Month: October 2019

Titanic
RMS Titanic departing Southampton, 10 April 1912 (Wikimedia Commons / public domain)
What Sank the Titanic? Hopefully Not Churchill Again

What Sank the Titanic? Hopefully Not Churchill Again

Titanic redux

On 10 April 1912, the world’s largest pas­sen­ger lin­er set out on her maid­en voy­age from Southamp­ton, Cher­bourg and Queen­stown to New York. Four days lat­er, she struck an ice­berg and sank in under three hours, killing 1514 peo­ple. Titan­ic has been a bit­ter­sweet, fas­ci­nat­ing news item ever since.

On 26 Octo­ber the Dai­ly Mail report­ed British Chan­nel 5 TV pro­duc­tion, “Ten Mis­takes that DOOMED the Titan­ic.” If you saw this, please let me know if one of the mis­takes named is Win­ston Churchill. (See below.) We are always watch­ful for the onward march of invin­ci­ble ignorance.…

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Nats
Washington’s first World Series, 1924. President Coolidge with manager Bucky Harris and the first ball, game one, October 4th. Actually, “Silent Cal’s” wife Grace was the baseball fan. When Muddy Ruel scored the winning run she leaped to her feet cheering. The President said, “My word,” and dropped his cigar. (Library of Congress / public domain)
God is a Nats Fan: A Kid from New York Remembers

God is a Nats Fan: A Kid from New York Remembers

“God is a Nats Fan” first appeared in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor on 21 Octo­ber 2019. Scroll down to the com­ments for emails with fel­low fanat­ics as the 2019 World Series unfolds.

Yankee Stadium, 1958

When Wash­ing­ton was in town, the drill was always the same: 15¢ for a bus to the Stat­en Island Fer­ry. A nick­el fer­ry ride and 15¢ more for the BMT to Wood­lawn and Jerome Avenues. As the sub­way erupt­ed into sun­light from the bow­els of the Bronx, this kid wear­ing his navy blue hat with its white “W” would con­front the Citadel of Base­ball, proud and aus­tere with its eagle logos, bristling with pen­nants.…

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health care
1944 was a good time for WSC to think about health care. In January, meeting with Generals Eisenhower and Alexander in Tunis, the patient (in his famous dragon-bespangled dressing gown) was just recovering from a near-death encounter with pneumonia. (Wikimedia Commons: UK government photo, public domain)
Winston Churchill on Health Care (1): “The Inheritance of All”

Winston Churchill on Health Care (1): “The Inheritance of All”

Q: Churchill on health care

(Updat­ed from 2009). A state­ment by Churchill on health care has been offered to show that he would sup­port U.S. heath care reforms. My Catholic parish pub­lished the afore­men­tioned state­ment in its week­ly bulletin.

“What Would Churchill Do? Here’s an inter­est­ing quote. It’s from for­mer British Prime Min­is­ter Win­ston Churchill explain­ing his view on  health care and gov­ern­ment in 1948. ‘The dis­cov­er­ies of heal­ing sci­ence must be the inher­i­tance of all. That is clear. Dis­ease must be attacked, whether it occurs in the poor­est or the rich­est man or woman sim­ply on the ground that it is the ene­my.…

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Atatürk Erdogan
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Webtekno, Istanbul)
Turkey, Erdoğan, David Goldman and Winston Churchill

Turkey, Erdoğan, David Goldman and Winston Churchill

In the light of recent con­tro­ver­sy over the right pos­ture to take over Turkey and the Kurds, this three-year-old post seems as instruc­tive as ever. Updat­ed and republished.

David Goldman, Teacher

The 2016 Hills­dale Col­lege Alas­ka cruise aimed to edu­cate, and so it did. I learned more from David Gold­man about Erdoğan, Turkey and the Mid­dle East in an hour than from any­thing I’ve read over the last five years.

David Gold­man, a New York econ­o­mist, is a colum­nist for First Things mag­a­zine and writes under the name “Spen­gler” for Asia Times Online. Pre­vi­ous­ly he was the glob­al head of cred­it strat­e­gy for Cred­it Suisse, and head of fixed income research at Bank of Amer­i­ca.…

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war shame
Churchill to Moyne (circled): “We shall choose Shame, and then have War thrown in a little later.” Coalition ministers, May 1940. Standing L-R: Sir Archibald Sinclair, A.V. Alexander, Lord Cranborne. Herbert Morrison, Lord Moyne. Captain Margesson, Brendan Bracken. Seated L-R: Ernest Bevin, Lord Beaverbrook, Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill, Sir John Anderson, Arthur Greenwood, Sir Kingsley Wood. (Imperial War Museum / public domain)
Churchill’s words: Choosing between War and Shame—and getting both.

Churchill’s words: Choosing between War and Shame—and getting both.

It is fre­quent­ly asked: What did Churchill say about those who trade hon­or for peace hav­ing in nei­ther in the end?

“War and Shame”

There are two quo­ta­tions. The first was Churchill in a let­ter to Lloyd George on 13 August 1938, just before the Munich Con­fer­ence, which led to World War II a year later.

I think we shall have to choose in the next few weeks between war and shame, and I have very lit­tle doubt what the deci­sion will be.

Ref­er­ence is Churchill by Him­self, page 256, quot­ing Mar­tin Gilbert, ed., The Churchill Doc­u­ments, vol.…

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Randolph Churchill
The White House, 9 April 1963. President John F. Kennedy declares Sir Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States. On steps, front row (L-R): Undersecretary of State, George Ball, British Ambassador Sir David Ormsby-Gore, President Kennedy, Randolph Churchill. Back rows (L-R): Deputy Chief of Protocol William J. Tonesk (mostly behind Ball), Sylvia Ormsby-Gore, Randolph’s son Winston, President’s naval aide Tazewell Shepard. Secret Service agent Art Godfrey is at far right. (Photograph by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton. presented to Richard Langworth, 1988, public domain)
Present at the Creation: Randolph Churchill and the Official Biography (3)

Present at the Creation: Randolph Churchill and the Official Biography (3)

“Ran­dolph Churchill: Present at the Cre­ation,” is from a lec­ture aboard the Regent Sev­en Seas Explor­er on the 2019 Hills­dale Col­lege Cruise around Britain, 8 June 2019. Con­clud­ed from Part 2.

“The Great Work” —Randolph S.C.

After the war, Churchill willed his archive to Ran­dolph. In 1959, impressed by his son’s  biog­ra­phy of Lord Der­by, he invit­ed Ran­dolph to be his biog­ra­ph­er. Ran­dolph devot­ed him­self to the job, know­ing by then that he had wrecked his body, that the process of dis­in­te­gra­tion was advanced. Could he fin­ish in time? Ran­dolph wondered.

He housed the archives in a fire­proof strong room at Stour, his home in Suf­folk.…

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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