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The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College > Resources
English-Speaking Peoples (11): Lincoln, Lee, and the Civil War
09
Jan
2023
By Richard M. Langworth
Churchill’s is largely a military account, with sentiments that that surprise some. “We march with Lee and Jackson, with Stuart, with Longstreet, and with Early through autumn woodlands…. Virginia, the proud Founder State…trampled upon, disinherited, impoverished, riven asunder….” Yet Churchill is not pro-Confederacy. His instincts were always with liberty.
English-Speaking Peoples (10): Recovery and Reform
04
Jan
2023
By Zachary Bauder
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”
English-Speaking Peoples (9): Napoleon, Nelson and Human Freedom
12
Dec
2022
1
By DUGGAN FOLEY
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.
English-Speaking Peoples (7): Queen Anne and Marlborough
28
Nov
2022
By Anna Swartz
“Marlborough never fought a battle he did not win or besieged a town he did not take. Nothing like this exists in the annals of war.” Churchill looked to his ancestor as a great example of statesmanship. He draws parallels between himself and Marlborough, and not simply because they were related. They both dealt with a nation ungrateful for its leaders and yet in need of their capabilities.
English-Speaking Peoples (6): A Nuanced View of Oliver Cromwell
07
Nov
2022
By DUGGAN FOLEY
From Cromwell’s example, Churchill learned the inefficacy of appeasement when dealing with despotism. Cromwell also reified the beauty and fragility of free government: Should one adopt a wrong policy or allow civil war and division to rule the day, a Cromwellian demagogue may be the necessary—and simultaneously evil—solution.
English-Speaking Peoples (5): King Charles and the Civil War
31
Oct
2022
By ZACHARY BAUDER
Churchill began his History of the English Speaking Peoples in the 1930s, but finished after World War II, the experience of all-powerful dictators etched in his mind. Thus he is careful not to describe Charles I as a tyrant. Tyrants need large militaries and a whole nation’s resources. These were things Charles did not have.
English-Speaking Peoples (4): Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey
24
Oct
2022
By COLTON DUNCAN
"Churchill, himself experienced in the petty struggles of factions within the context of state governance, understood how particular interests create obstacles or opportunities for those quick enough to recognize them. He is particularly gifted, then, not only in recounting past events, but also in effectively portraying their causes."
English-Speaking Peoples (3): The Wars of the Roses
17
Oct
2022
By JOSH HYPES
“And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Mark 3:25). Given renewed fame by Lincoln, the verse applies as well to the Wars of the Roses. Their vicious course saw the old order passing to something entirely new. The tragic events are a reminder: The familiarity of Churchill's words is uncanny given the rampant social, political, and ideological divisions in Western countries. Churchill calls us to learn from the tragedies of the past to avoid experiencing a similar upheaval.
English-Speaking Peoples (2): Churchill’s View of Magna Carta
11
Oct
2022
By DUGGAN FOLEY
In Book 2 of “The Birth of Britain,” Churchill encapsulates the power of 13th century English political developments. Magna Carta began the slow but steady process of the English-speaking peoples toward liberty and the rule of law. Without this necessary document, that “great fire” for representative rule might never have been ignited.
English-Speaking Peoples (1): Rebellion and Subjugation
03
Oct
2022
1
By JOSEPH STURDY
The conflict between orderly Roman society and the native tribes’ efforts to preserve their homeland produced a distinctly British character over the coming centuries. In part, the rebellion and continued struggle came to define Churchill, himself, nearly 1900 years later. In 1940, he found himself presiding over a period nearly as tumultuous as the rebellion of 61 A.D. Now he was forced into a position similar to that of the Britons.
Alistair Cooke, Churchill at the Time (Part 2): Politics and Principle
08
Sep
2022
By ALISTAIR COOKE KBE
Churchill’s virtues included the acceptance of defeats as necessary to wielding power; a tough but generous relation with rivals in politics, magnanimity toward a defeated enemy; a willingness to experiment; and above all, in the supreme crisis, an absolute refusal to compromise or surrender. From all this, there is powerful evidence to support Isaiah Berlin’s judgment of him as “the largest human being of our time.”
Alistair Cooke, Churchill at the Time (Part 1): The Liberal Lion
25
Aug
2022
By ALISTAIR COOKE KBE
“My father was a Manchester Liberal. bearing with cheerful stoicism the fact that his wife always voted Conservative….. His youth was spent during what he always said were Winston’s great years, 1906 to 1910, during the memorable Liberal Parliament, when the two great radicals, Lloyd George and Churchill, embarked on the reform of British society.”