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Books
Charles Stephenson Examines WSC as Home Secretary
07
Aug
2023
4
By WILLIAM J. SHEPHERD
Churchill was the youngest Home Secretary since Sir Robert Peel in 1822. His, accomplishments, the greatest of which was prison reform, did not rank among his most remarkable. Still, he proved himself administratively and politically competent. Stephenson portrays a strange mix of radical and traditionalist, with a “mercurial approach to politics”— “a political Lazarus” who proved that the Home Office was not a career-ending move.
Exploring “The World Crisis,” Churchill’s Masterwork (1)
20
Jul
2023
2
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“It was the custom in the palmy days of Queen Victoria for statesmen to expatiate upon the glories of the British Empire, and to rejoice in that protecting Providence which had preserved us through so many dangers and brought us at length into a secure and prosperous age. Little did they know that the worst perils had still to be encountered and that the greatest triumphs were yet to be won....”
Pure Gold: Martin Gilbert’s “In Search of Churchill”
10
Jul
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
More than any of his nearly 90 works, "In Search of Churchill" is deeply personal. It is Sir Martin’s answer to all those critics over the years who accused him of being uncritical about a figure some have spent years denouncing. It is also, therefore, a self-defense manual for friends of Churchill: a smorgasbord of historical karate-chops.
“The Cambridge Companion to Winston Churchill”: a Review
06
Jul
2023
By ANDREW ROBERTS
Academics revel in pointing out their subjects’ feet of clay, but all too often pay too little attention to the marble in the rest of the statue. This is a relatively new phenomenon. The words that free peoples employ in their defence of the liberty to express contested ideas will largely be those of Sir Winston Churchill: the subject—but sadly not the hero—of this book.
“Winston Churchill & The Queen,” by Oliver Williams
26
Jun
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Much passed between The Queen and her first prime minister in their years of close association. But none of this is in the book, and Churchill’s quoted words are few. Instead, we get a hodgepodge of paraphrase, opinion, false trails, red herrings and off-the-wall pronouncements which sidetrack the story and will throw off the unwary.
Peden: A Fresh Look at Churchill, Chamberlain and the 1930s
19
Jun
2023
By CHRISTOPHER M. BELL
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.
Taylor Downing Adds a New Dimension to the Monumental Churchill Canon
30
May
2023
By WILLIAM J. SHEPHERD
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
By Williamson Murray
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.
Kishan Rana on Churchill and India: A Misunderstood Relationship
15
May
2023
2
By ANDREAS KOUREAS
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
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
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.
Cheers, Mr. Liddle: Building a Better Scottish Churchill
25
Apr
2023
By WILLIAM JOHN SHEPHERD
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.
Bourke Cockran: “Becoming Churchill” Becomes Better
10
Apr
2023
By GREGORY BELL SMITH
“I have never seen his like, or in some respects his equal. With his enormous head, gleaming eyes and flexible countenance, he looked uncommonly like the portraits of Charles James Fox. It was not my fortune to hear any of his orations, but his conversation, in point, in pith, in rotundity, in antithesis, and in comprehension, exceeded anything I have ever heard.” —Winston Churchill on Bourke Cockran