Year: 2017

“Darkest Hour,” the movie: an interview with The Australian

“Darkest Hour,” the movie: an interview with The Australian

For The Australian …

Troy Bram­ston of The Aus­tralian news­pa­per had per­ti­nent ques­tions about the new movie Dark­est Hour, star­ring Gary Old­man as Win­ston Churchill. With the thought that Troy’s queries might be of inter­est, I append the text of the interview.

The Aus­tralian : Of all the things Win­ston Churchill is pur­port­ed to have said and done, the myths and mis­con­cep­tions, which are the most preva­lent and frus­trat­ing for scholars? None of these appear in the film, but there are three things that ran­kle: 1) The lies—that he was anx­ious to use poi­son gas; that he fire­bombed Dres­den in revenge for Coven­try; that he exac­er­bat­ed the Ben­gal famine, etc.…

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Hyde Park Gate: Churchill’s London Home, 1945-1965

Hyde Park Gate: Churchill’s London Home, 1945-1965

Ques­tion: “Churchill owned both 27 and 28 Hyde Park Gate. Which one did he live in?” Answer: both.

1945-51

The Churchills pur­chased 28 Hyde Park Gate in Sep­tem­ber 1945. The fine attached brick house stands in a qui­et cul-de-sac, close to Hyde Park and Kens­ing­ton Gar­dens. They acquired the abut­ting num­ber 27 in March 1946. Accord­ing to Ste­fan Buczacki’s excel­lent book, Churchill and Chartwell, the gar­den wall between the two res­i­dences was knocked out to pro­vide a sin­gle gar­den. Num­ber 27 was ini­tial­ly acquired for need­ed office space, though Clemen­tine Churchill thought it an extrav­a­gance.…

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Brendan Bracken: “Winston’s Faithful Chela”

Brendan Bracken: “Winston’s Faithful Chela”

Stan­ley Bald­win, show­ing an unex­pect­ed famil­iar­i­ty with Indi­an phras­es, described Bren­dan Brack­en as ‘Winston’s faith­ful chela,‘ wrote the biog­ra­ph­er Charles Lysaght. “This is what gave Brack­en his place in his­to­ry, a minor but still an impor­tant one.”

The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project has pub­lished two arti­cles on Bren­dan Brack­en, Churchill’s loy­al ally and friend for four decades. The first begins with a mem­oir by the late Ron Rob­bins, a Cana­di­an jour­nal­ist who ear­ly on cov­ered the House of Com­mons, where he met Brack­en. The post­script is by me, fol­lowed by reviews of the two Brack­en books by George Gale and A.J.P.

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December 7th, 1941: Canada First to Declare War

December 7th, 1941: Canada First to Declare War

At War on the 7th Apro­pos Decem­ber 7th, my friend Randy Bar­ber (Ontario) writes: “Recent­ly, I pur­chased sev­en copies of a World War II Cana­di­an Army news­pa­per called Kha­ki. I have a think to tell you about the 7th, from read­ing papers and the let­ters to the edi­tor  from 1944: In a ques­tion to the edi­tor about which coun­try first declared war on Japan after the bomb­ing of Pearl Har­bor, the answer was, not the Unit­ed States or Great Britain (which declared war on Decem­ber 8th). It was Cana­da, which declared war on Decem­ber 7th. Thus endeth your his­to­ry les­son for today.…

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Mr. Stern, Mr. Trump, Churchill Quotes and Misquotes

Mr. Stern, Mr. Trump, Churchill Quotes and Misquotes

Novem­ber 27th— Writ­ing in the Dai­ly Beast, Mr. Mar­low Stern prais­es Kristin Scott Thomas (“Clemen­tine Churchill” in the new movie Dark­est Hour) and announces: “Don­ald Trump is No Win­ston Churchill.” (Past doubt, but who is?)

Mr. Stern him­self offers only one Churchill quote and gets it right: “A free press is the unsleep­ing guardian of every oth­er right that free men prize; it is the most dan­ger­ous foe of tyran­ny.” (Col­liers, 28 Decem­ber 1935.)

Bin­go! That’s an obscure one. For­give him for vast­ly exag­ger­at­ing Churchill’s alco­hol intake. (WSC’s “six whisky sodas” were described by his pri­vate sec­re­tary as “scotch-fla­vored mouth­wash.”

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Nashville (5). The Myth that Churchill Admired Hitler

Nashville (5). The Myth that Churchill Admired Hitler

Part 5 of Win­ston Churchill, Myth and Real­i­ty exam­ines mul­ti­ply­ing fables between the two World Wars. Churchill was an alco­holic, we are often assured. He flip-flopped over Bol­she­vism. All Jews were com­mu­nists, he said. He despised Gand­hi. A clos­et fas­cist, he sup­port­ed Mus­soli­ni. But one tall tale per­haps eclipses all the oth­ers. It is the idea that Churchill admired Hitler. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from Part 4

Judging Hitler

It is impor­tant to under­stand just how right Churchill was about Hitler. In May 1935 the Führer wrote a reveal­ing let­ter to the British news­pa­per mag­nate Esmond Harmsworth, Lord Rother­mere, one of his pro­mot­ers.…

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Nashville (4). Churchill as Warmonger in World War I

Nashville (4). Churchill as Warmonger in World War I

“Winston…has got on all his war-paint” (Asquith)

In 1914, the Great War arrives, and fables about Churchill mul­ti­ply. A pop­u­lar one, kept alive by pun­dits and his­to­ri­ans, alike, is that Churchill led the war­mon­ger par­ty into World War I. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from Part 3...

Patrick J. Buchanan is an affa­ble tory who wrote speech­es for Nixon and ran quixot­ic cam­paigns for Pres­i­dent of the U.S. three times in 1992-2000. (I vot­ed for him once!) He’s an effec­tive con­trar­i­an, and his debat­ing skills are renowned.…

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Nashville (3). Churchill and Women’s Rights

Nashville (3). Churchill and Women’s Rights

Votes for Women, Yeas and Nays

Among the more per­ni­cious dis­tor­tions of Churchill’s record is that he was a life­time oppo­nent of rights for women, includ­ing their right to vote. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from part 2….

In 1999 Time mag­a­zine explained that Churchill could not be “Per­son of the Cen­tu­ry” because he “bull­dogged­ly opposed women’s rights.” In 2012 London’s Dai­ly Tele­graph wrote: “Churchill believed that women shouldn’t vote, telling the House of Com­mons that they are ‘well rep­re­sent­ed by their fathers, broth­ers and husbands.’”

As I show in my book, Win­ston Churchill, Myth and Real­i­ty, Churchill nev­er said those words, in or out of Par­lia­ment.…

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Nashville (2). Joyful Humbug: Churchill’s “Indian Forebears”

Nashville (2). Joyful Humbug: Churchill’s “Indian Forebears”

Many of the Churchill fam­i­ly down at least through Sir Winston’s grand­son believed that Amer­i­can Indi­an blood ran in their veins. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from part 1….

“Mama is part red Indian…”

No excep­tion to the fam­i­ly belief (until she saw con­trary evi­dence) was Churchill’s daugh­ter Mary. “I remem­ber my daugh­ter Emma, play­ing with her friends,” Lady Soames recalled. “Sud­den­ly she warned them not to mis­be­have. ‘Mama, you know, is part red Indi­an, and if we are naughty she will go on the warpath.’”…

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Nashville (1). Winston Churchill: Current Contentions and Things That Go Bump in the Night

Nashville (1). Winston Churchill: Current Contentions and Things That Go Bump in the Night

NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 14TH— The Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee kind­ly invit­ed me to talk about Win­ston Churchill: Myth and Real­i­ty and the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. Our hosts, John and Karen Math­er and Dick and Lin­da Knight, could not have been more thought­ful, kinder and more gen­er­ous to Bar­bara and me. If I per­formed any­thing for them or Mr. Churchill,  that’s only a poor con­tri­bu­tion in an attempt at requital. *** As a bonus, I was hon­ored by a por­trait by Shane Neal​, a bril­liant Nashville artist and a gent​, as their way of say­ing thanks. In dis­cussing Churchill’s art, Shane was joined by fel­low artist Joseph Dai­ly, ​who paint­ed some forty por­traits of the Churchill fam­i­ly and their friends in Eng­land. …

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