H.G. Wells

Churchill’s affinity for scientific techniques, themes and writers significantly proclaims his openness toward the future—and its perils.

Churchill’s imagination in engaging with science and its potential consequences enabled him to confront vast change between the Victorian and Atomic eras.

“In my mind’s eye I invest him with the robes of Caesar…. The lives of the great are an inspiration to their posterity.” —Lewis Broad

McKinstry is thorough and scrupulously fair. Unlike too many historians today, he goes in with no axes to grind. He simply tells the story, backed by a voluminous bibliography, extensive research and private correspondence. In scope and balance, the book reminds us of Arthur Herman’s Gandhi and Churchill—another elegant account of two contentious figures. Like Herman, McKinstry captures Churchill’s generosity of spirit, and his rival’s greatness of soul.