetical within the same year. An appendix lists countries alphabetically.
“The World Crisis” (8): The Battle of Jutland, 1916
20
Apr
2024
“Churchill was right to focus on the stakes, for one of the most difficult decisions of the Battle of Jutland was whether to fight it at all. The British already held naval superiority and need not engage unless they expected to emerge victorious. The Admiralty and the Fleet Commander, Sir John Jellicoe, thought they could defeat the Germans in a traditional naval battle. But one variable gave them pause: the torpedo.”
The Whole of Churchill and Africa, Explored by C. Brad Faught
15
Apr
2024
African leaders like Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela cited the Atlantic Charter as their inspiration. Ultimately, when accompanied by civil order and democratic institutions, Churchill accepted African independence. Charges of racism are now so perversive as to be a trope, far removed from historical contextualization and based on modern notions of morality. Finely written books like Faught’s go a long way to righting the balance and revealing the truth.
The Zinoviev Letter and 1924 “Red Scare”: Was Churchill Involved?
11
Apr
2024
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.
Churchill General Election and By-Election Results 1899-1959
09
Apr
2024
1
Churchill was the winner in fourteen out of sixteen general elections in his career, an impressive performance; his record in by-elections, two out of five, was not nearly so solid, but those losses twice led to new seats that he held for long stretches. Defeated in Manchester in 1908, he moved to Dundee, which he held for sixteen years. Starting in 1924 he represented Epping, later Woodford, without serious challenge for forty years.
“The World Crisis” (7): The “Soul-Stirring Frenzy” of Verdun
05
Apr
2024
For Churchill, Verdun was a lesson on what to avoid: protracted trench warfare and slaughter in exchange for a few yards of territory. Worse was to come, at the Somme and Passchendaele. Verdun typified the horrors ahead. It was also a proving ground for terrible new technologies like machine guns, poison gas, anti-aircraft guns and flamethrowers. All these were features of a war Churchill had feared and tried to stop.
Cita Stelzer Examines Churchill’s Hold on Americans—and Theirs on Him
01
Apr
2024
In 1895 Churchill wrote his brother: “This is a very great country, my dear Jack.” Cita Stelzer shows that he never changed his opinion. He thought America’s “gusts of friendliness...expansive gestures...hospitality and every form of kindness...meshed well with British “reserve and frigidity.... It is in the combination of these complementary virtues and resources that the brightest promise of the future dwells.” It did then. It should now.
“The World Crisis” (6) Lessons of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli
29
Mar
2024
Winston Churchill usually avoided making the same mistake twice. He certainly regarded the Dardanelles and Gallipoli as his worst experience. “I was ruined for the time being in 1915 over the Dardanelles,” he wrote. “[A] supreme enterprise was cast away, through my trying to carry out a major and cardinal operation of war from a subordinate position. Men are ill-advised to try such ventures. This lesson had sunk into my nature.”
Poland vs. Russia & Germany: Did Churchill Pick the Right Enemy?
26
Mar
2024
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.
Great Contemporaries: Edmund Murray, Churchill’s Ubiquitous Bodyguard
19
Mar
2024
“The Churchill I knew was the epitome of all that was ever good and fine in our island race and he was always proud of his American heritage. Always his aim was to make Britain great, and to join all European countries in peace and freedom.... We all have a job to do and indeed the tools to do it are in your hands. Vivre a jamais dans l’esprit des gens, n’est-ce pas l’immortalite? There is the heritage he left us, our raison d’etre. May we all be worthy of his trust.”
The Lion and the Mouse: Did Churchill Desecrate Rubens?
14
Mar
2024
Did the Prime Minister defile a Rubens? Technically it was possible, especially if Churchill used tempera. But official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert was doubtful: “This story, charming though it is, and often retold, may be typical of (dare I say it?) the wilder shores of oral evidence. Churchill was surely too great an art lover to ‘touch up’ a Rubens.”