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Books
The Whole of Churchill and Africa, Explored by C. Brad Faught
15
Apr
2024
By WILLIAM JOHN SHEPHERD
African leaders like Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela cited the Atlantic Charter as their inspiration. As long 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 World Crisis” (7): The “Soul-Stirring Frenzy” of Verdun
05
Apr
2024
By JOSEPH STURDY
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
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
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” (8): The Battle of Jutland, 1916
29
Mar
2024
By GWEN THOMPSON
“Churchill was right to focus on the stakes of battle, 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. While 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 World Crisis” (6) Lessons of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli
29
Mar
2024
By KEARA GENTRY
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.”
“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.
“The World Crisis” (4) Dardanelles: Success Has 1000 Fathers
04
Mar
2024
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
The War Council waxed euphoric over Dardanelles prospects, "turning eagerly from the dreary vista of a ‘slogging match’ on the Western Front." Next, why not a naval attack up the Danube, landing at Salonika, and sending a fleet up the Adriatic? One member envisioned the end of the Ottoman Empire and expansion of the British Empire as far as Palestine. None of these naively optimistic visions were voiced by Winston Churchill.
“Fighting Retreat” by Walter Reid: Did Churchill Really Hate India?
26
Feb
2024
By ZAREER MASANI
The promise of Dominion status required only that Congress, the Muslim League and the princes agree on power-sharing at a federal Centre. To blame Churchill for the internal divisions that obstructed such a coalition obfuscates reality. A power-sharing deal between Nehru and Jinnah would have made nonsense of Churchill’s fears. Instead, India’s fragile imperial unity fell apart under majoritarian strains. That gave Churchill the dubious distinction of being proved right.
“The World Crisis” (3): Antwerp—Folly or Success?
13
Feb
2024
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“Only one man of all your people had the prevision of what the loss of Antwerp would entail and that man was Mr. Churchill. Delaying an enemy is often of far greater service than the defeat of the enemy. The delay the Royal Naval Division caused was of inestimable service to us. These three days allowed the French and British Armies to move northwest. Otherwise, our whole army might have been captured and the Northern French Ports secured by the enemy.” —King Albert of the Belgians
Who Really “Shaped” Winston Churchill?
09
Feb
2024
By MICHAEL MCMENAMIN
“Mirrors of Greatness” mainly substitutes figures Churchill interacted with for those who actually shaped him. Where are the people who really influenced Churchill before he was “firmly set” in his character—in his mid-twenties? Besides Bourke Cockran, whom he revered all his life, where are Elizabeth Everest, Lady Randolph Churchill, Pamela Plowden, John Morley, Bindon Blood and Bishop James Welldon? None are included.
“The World Crisis” (2): The Marne and Its Meaning
29
Jan
2024
By GWEN THOMPSON
“One must suppose upon the whole that the Marne was the greatest battle ever fought in the world,” Winston Churchill wrote in 1931. Its scale, he added, “far exceeded anything that has ever happened.” It actually “decided the World War,” for “never after the Marne had Germany a chance of absolute triumph.”
Jack Pease Insights on the 1911-15 Liberal Government
15
Jan
2024
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
Pease enhances our understanding Cabinet decisions during the Great War’s first critical months, hitherto mainly represented by Asquith’s gossipy letters to his lady friend. But virtually every entry is accompanied by a superb editorial gloss that not only fills in the context but acts as a review of all recent scholarship on the subject covered, or alluded to in the entry. Everything is good about this book—except the price.