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On Reputation: “If Churchill Had Not Been Ousted in 1942”
08
Feb
2023
1
By MANFRED WEIDHORN
“Suppose Churchill had lost those votes of confidence in 1942. Simply by being in place while the consequences of his earlier efforts played out, his successor surely would have the credit. The reasoning would have been—in a delicious irony—that the triumphs could not possibly be of Churchill, because 1939-42 proved that he simply did not know how to win.”
Great Contemporaries: George Nathaniel Curzon
16
Jan
2023
1
By BRADLEY P. TOLPPANEN
Churchill described Curzon’s funeral as “dull and dreary,” but he had “faced his end with fortitude and philosophy. I am v[er]y sorry he is gone. I did not think the tributes were v[er]y generous. I w[oul]d not have been grateful for such stuff. But he did not inspire affection, nor represent g[rea]t causes.”
Churchill and Health Issues: The Paradox of Coincidental Success
05
Jan
2023
1
By Nicholas Bosanquet and Andrew Haldenby
In 1942 Churchill broadcast on a four-year plan for postwar reconstruction, including what he called “the spacious domain of public health…. I was brought up on the maxim of Lord Beaconsfield which my father was always repeating: ‘Health and the laws of health’…. Here let me say there is no finer investment in any community than putting milk into babies. Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.”
Churchill and the Reign of King George V, Part 2: War and Peace
19
Dec
2022
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
“King George’s reign has seen moral, social, political and scientific changes in the life of all countries and of all classes so decisive that we, borne along upon the still hurrying torrent, cannot even attempt to measure them. The means of locomotion, the art of flying, the position of women, the map of Europe, the aims and ideals of all nations—East and West, white and black, brown and yellow—have undergone a prodigious transformation.” —WSC
Churchill and the Reign of King George V, Part 1: The Filmscript
25
Nov
2022
1
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
“It is an experience I shall never forget,” said filmscript editor Lajos Biró. “He wrote a story that was the perfect basis for a film... I had to add nothing…. I tell you, a tremendous film writer is lost in Churchill. He has absolutely no vanity. He wants to learn and to tell. I came away dazed.”
Churchill and H.G. Wells Debate Government by Experts
09
Nov
2022
1
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Churchill challenged Wells’s prediction of a future world government run by experts: “Human nature is a much more intractable and masterful thing than your speculations admit,” he told HGW. “We shall not change so quickly as you think.” Churchill’s views hadn’t changed 30 years later when he wrote: “It is at once the safeguard and the glory of mankind that they are easy to lead and hard to drive.”
How Churchill Saw the Second World War as a Moral Conflict
20
Oct
2022
1
By JUSTIN D. LYONS
Hitler appealed to everything that is darkest in the human heart. Churchill himself appealed to different passions. He summoned the virtues of the British people and helped them find strength within themselves. He sought to elevate rather than to debase; to raise Britons from a desire for security above all to a contemplation of the just and the noble; to embolden them to face sacrifice and death rather than see the armies of evil pound their booted rhythms on the earth.
Winston Churchill and his Magnificent Hats
25
Sep
2022
By GARY L. STILES
“One of the most necessary features of a public man’s equipment is some distinctive mark which everyone learns to look for and to recognize,” Churchill said. He nurtured many such features, particularly headgear. His choice of a hat for an occasion was never happenstance but a thoughtfully conceived notion of the image and the impact he wanted to portray. He acquired hundreds of hats in every genre: military, political, formal, equestrian, leisure, even an Indian headdress.
Great Contemporaries: The Age of Lloyd George (Part 4)
15
Sep
2022
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
“David Lloyd George's personal failings are clear, but a historian’s verdict ought to be that, in utterly unprecedented situations, he rose very well to the challenges—and far better than any conceivable alternative leader. Overshadowed now by the memory of Churchill, he deserves respectful remembrance in his own right.”
Churchill’s Sovereigns: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
09
Sep
2022
By DAVID DILKS
"Our Island no longer holds the same authority or power that it did in the days of Queen Victoria. A vast world towers up around it and after all our victories we could not claim the rank we hold were it not for the respect for our character and good sense... I regard it as the most direct mark of God’s favour we have ever received in my long life that the whole structure of our new-formed Commonwealth has been linked and illuminated by a sparkling presence at its summit." —WSC to The Queen, 1955
Rhetoric: How Churchill Scaffolded His First Speech to Congress
19
Aug
2022
By RICHARD COHEN & RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“The orator is the embodiment of the passions of the multitude. Before he can inspire them with any emotion he must be swayed by it himself. When he would rouse their indignation his heart is filled with anger. Before he can move their tears his own must flow. To convince them he must himself believe.” —WSC, “The Scaffolding of Rhetoric,”1897
Great Contemporaries: Anthony Eden (Part 3), 1939-1977
04
Aug
2022
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
As war approached, Eden and Churchill developed an increasingly close friendship. Churchill Eden “was a devoted adherent of the French Entente…he was anxious to have more intimate relations with Soviet Russia. He felt and feared the Hitler peril. It might almost be said that there was not much difference of view between him and me, except, of course that he was in harness.”