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A New Churchill Reference Guide by Christopher Catherwood
Christopher Catherwood, Winston Churchill: A Reference Guide to his Life and Works. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Boulder, New York, London, 2020, 216 pages, $50, Kindle $47.50.
Something familiar…
“You’ve been here before. Sure you have. Sure. I never forget a face”.1
We have indeed been here before. Christopher Catherwood has published five books about Churchill prior to this one. Among reviewers they were generally not well received.2 3 4 He notes in his introduction to this volume that his ideas have met resistance from the “hagiographers.” The word he is seeking may be “historians.”
This volume is part of a series aimed, as the publishers assure us, at “young adults.” At the same time it is intended as a “reference guide.” After spending some time with the book I have trouble in seeing the value that young adults will gain from it. The book is primarily set out in alphabetic, encyclopedic format, with entries presented two columns to a page, along with an index and a bibliography. The result is a curiously unbalanced mixture.
The entries
So slender a volume might concentrate on entries focusing sharply on aspects of Churchill’s life, assuming that is the purpose. Unfortunately this is not the case. Catherwood uses up too much space with potted biographies of Churchill’s contemporaries. At times one is reminded of a rewrite of Rene Kraus’s The Men Around Churchill (1941).
We are, for example, treated to a four-column essay on the life of Asquith. Churchill is mentioned briefly only in passing, without a fuller examination of the relationship between the two. The same is true for many others—Austen Chamberlain and Lawrence of Arabia to name two. As a general look at Churchill and his era, this approach might work. As a purported look at Churchill himself it adds little to the picture. One is left with the impression that much of the material is included as makeweight.
Other than the potted biographies, entries include time-honored and, frankly shop-worn questions. Was Churchill an alcoholic? No, we are told, but he did drink far more than most. There is an entry for Churchill’s “Black Dog” (under “Depression”). Catherwood dutifully regrets that in this day and age, it is deplorable that mental illness is still a stigma. He then goes on for four columns trying to decide if Churchill was mentally ill.
Famine in Bengal
There are too many entries to give each an individual review. However, in poking around at random, one senses a pervasive, and rather dreary, passive aggression towards Churchill, a carry-forward from some of the author’s prior works. We can see this in the inevitable entry for the Bengal Famine.
This entry takes the opportunity to conflate Churchill’s supposed general attitude towards India and her independence with his handling of the 1943-44 famine. In the course of a somewhat rambling discursion, Catherwood exonerates Churchill of deliberate genocide. Yet we still read this remarkable statement:“…there is a major distinction between indifference and genocide, which makes the real argument between those who would accuse Churchill of callousness and those who defend him by saying that the war was so all-encompassing in his mind that to cope with other issues…was simply impossible.” Anyone who thinks that the only conclusions are indifference or genocide has not studied The Churchill Documents.
Omissions and gloss-overs
Catherwood lays heavy emphasis on the Second World War, which is, perhaps, understandable. However, many topics and aspects of Churchill’s life get short shrift, or are omitted. The Malakand Field Force gets an entry (which provides another opportunity to “sadly” quote his “racist” views). But there is no entry for South Africa or the Boer War—the source of most of his early fame and quite a few non-racist “radical” views. Several of Churchill’s books receive individual entries. But there is no combined analysis of Churchill’s career as an author and as a war correspondent. Since without his writing, Churchill would probably not have had a significant career, this omission is regrettable.
Given the alphabetic presentation of entries it is, as noted above, difficult to understand the intended audience. With the industry definition of “young adult” as between ages 12 and 23, it is unlikely that such readers have an in-depth grounding in Churchill and his time. For those, dipping into this book at random will probably only cause confusion. For readers who do have such a grounding, the entries are too superficial to provide value.
The index
The two-page index comprises two types of listing. The first, for individuals whose appearance spans entries, is helpful. Stalin is cited in 33 places, Roosevelt in 31, Eden in 14. More puzzling is the use of the same format to list references to individual historians. Thus Andrew Roberts is cited in 14 places, David Reynolds in ten, John Charmley in five. It is hard to imagine any reader using the index to find where individual historians are quoted. Surely it would have been more useful to have footnotes or endnotes marking the specific references.
Finally there are some index entries which point directly to specific entries. Quite why they are necessary is open to interpretation, since the book’s contents are organized alphabetically. Since the number is small, compared to the number of actual entries, we are left to conclude that these are the entries the author wishes to direct us to. They include “Bengal Famine,” “Depression and Black Dog,” “Percentages Agreement,” “Syphilis or Left Brain Tumor” and “Tonypandy.”
“Books about”
Only a few pages long, the bibliography is quite baffling, being effectively split into three parts. The first is a list of books about Churchill: “inevitably selective and draws on two earlier bibliographies, published in 1974 and 2002 (and listed here).” In point of fact they are not listed. I can only surmise that the latter bibliography referred to is Curt Zoller’s,5 which was actually published in 2004. Catherwood seems to take pride in pointing out that “Unlike some of the bibliographical studies, this one does not give value judgements.” Why on earth not? I cannot see the value in providing young adults with a list of a couple of hundred volumes and no guidance. (In any case, you can review all 1100+ titles about Churchill—and unabashed value judgments—on this website.)
The third part of the bibliography is another list of books about Churchill published after 2004. Why a young adult would be helped by a split of pre- and post-2004 publication is unclear.
“Books by”
Sandwiched between the two lists of the “books about” is the second part of the bibliography: a list of Churchill’s own books. Catherwood plainly states that it is based on the list Andrew Roberts gives in Walking with Destiny. However, Roberts clearly states that his list consists of the books (and by implication editions) he quoted from. Catherwood says his list is chronological, but introduces several errors. The Sinews of Peace appeared before, not after, Europe Unite. Arms and the Covenant and While England Slept are not different works. India is omitted. Painting as a Pastime was first published in book form in 1948, not 2013.
This may seem trivial, but implying that Step by Step was first published in 1947 instead of 1939 transforms it from a book full of prescient forewarning to an exercise in hindsight. One expects more by way of accuracy from a “reference guide.” If you need to copy, you also need to understand what you are copying.
Better alternatives
For “Young Adults,” the price of $50 seems a little steep, particularly for a book so confused in presentation and in content. I would make an alternative recommendation to all adults (young or old) who seek the foundation for a good knowledge of Churchill. Take your $48 and log on to the second-hand market. Buy a copy of John Lukacs’ Churchill: Visionary, Statesman, Historian.6 It is a shortish read but will give you a solid introduction to who Churchill was. When done with that, if the flame is kindled, pick up Andrew Roberts’ Churchill: Walking with Destiny.7 This much lengthier read will give you a substantial overview of what Churchill did.
At that point you will be able to make an informed decision as to whether Catherwood is a book for you. I suspect not. If you want an encyclopedic approach to Churchill, I would suggest waiting for the greatly expanded and English-language edition of Antoine Capet’s Churchill: Le Dictionnaire, due for publication in the not-too-distant future.
The author
Dave Turrell is happily retired from a lifetime career in Information Technology. He is a longtime Churchill bibliophile and collector, and is proud to have been a deputy editor of Finest Hour. His days are spent in arranging his books on his own plan and, even on the rare occasions where he cannot be friends with them, he is at least content to make their acquaintance.
Endnotes
1 Stephen King, Needful Things (New York: Viking, 1991), 690.
2 David Freeman, “The Flawed Wars of Winston Churchill,” Finest Hour 144
3 David Freeman, “The Least of the Lot – By a Long Way,” Finest Hour 149, Winter 2010-11
4 Richard M. Langworth, “Backhanded Compliment,” Finest Hour 156, Autumn 2012
5 Curt Zoller, Annotated Bibliography of Works About Sir Winston Churchill (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2004).
6 John Lukacs, Churchill: Visionary, Statesman, Historian (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2002).
7 Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking with Destiny (New York: Viking, 2018).