Year: 2020

lipstick
Pre-WW2 lipstick production at Colgate-Palmolive, Australia. (State Library of New South Wales, Creative Commons)
Lipstick and the Churchills: No Subject Too Obscure, None Too Trivial.

Lipstick and the Churchills: No Subject Too Obscure, None Too Trivial.

Comments 2 Comments
Q: “The power of lippy”

I’m Blan­ca Bueno, a jour­nal­ist work­ing in Barcelona for a cul­tur­al quiz show for Ante­na 3, Span­ish tele­vi­sion. (It is the equiv­a­lent of NBC’s “Who’s still Stand­ing?“)

My work con­sists in writ­ing the ques­tions and check­ing if they are cor­rect and well for­mu­lat­ed, in order to be as pre­cise as pos­si­ble. We try not to spread wrong infor­ma­tion to our con­tes­tants and our audi­ence. Some­times, to do this work, I need to con­tact to some experts, such as you, in this case. I need help ver­i­fy­ing a ques­tion about Win­ston Churchill and lipstick.…

Read More Read More

Apartheid
South Africa in 1885 showing the array of contending jurisdictions. The four provinces of Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State were united in 1910. German Southwest Africa was seized in 1915 and administered by South Africa as a nominal fifth province until 1990, when it became Namibia. The British Protectorates, Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland, achieved independence in 1966-68 as Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (now Eswatini). Griqualand East and West were annexed by Cape Colony in 1878-80. Stella Land was annexed by the Transvaal (South African Republic) in 1884. Zululand was a British protectorate from 1887 to 1897, when it was absorbed by Natal. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Art of the Possible (2): Churchill, South Africa, Apartheid, Mandela

The Art of the Possible (2): Churchill, South Africa, Apartheid, Mandela

Comments 0 Comments

 Excerpt­ed from “Churchill, South Africa, Apartheid,” part 2 of an arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, June 2020. For the com­plete text with end­notes, please click here. 

This arti­cle is ded­i­cat­ed to the mem­o­ry of Nel­son Man­dela (1918-2013), below with François Pien­aar after the Spring­boks won the 1995 Rug­by World Cup. (See videos at end of arti­cle.) Not only did he sup­port and inte­grate the nation­al sport; he com­bined Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfri­ka and Die Stem van Suid-Afri­ka as a joint nation­al anthem. His Churchillian mag­na­nim­i­ty was a mod­el for his time.…

Read More Read More

Jagan
Presidential Standard of Cheddi Jagan. I’m always a little leery of those flat-winged eagle symbols, not to mention smoking ovens, but the veggies look innocent enough. (Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Churchill Haters’ Feast of Jagan (Or: The Cheddi Gorge)

Churchill Haters’ Feast of Jagan (Or: The Cheddi Gorge)

Comments 0 Comments

Ched­di Jagan?! France’s fore­most Churchill his­to­ri­an, Pro­fes­sor Antoine Capet of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Rouen, sends along a brand new Fake Churchill Calum­ny. (If the FCC didn’t have copy­right, I’d reg­is­ter the initials.)

Here is one from those fair and bal­anced enti­ties, “Crimes of Britain” and the “Mal­colm X Move­ment.” In the back­ground, snide­ly, they play “Land of Hope and Glo­ry.” It takes only 57 sec­onds to recite sev­en* long-dis­proven, shop­worn Churchill sins—plus one new one: “Churchill oust­ed demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed Ched­di Jagan in British Guiana, 1953.” Con­grat­u­la­tions. That’s real­ly original!

*See list below.…

Read More Read More

memory
Not exactly a Nazi knee on the neck, but you get the analogy. “Your debt account, Churchill.” (Lustige Blätter, Berlin, 18 August 1944). The account book reads (with remarkable memory lapses): “England started the air war in the year 1940 against defenseless civilians! (Sylt, Freiburg.) It killed women and children, destroyed hospitals, residential quarters and churches, destroyed the cultural assets of Europe…Cologne, Hamburg…” etc. Chamberlain bombed the German airbase on Sylt on 19-20 March 1940 in reprisal for a German raid on Scapa Flow. Freiburg was mistakenly bombed by the Luftwaffe at the start of Hitler’s invasion on 10 May 1940, then by the Allies in 1944.
Defcon 1, The Battle for Churchill’s Memory: The Cause Endures

Defcon 1, The Battle for Churchill’s Memory: The Cause Endures

Comments 2 Comments

Here­with final install­ments by var­i­ous writ­ers in our two-month defense of Win­ston Churchill’s mem­o­ry. These and the links below cov­er his most pop­u­lar cur­rent sins—even cas­tra­tion and nuk­ing the Mar­alin­ga. So, unless we get a new one, that’s a wrap! RML

Memory: “The stars still shone in the sky”

Lost in the pell-mell rush to den­i­grate his mem­o­ry was the 8oth anniver­sary of Churchill becom­ing Prime Min­ster, 10 May 1940. I thought of his words as I read the igno­rant, ill-informed, false attacks on his char­ac­ter. They occurred amid protest over a trag­ic event that had noth­ing to do with him.…

Read More Read More

South Africa
South Africa, 1899. Gandhi (circled) with stretcher-bearers of the Indian Ambulance Corps, which he organized to support the British during the Boer War. Standing: H. Kitchen, L. Panday, R. Panday, J. Royeppen, R.K. Khan, L. Gabriel, M.K. Kotharee, E. Peters, D. Vinden, V. Madanjit. Middle Row: W. Jonathan, V. Lawrence, M.H. Nazar, Dr. L.P. Booth, M.K. Gandhi, P.K. Naidoo, M. Royeppen. Front Row: S. Shadrach, “Professor” Dhundee, S.D. Moddley, A. David, A.A. Gandhi. (South African photo, public domain, Wikimedia Commons)
“The Art of the Possible” (1): Churchill, South Africa, Apartheid

“The Art of the Possible” (1): Churchill, South Africa, Apartheid

Comments 1 Comment

Excerpts from “Churchill, South Africa, Apartheid” an arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, June 2020. For the com­plete text with end­notes, please click here. This arti­cle is ded­i­cat­ed to the mem­o­ry of Nel­son Man­dela (1918-2013), whose Churchillian mag­na­nim­i­ty was a mod­el for his time—and even more for ours.

Part 1: 1902-1909

In “Apartheid: Made in Britain,” Richard Dow­den argued that Britain not South Africa cost black South Africans their rights. His account is fac­tu­al as far as it goes, but there is more to say about Churchill’s effort to achieve jus­tice in South Africa.…

Read More Read More

defense
The Churchill Statue by Ivor Roberts-Jones, Parliament Square, London. (Wikimedia Creative Commons, public domain)
Defcon 1: The Urgent Defense of Churchill’s Name and Legacy

Defcon 1: The Urgent Defense of Churchill’s Name and Legacy

Comments 0 Comments

Case for  the defense: “If we allow our mon­u­ments and stat­ues and place-names to be torn down because of our present-day views, and claims of peo­ple being offend­ed by our built envi­ron­ment that has been around for decades and some­times cen­turies, it speaks to a pathet­ic lack of con­fi­dence in our­selves as a nation. We are on the way to a soci­ety of com­pet­ing vic­tim­hoods, atom­ized and balka­nized into small­er and small­er com­mu­ni­ties, which iron­i­cal­ly enough is some­thing racists want too.” —Andrew Roberts

Defense of the good

The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project has joined many oth­er groups and indi­vid­u­als in defense of the good.…

Read More Read More

Stalin
First Meeting, Moscow 1942: WSC’s interpreter Arthur Birse, Churchill, U.S. envoy Averell Harriman, Stalin, Soviet Foreign Minister V.M. Molotov. (Photo by Mikhail Mikhaylovich Kalashnikov, Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
“Stalin never broke his word to me.” Were these Churchill’s words?

“Stalin never broke his word to me.” Were these Churchill’s words?

Comments 0 Comments

A mag­a­zine fact check­er writes ask­ing if Churchill ever said, “Stal­in nev­er broke his word to me.” The short answer is yes. The long answer shows how care­ful we should be when quot­ing Churchill.

The source of this quote is the jour­nal­ist C.L. Sulzberg­er (1912-1993), in his 1970 book, The Last of the Giants, page 304. In it Sulzberg­er reports his “five hours with old Win­ston Churchill” at Chartwell on 10 July 1956.

Churchill, wrote Sulzberg­er, thought Stal­in “a great man, above all com­pared to Khr­uschev and Bul­ganin,” and quot­ed Churchill as follows:

Stal­in nev­er broke his word to me.…

Read More Read More

Ivison
Churchill (followed by his brother Jack) visiting bomb-damaged areas of the East End of London, 8 September 1940. (War Office photo, Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Mr. Ivison: May we proclaim Trump no Churchill without slurring the latter?

Mr. Ivison: May we proclaim Trump no Churchill without slurring the latter?

Comments 1 Comment
Mr. Ivison is right. And wrong.

John Ivi­son in Canada’s Nation­al Post makes the point: “Don­ald Trump is no Win­ston Churchill, and the com­par­i­son is ludi­crous.” He refers to a June 3rd state­ment by the President’s press sec­re­tary, Kayleigh McE­nany. (She com­pared Trump’s appear­ance at St. John’s Epis­co­pal Church across from the White House to Churchill vis­it­ing the blitzed East End in 1940.)

I think from a pure­ly his­tor­i­cal point of view we can all agree with him. In 1940, Churchill wrote, “There was a white glow, over-pow­er­ing, sub­lime, which ran through our Island from end to end.”…

Read More Read More

wizard
Royal Air Force Boeing Fortress Mark IIA of the RAF Coastal Command, featuring ASV radar antenna, 1943. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Did Winston Churchill Invent the Term “Wizard War”?

Did Winston Churchill Invent the Term “Wizard War”?

Comments 0 Comments
Q: Churchill’s creation?

I’d like to know if you can shed light on Churchill’s use of the word “wiz­ard” for radar sci­en­tists and engi­neers (as in Their Finest Hour, Book 2, Chap­ter 4 “The Wiz­ard War”)?  He first used the term in pub­li­ca­tion in that book in 1949; is there any indi­ca­tion of his use of the word, to describe what the RAF called “boffins”, dur­ing the ear­ly days of the war itself?

“Wiz­ard” is of course a grand old Mid­dle Eng­lish word, and Churchill would have pre­ferred that to the new­fan­gled “bof­fin.” …

Read More Read More

Jennie
Jennie in 1880, by an unknown photographer. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
“American Jennie” and Other Books on Lady Randolph Churchill

“American Jennie” and Other Books on Lady Randolph Churchill

Comments 4 Comments

A read­er requests rec­om­men­da­tions for good books about Sir Winston’s moth­er, Lady Ran­dolph Churchill (1854-1921). The most round­ed and thor­ough­ly sourced is Anne Sebba’s Amer­i­can Jen­nie (2007). Bar­bara Lang­worth pub­lished a thor­ough review and analy­sis of Jennie’s many accom­plish­ments, below. Scroll to the end for a Bib­li­og­ra­phy and com­men­tary on oth­er books about Lady Ran­dolph. RML

Barbara F. Langworth: The Right Parent Survived

Jen­nie Churchill: Winston’s Amer­i­can Moth­er, by Anne Seb­ba (Lon­don, Mur­ray, 2007).  Amer­i­can Jen­nie: The Remark­able Life of Lady Ran­dolph Churchill), (New York: Nor­ton, 2007). 

It may seem a new sto­ry to many read­ers, since the pre­vi­ous biogra­phies of Lady Ran­dolph Churchill date back up to eight decades.…

Read More Read More

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
Links on this page may earn commissions.