Month: October 2009

Errata & Addenda to “Churchill by Himself,” First American and English Editions

Errata & Addenda to “Churchill by Himself,” First American and English Editions

Churchill by Him­self is dif­fer­ent from all oth­er Churchill quote books through “cor­rectibil­i­ty.” It offers a ref­er­ence to each quo­ta­tion, and a method by which cor­rec­tions may be sent in, ver­i­fied, and made avail­able dig­i­tal­ly to readers.

Pro­duc­ing any work as com­pli­cat­ed as this is a con­stant run­ning bat­tle between con­flict­ing sources, experts who dis­agree with each oth­er, and inex­orable dead­lines. For instance, one expert offered cor­rec­tions based on the 1974 Com­plete Speech­es (not com­plete and scarce­ly free of errors) that con­tra­dict the texts of ear­li­er vol­umes by Churchill himself—which to me take pri­or­i­ty.…

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“Winston” Olbermann and the Healthcare Debate

“Winston” Olbermann and the Healthcare Debate

N.B.: If Mr. Olber­mann had done more research, he would know what Churchill did say about nation­al health­care, which is more to the point: see Churchill and Healthcare.

MSNBC com­men­ta­tor Kei­th Olber­mann is for the pro­posed Amer­i­can health­care reform bill, which is nei­ther here nor there.

What is inter­est­ing to Churchillians is his use of Win­ston Churchill’s words to sup­port it—from both 1945 (when Churchill was cam­paign­ing against social­ism), and 1936 (when Churchill was urg­ing rear­ma­ment in the face of Nazi Germany).

In 1945, Olber­mann says, Churchill

equat­ed his oppo­nents, the par­ty that sought to intro­duce “The Nation­al Health,” to the Gestapo of the Ger­mans that he and we had just beat­en just as those oppos­ing reform now have invoked Nazis as fre­quent­ly and false­ly as if they were invok­ing Zom­bies.…

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Churchill as Motorist

Churchill as Motorist

Could you tell me if Win­ston Churchill drove an auto­mo­bile?  I’m inter­est­ed in estab­lish­ing whether the major World War II lead­ers, on both sides, could dri­ve a car.  So far, I know only that Franklin Roo­sevelt drove his own Ford at Hyde Park (hand con­trols but he was his own dri­ver when he need­ed to be).  This may seem an odd line of inves­ti­ga­tion, but I think it might be illu­mi­nat­ing. —P.C., New Hampshire

I have a long-sim­mer­ing arti­cle about Churchill and auto­mo­biles; he owned quite an assort­ment, from  Mor­ris­es and Land Rovers to a big Daim­ler giv­en him by his friends in 1932.…

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