Sir Martin Gilbert: An Appreciation

In this episode of The Larry Arnn Show, Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn interviews the historian and Holocaust scholar Esther Gilbert. Their subjects range from her childhood as a Jew in rural America to the recent widespread student demonstrations against Israel. Together, Lady Gilbert and Dr. Arnn concentrate their thoughts on the life and work of her late husband, Sir Martin.

Churchill: A Life reissued

The relaunch this autumn of Sir Martin Gilbert’s one-volume biography, Churchill: A Life, is a good time to remember his many works. In this conversation Lady Gilbert and Larry Arnn bring us much about Sir Martin with warmth and understanding.

Our colleague Andrew Roberts joked that he sees no reason for another big one-volume Churchill biography, at least until his Walking with Destiny is out of print! We know, however, that he will welcome it being joined again this November by Churchill: A Life, which he admires deeply.

Churchill: A Life is important because it contains much material Sir Martin found after completing the eight narrative volumes, now republished and kept permanently in print by Hillsdale College. We always tell admirers of those volumes that after reading all eight, they have to read the ninth!

Sir Winston Churchill’s son Randolph wrote the first two biographic volumes: Youth 1874-1900 and Young Statesman 1901-1914. Appointed official biographer upon Randolph’s death in 1968, Sir Martin’s first task was Volume 3, The Challenge of War 1916-1918.

For nearly half a century until his death in 2015. Martin Gilbert (in his own words) “laboured in the Churchill vineyard.” Along the way he produced eighty-eight scholarly works on Twentieth Century and Jewish history; several annotated historical atlases; and important works on the Holocaust.

Undiscovered territory

Responsible for six narrative and eighteen document volumes, Gilbert’s main focus remained on Churchill. Over those years he uncovered many previously unknown nuggets of history. All had escaped the net. All made it into Churchill: A Life.

Our favorite among these is an astonishing detail from 1918, after Lenin had taken Russia out of the First World War.

Despite his aversion to Bolshevism, Churchill always kept his eyes n the main prize. In early 1918 it was victory. And so he had an idea. Why not send a “Commissar” (as he called him) to Lenin? And, in exchange for Russia coming back into the war, the Allies would recognize the Bolshevik revolution….

Dr. Arnn, who was a research assistant on the Official Biography, adds to the tale:

Sir Martin discovered the document about “Roosevelt” intervening in Russia while I was sitting next to him. At first he thought it must be Franklin Roosevelt. He asked me to go look up what Franklin Roosevelt was doing in those years. I knew enough American history to know that it had to be Theodore, not Franklin, and so it proved….

We do not have to speculate what Churchill thought about Lenin, since he wrote so much about him (which we quote in our article). He thought of Lenin as a monster who might not have remained one if he had lived longer….

Martin Gilbert first broke the “Commissar” story publicly to a roomful of Soviet dignitaries at a Moscow lecture. For his account, scroll to “Second thoughts” in our recent article on Lenin in Russia.

More on Sir Martin

Visit the Sir Martin Gilbert website to learn more about the great historian’s work.

Larry P. Arnn, “Great Contemporaries: In Memory of Sir Martin Gilbert,” 2015

Richard M. Langworth, “Pure Gold: Martin Gilbert’s In Search of Churchill,” 2023

Randolph S. Churchill, “The Great Biography is Complete,” 2019.

Eliot A. Cohen, “The Churchill Documents, edited by Martin Gilbert and Larry P. Arnn,” 2016

Richard M. Langworth, “Sir Martin Gilbert: An Appreciation,” 2015.