Subscribe now and receive weekly newsletters with educational materials, new courses, interesting posts, popular books, and much more!
Explore
Great Contemporaries: Bring Back Jacky Fisher! Part 3
12
Feb
2018
By BARRY GOUGH
Jacky Fisher was not finished. He was restless, an agitator. His dismay over the conduct of the naval war brought him closer to Churchill, and soon the two were on favourable terms, locked in a curious destiny. The press baron George Riddell wrote: “Fisher, the Duchess, and Winston are now bosom friends.”
Great Contemporaries: Bring Back Jacky Fisher! Part 2
05
Feb
2018
By BARRY GOUGH
Churchill began with an impassioned indictment of Admiralty management and the government. Carefully, precisely, he cited shipbuilding delays, the German threat to Britain’s maritime ascendancy, the lack of drive and conviction. Change was demanded. He wound up with one of the most remarkable reversals of his political career.
Winston Churchill and the Nobel Prizes, 1946-1953
29
Jan
2018
2
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
The Swedish Academy was right in recognizing a long and brilliant literary career that had begun in 1895. Despite Churchill’s disappointment in not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, he thanked them humbly. “I hope you have not been biased in any way in your judgment of my literary qualities,” he told Ambassador Hägglöf. “But at any rate I am very proud indeed to receive an honor which is international. I have received several which are national, but this is the first time that I have received one which is international in its character.”8 At Ten Downing Street he told reporters: “I think it a very great honor to receive from the Swedish Academy of Literature this distinction gained among all the other writers of the world.”
Great Contemporaries: Bring Back Jacky Fisher! Part 1
29
Jan
2018
By BARRY GOUGH
The name of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, commonly known as “Jacky,” was on the lips of everyone who cared about the Royal Navy. Fisher’s resignation in May 1915, at a critical stage of the Dardanelles campaign, had led to Churchill’s removal as First Lord of the Admiralty. That post constituted the political head of naval administration, with a prominent position in Cabinet. It offered unbounded influence in all aspects of war direction. Fisher had been at that time First Sea Lord, the senior naval officer. Churchill brought the famous Admiral out of retirement in October 1914 to put zeal and drive into naval affairs. Fisher arrived at a time of misadventure.
Churchill and the Baltic, Part 4: From Dissolution to Rebirth
08
Jan
2018
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
It is useful to study Churchill and the Baltic for what it can teach us today about powerful aggressors and the fate of small nations. In wartime negotiations, the Soviets were consistent. They made the most extreme demands, offering little in exchange. If the demands were met, more followed. Whenever the other side said they would not agree, an eleventh-hour shift by Moscow would result. Even this was not a defeat, since the democracies were often so grateful for evidence of good will that they would struggle to meet the next round of demands. The perceptive Churchill once told Eden, “do not be disappointed if you are not able to bring home a joint public declaration.”93
Churchill’s Sovereigns: King George V (1910-1936)
11
Dec
2017
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
King George V succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father, Edward VII, in May 1910. In February that year, Winston Churchill became Home Secretary. To this day he remains the youngest such since Sir Robert Peel in 1822. Roy Jenkins described the Home Office as a “plank of wood” from which many other departments have since been carved. In 1910, however, the Home Office held vast authority over domestic affairs. Among these was the prison system, where Churchill supported reform and reduction of sentences.
Necessary Risk: Churchill at the Front. Brendan Bracken’s Defense
11
Dec
2017
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
Churchill’s impulse to be “on the scene” where battles took place was not uniformly applauded. During World War II, his frequent excursions to various fronts worried his supporters, and caused critics to complain that he was taking unnecessary risk. Criticism mounted when Churchill hied to France only six days after D-Day. He revisited the front several times through March 1945.
Great Contemporaries: Brendan Bracken
01
Dec
2017
4
By RON CYNEWULF ROBBINS & RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
There was no more enigmatic figure in Churchill’s life than Brendan Bracken, who cloaked his birth and upbringing with mystery while hinting broadly that he was the great man’s illegitimate son. It is well-authenticated that close friendship, not errant fatherhood, encompassed their relationship. But Churchill, with characteristic impishness, apparently never gave the direct lie to Bracken’s implied claim. This annoyed Churchill’s wife and peeved his son, Randolph, who spoke satirically of “my brother, the bastard.” To quell the noisome rumor Churchill quipped: “I have looked the matter up, but the dates don’t coincide.”
Great Contemporaries: Jan Christian Smuts
01
Dec
2017
2
Poor, Dear Randolph: An Appreciation of Churchill’s Son
15
Nov
2017
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
He combined two qualities: generous loyalty to those he loved, and an acid tongue and pen for those he didn’t. Most of the latter, I tend to think, richly deserved what they got. Randolph Churchill’s public persona was based on the latter quality. In the mid-1950s, surgery revealed that a tumor on his lung was benign. His friend Evelyn Waugh burst into the bar at White’s Club: “They’ve cut out the only part of Randolph that isn’t malignant!”
“Operation Elephant” and Other Tales from 1946: A Contemporary View
13
Oct
2017
Feeding the Crocodile, Belgium, 1940: Was King Leopold Guilty?
13
Oct
2017
1
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Daniel Wybo requested this essay on King Leopold and Churchill’s remarks about the May 1940 Belgian surrender. Mr. Wybo’s interest is through his father, who fought in the battle to defend the canal at Ghent-Terneuzen. Taken prisoner by the Germans, the elder Wybo escaped and became part of the Belgian underground. “My father was always bitter about how our King was treated,” Mr. Wybo writes. “He was distressed by the great lies propagated about his actions.” Churchill, it will be seen, tried to correct the worst of those lies.