Lord Randolph Churchill

Josh Ireland begins with potted inaccuracies, but the quickly picks up with a deft, thoughtful account of a short, bittersweet saga.

There’s nothing wrong with the “brief life,” which serves an important educational purpose. Hanson falls short, while accepting many myths.

On Monarchy: “It is natural for Parliaments to talk and for the Crown to shine…. We are never likely to run short of Ministers who can talk.”

Neither a travelogue nor a general reader, this is about “people and places,” mostly people, not a comprehensive guide to Churchill’s Britain.

Winston Churchill was not a man to bear grudges, and firmly admired the Irish. Yet he was strangely oblivious to the widespread, albeit not universal, hostility still felt towards him in nationalist Ireland. In 1953 he faced a libel action in Ireland arising out of his memoirs. It was brought by Eric Dorman-Smith, an Irish-born general whom he had dismissed during the Desert War. He expressed doubt that “an Irish jury would necessarily be unfair or that they would be prejudiced against me.” His legal advisers knew better. They made sure the case was settled before it got to be heard before a jury in Dublin. When Churchill died in 1965, de Valera, now President of Ireland, lauded him as a great Englishman. He could not omit to add the rider that Churchill had been a “dangerous enemy” of the Irish people.

Churchill looked back on the past with reverence and with regularity—thankfully so, for we owe him the same debt we owe to our history: gratitude.

Churchill's racial epithets were extremely rare. Most of the few that do exist come from only one source—which leads one to question how reliable it is.

The Churchills, father and son, had close friendships with prominent, talented Jews. One was Nathaniel Mayer “Natty” Rothschild, First Baron Rothschild, head of the British branch of the famous banking family. He was the first Jewish member of the House of Lords. Another was Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, also of Jewish origin, though he became a Catholic in 1880. A renowned merchant banker and financier, Sir Ernest was young Winston’s mentor, financial consultant and lifelong friend.

Churchill was an early and steady supporter of a Channel Tunnel, which was first proposed in 1751. For most of his life he joined in lively and almost continuous discussion of  “a fixed link with the Continent.” Indeed, during the 1924-1929 Conservative government, Churchill was seen as “the leading political advocate of a tunnel.”

These are just a few of the classical authors Churchill read in his self-education as a young man. They form an adjunct to the more recent and direct inspirations, the figures of more recent centuries.

Dr. James Muller analyzes the early life of Winston Churchilll through the film "Young Winston" and Churchill's autobiography

The editor of their correspondence reflects on his work, with insights into the supportive relationship between Churchill and his mother Jennie.