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2016
“Winston Churchill: Politics, Strategy and Statecraft”
18
Jan
2018
By MICHAEL RICHARDS
The book provides “a short, accessible and analytical introduction to key themes in Churchill’s life [that] reflect cutting edge scholarship.” But several books do that better [...]. This book does not offer much that is new, and lacks editorial unity. Some authors cover the same ground, variously agreeing or contending, with no cross-references or attempts to contrast their opinions.
Bristol University: Churchill’s Longest Academic Connection
09
Oct
2017
“Churchill and the Bomb” – by Kevin Ruane
17
Feb
2017
By GRAHAM FARMELO
“There are many valuable accounts of Churchill’s nuclear thinking during his second premiership, notably in books by Klaus Larres and Peter Hennessey. But, for me, the account Ruane gives here is outstanding for the breadth of its scholarship, the richness of its narrative and the acuity of its judgements.”
“Churchill & Ireland” – by Paul Bew
03
Feb
2017
By ROBERT COURTS MP
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.
“I Love Churchill” – by Cate Ludlow
12
Jan
2017
By ANTOINE CAPET
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.
“The Heroic Memory” – Ronald I. Cohen, editor
09
Jan
2017
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Among the charms of this book are the speakers’ many references to Canada—tailored, of course, to their hosts, but nevertheless fitting, and not often acknowledged in histories we read today. Per capita, Canada was the largest contributor of fighting personnel, materiel and capital to the Allied cause in World War II. No nation was more generous, and by the time the war ended the feisty Canadian Navy was one of the largest and most effective afloat. Every speaker at Edmonton, in his or her own way, acknowledged the enormous debt we all owe to “The True North Strong and Free.”
“All Behind You, Winston” – by Roger Hermiston
05
Dec
2016
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“Churchill’s titanic reputation,” Roger Hermiston writes, has tended to eclipse the vast cast of men—and women—who steered Britain through the worst crisis in her history. Nevertheless, and to his credit, Churchill put them together. In his book, "All Behind You, Winston," Hermiston chronicles not only how they worked in harness, despite manifestly different backgrounds, but how Churchill—whom many say had no concern for others—orchestrated their performance.
“Commander in Chief” – by Nigel Hamilton
19
Oct
2016
By PATRICK J. GARRITY
The sequel to Nigel Hamilton’s "The Mantle of Command", this book continues to explain, as he sees it, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s political and strategic thought and action in the Second World War. As one reviewer put it, Hamilton seeks to compose the memoirs FDR himself was never able to write.
“With Winston Churchill at the Front” – by Andrew Dewar Gibb
22
Aug
2016
By WILLIAM JOHN SHEPHERD
Gibb’s original work, nine chapters and 112 pages, was a slender volume, notable as an early firsthand account of Churchill’s military sojourn after his famous fall from political power in 1915. This new edition is an odd but useful amalgamation of Gibb’s 1924 text with copious extractions or rewrites from Sir Martin Gilbert’s first volume (The Challenge of War) in the official biography, Winston S. Churchill.
“Hero of the Empire” – by Candice Millard
18
Jul
2016
1
By ANDREW ROBERTS
Millard's book covers one year in the life of Winston Churchill—1899—and argues that those twelve months were absolutely epicentral to the man he later became. It established his national fame, connected his fate to that of the British Empire, introduced him to key figures who were to loom large later in his life, and set him on the road to his phenomenally successful political career.