June 2011 - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill’s “Make a Life” Non-Quote

24 June 2011 Comments 0 Comments

Next to the various “success” quotes, one of the most popular Churchill misquotations that bedizen the Internet is: “You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.”

This cropped up in several poorly researched Churchill quote books and was taken up in a 2005 TV ad by Lockheed Martin. No one ever lists a reference, because there is none: It cannot be tracked to Churchill and is an old saw put in his mouth to make it more interesting. Listed with other “red herrings” in Churchill By Himself.…

“The Truth is Great, and Shall Prevail”: Remembering Bill Rusher 1923-2011

24 June 2011 Comments 0 Comments

William A. Rusher …

came to our aid in a pinch. Striving to “balance” our political speakers, we Churchill Conference organizers planning the 1994 event in Banff, Alberta wanted a conservative. We had welcomed the liberal Roy Jenkins on our Scottish Churchill Tour that summer. We’d invited Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and William Manchester to address our 1995 conference. So to Banff we invited Milton Friedman, to explain why Churchill was right (yes!) to put Britain back on the gold standard when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Twenties. (It was what Churchill didn’t do, in wage and tax policy, Dr.…

Murder (“The West”) Incorporated

8 June 2011 Comments 2 Comments

“Is World War II Still ‘the Good War’?” by Adam Kirsch. The New York Times Sunday Book Review, 27 May 2011. Adam Kirsch, a senior editor at The New Republic, offers a thoughtful piece of deconstruction which dredges up every major Churchill critic of the past five years, all in one handy if verbose article. As a sampling of the Churchill fever swamps, it is unsurpassed.

The question we are asked to consider is whether World War II was really a “good war.” War is hell, which is why western democracies like Britain and France spent six years trying to avoid it.…