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Winston S. Churchill
The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College > Winston S. Churchill
Churchill and Margaret Thatcher: Two Meetings of Two Minds
28
Mar
2023
2
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
It is curious that neither her biographer Charles Moore nor Churchill’s bodyguard Edmund Murray—who each knew of one Churchill-Thatcher meeting—knew of the other. The story of their two encounters shows us that Margaret Thatcher’s respect for Churchill was lifelong. And Churchill’s words in 1950 on the regulatory state could have been her own words, 30 years later. When it came to liberty, neither were for turning.
Farrell: Earle Delivered Unwelcome News, and Paid the Price
24
Mar
2023
1
By WARREN F. KIMBALL
We cannot understand wartime diplomacy without examining the goals and thought processes of the leaders involved. Was the goal in Europe to defeat Nazi Germany or to prevent Russia from subjugating Poland and half the continent? Amid the chaos and commitments of world war, Roosevelt and Churchill opted for peace and hope, not another war.
Abstract: Judging the British Empire by its Aims and Intentions
22
Mar
2023
By ZAREER MASANI
The costs and benefits of empire are not morally commensurate and incapable of being compared in those terms. Outcomes good and bad are historically and ethically complex. The best we can do is to make balanced moral judgments of the Empire’s aims and intentions, even if their execution was often flawed or the consequences sometimes unintended. As for the charge of imperial nostalgia, there can be none, since the British Empire, so long past, never can return.
Churchill and Company: Great Scholars Consider Uncancelled History
20
Mar
2023
1
By DOUGLAS MURRAY
“I will take away from Uncancelled History what the Hillsdale College historian Bill McClay said about Theodore Roosevelt, about some of these other historical figures who’ve been torn down, lambasted and attacked: History is like a great attic of belongings and inheritances. And if you chuck everything out of that attic—if you clear the whole thing—you might clear away things we may need some day.”
A New Account of Churchill Remaking the Mideast by Brad Faught
13
Mar
2023
By WILLIAM JOHN SHEPHERD
Brad Faught has given us an expertly researched and thoughtfully argued examination of one of the seminal diplomatic events of the 20th century. He explains why British officials like Curzon and Allenby opposed a Jewish homeland within the Mandate of Palestine. Allenby, aided by Lawrence, was the general who had conquered the Ottoman provinces in the First World War.
Alan Saltman Looks at Churchill’s Decision to Fight On—Again
09
Mar
2023
1
By William John Shepherd
Once Churchill became prime minister, ignominious vassalage à la Vichy France was never a serious possibility. But Saltman's psychological profile of why Churchill fought on omits a crucial dimension: Churchill’s belief in constitutional democracy. That didn’t come from his upbringing or the military, but from his wide reading of the classic philosophers, and broad understanding of representative government.
Great Contemporaries: Asquith: The Last Victorian Liberal (2)
06
Mar
2023
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
“Asquith fell when the enormous task was but half completed. He fell with dignity. He bore adversity with composure. In or out of power, disinterested patriotism and inflexible integrity were his only guides. Let it never be forgotten that he was always on his country's side in all her perils, and that he never hesitated to sacrifice his personal or political interests to the national cause.” —Churchill
Great Contemporaries: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound
02
Mar
2023
By ROBIN BRODHURST
Churchill and Pound were vividly contrasting types, but in the emergency of a world war they fitted together. Each recognised the strengths and weaknesses of the other. Churchill famously wrote that he felt he was walking with destiny. It was equally true to say of Pound: “He is not a Roosevelt figure; rather he is like Truman, and like Truman, he stayed in the kitchen and he took the heat.”
“Trumpets from the Steep”: Churchill’s Second World War Memoirs
24
Feb
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Churchill had a right to make his case. He had attacked an allied fleet, fired generals, lost battleships, stalled on launching fronts, argued with Roosevelt and Stalin and carpet bombed Germany. He felt the need to defend his actions, knowing critics would gladly seize on and emphasize his mistakes.
Sander and Langer Take us Out for Drinks
20
Feb
2023
By DAVE TURRELL
"If you are going to use a famous name to improve the selling potential of your book, at least some basic research to get that famous name correct. Hint: in this case, it’s not “Winston Lawrence Spencer Churchill” (pages 5, 66, 128). This is inaccuracy on an industrial scale. We are told in the acknowledgments section: “Researching and writing any book is hard; Researching and writing a book while much of the known world is shut down in a pandemic required great creativity and imagination.” We noticed.
Great Contemporaries: Asquith: The Last Victorian Liberal (1)
17
Feb
2023
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
Asquith reshaped the Liberal Cabinet, promoting Lloyd George to the Exchequer and Churchill to the Board of Trade. These two intelligent, ambitious, future prime ministers provided much of the firepower and nearly all the color that in the early Asquith government. It reflects well on Asquith’s self-assurance that he successfully managed both of them for so long.
The Brief, Sparkling Life of the Collected Essays
13
Feb
2023
1
By RICHARD M LANGWORTH
“Churchill was never a dull man, was almost incapable of writing or speaking a dull sentence, and his essays were nearly always imaginative. As a biographical record these essays are therefore unique; as literary yardsticks they are of great interest; and as historical and political footnotes they are indispensable to an understanding of Churchill and his place in the history of his times.” —Michael Wolff