The Italian Navy in “The Churchill Documents,” Volume 19

After the surrender of Italy to the Allies in September 1943, the Italian Fleet was apportioned between the Allied powers and absorbed into their navies. Although the Axis had by then been cleared out of the Mediterranean, German forces having surrendered in Tunis that May, the ships played a significant part in the rest of the war. Negotiations regarding the apportioning of the Italian Fleet, in volume 19 of Hillsdale’s "The Churchill Documents," Fateful Questions, September 1943 to April 1944, provide a fascinating backdrop and insight into relations between Britain, America and Russia leading up to the November 1943 Teheran Conference and its aftermath.

The longest biography in history takes a long step to completion with publication of The Churchill Documents, Vol. 19, Fateful Questions, September 1943-April 1944. Fastidiously compiled by the late Sir Martin Gilbert and edited by Dr. Larry Arnn, these 2700 pages serve up another fresh contribution of documents crucial to our understanding of Churchill in World War II. It is a vast new contribution to Churchill scholarship.

It is a good sign of a book’s quality when readers wonder why points so obvious have never before been made. Indeed it seems incredible that Churchill’s long, multi-layered and ambiguous relationship with Ireland has never before received the detailed and forensic treatment that Paul Bew now provides us. His book is readable, reliable, and brings new perspectives to the topic. For example, Lord Bew points out that Gallipoli, usually seen as an tragedy for the Australia New Zealand Army Corps, produced stirrings of nationhood in the Emerald Isle as great as in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Few historians have addressed this point before. Lord Bew reminds us that Churchill was intimately involved in the Curragh Mutiny, and the incredibly sensitive Irish negotiations up to the outbreak of the First World War—and that this formed his “training” in handling nationalist extremism and domestic political violence.

There is a story that when Churchill was asked to cut funding to the arts in order to support the war effort in World War II, he responded “Then what would we be fighting for?” Although this quotation is not present in his writings, Winston Churchill valued the arts, especially painting and sculpture, as an essential component of national life.

Churchill reveled in answering questions from Parliament. He was remarkably skilled at doing so, as exemplified when he was accused of keeping inconsistent views. He simply responded: “My views are a harmonious process which keeps them in relation to the current movement of events.”

Churchill, it appears, took the view that the mind is not infinitely expandable. Time and again, he exhibited vast gaps in economic and financial knowledge. His salvation was that he studied when he had to, and kept close knowledgeable friends to fill in the gaps. When it mattered, he sought out what he needed to know.

As far as we can tell, there are no examples of Churchill criticizing British politics in speeches abroad. It is sometimes argued that criticizing one’s country is a sign of strength. Refraining from doing so, even if criticism is warranted, is a sign of greater strength. Churchill offered many apologies for British actions privately, when warranted, including overseas, in the course of World War II—but not in public forums.

Hillsdale College will host an exhibition of nine original paintings by Winston Churchill from January 30 to March 10. This traveling exhibition, which also includes memorabilia from Churchill's life and times, is organized by the National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

Churchill never sneered at the supposed loss of French military power and valor in 20th century. He knew France provided a nearly indispensable buffer against Germany, and later, Russia.

What was it really like to watch Churchill win Dundee for the Liberals in 1910? A contemporary reporter, Luigi Barzini, Sr., brings the rollicking scene to life.

One must not expect an austere academic compendium, but this does not mean that this small album would be out of place in a university library. Its attractive layout has a lot to say for it when one bears in mind how difficult is it sometimes to persuade students to read anything not on their syllabus.

Journalist Stephen Cliffe has assembled a small volume that surveys the lives and careers of three World War I British leaders. Churchill may have been given pride of place in the book title because of his later prominence, or for alphabetic order; but in fact their relative importance in World War I was exactly the opposite.