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The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College > Articles
Peden: A Fresh Look at Churchill, Chamberlain and the 1930s
19
Jun
2023
Chamberlain failed because he did not understand Hitler. He believed Hitler could be trusted, and had only modest and reasonable territorial ambitions. Once it became clear that Hitler could not be trusted and was pursuing a vast expansionist agenda, Chamberlain’s views on alliances, rearmament and deterrence began to align more closely with Churchill’s.
Boris Resigns, Churchill Reminds: Constitutional Duty of Representatives
15
Jun
2023
“The first duty of a Member of Parliament is to do what he thinks in his faithful and disinterested judgment is right and necessary for the honour and safety of Great Britain. His second duty is to his constituents.... It is only in the third place that his duty to the party organization or programme takes rank.” —WSC, 1955
Testimony to History: Churchill’s Chartwell Visitors Book
12
Jun
2023
Using the digital Visitors Book, in the Chartwell Exhibition Room, we can view signatures and profiles of all the people who visited over forty of the most historic and challenging years of the 20th century. This great work of many hands provides viewers with a unique, highly specialized opportunity to learn more about the private lives of Winston and Clementine Churchill and their family.
Cancellation Attempts, 1939: Kitty Atholl, Winston Churchill
05
Jun
2023
2
Even in her time a politician could be “cancelled” for saying things deemed unfashionable by the prevailing orthodoxy. Back then the orthodoxy was the Munich agreement. Her criticisms of it cost the Duchess of Atholl her party and her seat in Parliament. She went down fighting, but never wavered in her causes: human rights and Churchill’s campaign against Appeasement.
Taylor Downing Adds a New Dimension to the Monumental Churchill Canon
30
May
2023
Downing does a great job in presenting the story in a near-real time format. This enables the reader to have a better understanding of the impact of intertwining events. His extensive use of Mass-Observation, a compilation of surveys and observations on the concerns of Britons, is illuminating in light of the later hindsight that sometimes approaches dogma. It genuinely adds a new dimension to the monumental Churchill canon.
Oliver Popplewell on Munich, with Some Omissions
23
May
2023
1
Popplewell explains Czechoslovakia’s great problem: the intermixing of nationalities during the old Hapsburg Empire. The collapse of the ramshackle Empire in 1918 caused the Versailles Peace Conference to reorganize an area where Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles, Germans, Jews, and Romani were intermixed. The difficulty for Czechoslovakia was that Sudeten Germans were settled heavily in the mountainous areas surrounding Bohemia and Moravia.
Great Contemporaries: John Morley, Giant of Old
18
May
2023
“Present party designations have become empty of all contents... Vastly extended State expenditure, vastly increased demands from the taxpayer who has to provide the money, social reform regardless of expense, cash exacted from the taxpayer already at his wits’ end—when were the problems of plus and minus more desperate?... We can only trust to the growth of responsibility; we may look to circumstances and events to teach their lesson.” —John Morley
Kishan Rana on Churchill and India: A Misunderstood Relationship
15
May
2023
2
The most common misconceptions about Churchill and India are no better misrepresented than by former Indian Ambassador Rana. Ladled on wholesale are false accusations of genocide, imperial hatred and invented conspiracies. The ridiculous price for so short a book may do more than anything to prevent people from reading it. Which, given the contents, may not altogether be a bad thing.
Keen Historical Insights by Jock, the Intelligent Cat
11
May
2023
3
Larry Kryske has provided Jock the cat with a translator and a publisher, offering a charming insight into Churchill’s old age. He asks you only to suspend disbelief and accept that cats, after all, are people too. Notably, Jock never refers to WSC as “my master,” but rather as “my human.” Theirs was a partnership of equals: a “Grand Alliance.” There is solid history here too, as it can be delivered by an author steeped in knowledge.
Moments in Time: The Churchills in Criccieth, Wales, September 1913
09
May
2023
It is sobering to speculate on the fate of those pictured, the young men especially, and the young women who would watch them go. If it felt like the height of Empire, it was soon to usher in the end of Empire. Within a few months the Byzantine components of interlocking treaties would slam inexorably into place. Churchill and Lloyd George had enormous roles yet to play. But an age was ending, and their days of football in the field would not return.
Napalm: An Example of Churchill’s Disdain for Terror Weapons
27
Apr
2023
“I do not like this napalm bombing at all. A fearful lot of people must be burned.... If people have to go to their work every day and live in their homes, they have not much choice of dwelling.... I do not see how Press articles and jabber of that kind compares with splashing about this burning fluid on the necks of humble people living where they have to.” —WSC
Cheers, Mr. Liddle: Building a Better Scottish Churchill
25
Apr
2023
Andrew Liddle believes today’s Scotland ignores Churchill in part because the hero of 1940 eclipses the memory of his earlier Liberal phase. Also, Churchill is a victim of the constitutional debate that sees him as representing the union with England now resisted by some Scots. Yet Churchill supported Scottish devolution long before it became politically popular.