Churchill in History

By examining Gladstone and Disraeli, Churchill reminds us that even the most bitter political rivalries of the day can induce significant change if calibrated to a nation's interest. Politics is a contest where people choose the best candidate for the job. We could take these lessons to heart and seek prudence and guidance in the crises of our own day.

Recovery and careful reform fostered prosperity at home and the Empire abroad, “based upon Government by consent, and the voluntary association of autonomous states under the Crown,” Churchill writes. “At the death of Queen Victoria it might well have been believed that the problems of past centuries were far on the high-road to gradual solution”

Clement Attlee once quipped that Churchill’s History should have been entitled, “Things in History Which Interested Me.” Unconsciously Attlee identified the value of history written by one who made it. Churchill writes from his own experience. He understood defending human freedom, and fighting with one’s back to the wall.