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Churchill’s Descriptive Power: The River War and Herbert Kitchener
13
Jul
2023
By ALAN STRAUS-SCHOM
Churchill deftly describes Herbert Kitchener, Sirdar of the Anglo-Egyptian Army, with whom he would have more encounters in a greater war to come. No detail escapes his gaze. Kitchener inspected everything from machine shops to transport to cooking arrangements, even verifying the quality of grain, clothing, and food. Churchill at this time sees Kitchener as “ungracious”: cold and aloof, incapable of any human warmth. Later, in the First World War, he was more magnanimous.
Michael Collins: “Tell Winston we could never have done anything without him”
29
Jun
2023
By MICHAEL McMENAMIN
The “common understanding” between Churchill and Collins was the Irish Free State as a free, self-governing Dominion, the same as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Against them were arrayed the Conservative Party “die-hards,” Sir Henry Wilson and Andrew Bonar Law, and the anti-Treaty IRA hard-liners. Eamon de Valera exhorted the latter to wade through “the blood of some of the members of the Government.”
Boris Resigns, Churchill Reminds: Constitutional Duty of Representatives
15
Jun
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“The first duty of a Member of Parliament is to do what he thinks in his faithful and disinterested judgment is right and necessary for the honour and safety of Great Britain. His second duty is to his constituents.... It is only in the third place that his duty to the party organization or programme takes rank.” —WSC, 1955
Testimony to History: Churchill’s Chartwell Visitors Book
12
Jun
2023
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
Using the digital Visitors Book, in the Chartwell Exhibition Room, we can view signatures and profiles of all the people who visited over forty of the most historic and challenging years of the 20th century. This great work of many hands provides viewers with a unique, highly specialized opportunity to learn more about the private lives of Winston and Clementine Churchill and their family.
Cancellation Attempts, 1939: Kitty Atholl, Winston Churchill
05
Jun
2023
2
By RICHARD COHEN
Even in her time a politician could be “cancelled” for saying things deemed unfashionable by the prevailing orthodoxy. Back then the orthodoxy was the Munich agreement. Her criticisms of it cost the Duchess of Atholl her party and her seat in Parliament. She went down fighting, but never wavered in her causes: human rights and Churchill’s campaign against Appeasement.
Great Contemporaries: John Morley, Giant of Old
18
May
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“Present party designations have become empty of all contents... Vastly extended State expenditure, vastly increased demands from the taxpayer who has to provide the money, social reform regardless of expense, cash exacted from the taxpayer already at his wits’ end—when were the problems of plus and minus more desperate?... We can only trust to the growth of responsibility; we may look to circumstances and events to teach their lesson.” —John Morley
Great Contemporaries: Sir Robert Vidal Rhodes James, 1933-1999
18
Apr
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Though his best-known work was Churchill: A Study in Failure,” Robert was an admirer who had hoped to write a sequel, "Churchill: A Study in Success." His eight volumes of Churchill’s speeches are simply indispensable. True, he was a curmudgeon, but also a grand raconteur, full of stories about Churchill and Parliament. Our colleague Paul Addison remembered “what fun he was to be with. Such a warm and generous character, sparkling with gossip and full of enthusiasms.”
Churchill’s Push for Prefabs: Real “Homes for Heroes”
18
Apr
2023
By NICK BOSANQUET & ANDREW HALDENBY
Churchill was determined to solve the postwar housing shortage with prefabs. His Wartime Coalition government deserved more credit than it received for this extensive reform programme. Churchill avoided the trap he remembered from the end of the First World War: “Ministers should in my view be careful not to raise false hopes, as was done last time, by speeches about homes for heroes.” He remains the only prime minister to have polled 80% approval throughout his term of office.
Great Contemporaries: Asquith: The Last Victorian Liberal (2)
06
Mar
2023
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
“Asquith fell when the enormous task was but half completed. He fell with dignity. He bore adversity with composure. In or out of power, disinterested patriotism and inflexible integrity were his only guides. Let it never be forgotten that he was always on his country's side in all her perils, and that he never hesitated to sacrifice his personal or political interests to the national cause.” —Churchill
Great Contemporaries: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound
02
Mar
2023
By ROBIN BRODHURST
Churchill and Pound were vividly contrasting types, but in the emergency of a world war they fitted together. Each recognised the strengths and weaknesses of the other. Churchill famously wrote that he felt he was walking with destiny. It was equally true to say of Pound: “He is not a Roosevelt figure; rather he is like Truman, and like Truman, he stayed in the kitchen and he took the heat.”
“Trumpets from the Steep”: Churchill’s Second World War Memoirs
24
Feb
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Churchill had a right to make his case. He had attacked an allied fleet, fired generals, lost battleships, stalled on launching fronts, argued with Roosevelt and Stalin and carpet bombed Germany. He felt the need to defend his actions, knowing critics would gladly seize on and emphasize his mistakes.
Great Contemporaries: Asquith: The Last Victorian Liberal (1)
17
Feb
2023
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
Asquith reshaped the Liberal Cabinet, promoting Lloyd George to the Exchequer and Churchill to the Board of Trade. These two intelligent, ambitious, future prime ministers provided much of the firepower and nearly all the color that in the early Asquith government. It reflects well on Asquith’s self-assurance that he successfully managed both of them for so long.