Year: 2021

Guelzo on Robert E. Lee: “To Err on the Side of Absorbing Society’s Defaulters”

Guelzo on Robert E. Lee: “To Err on the Side of Absorbing Society’s Defaulters”

Allen C. Guel­zo, Robert E. Lee: A Life (New York: Knopf, 2021), 608 pages, illus., $35, Kin­dle $15.99. First pub­lished in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor, 9 Novem­ber 2021. Please con­sid­er sub­scrib­ing (if you don’t already), to this ad-free web­site. You will receive reg­u­lar notices of new arti­cles as pub­lished. Just fill in your email in the right-hand pan­el under “sub­scribe & fol­low.” Your email address is giv­en to no one and remains a rid­dle wrapped in a mys­tery inside an enigma.

“Who’s that man on the horse?”…

…I asked my father at a young age. “That’s Lee—he led a South­ern army in the Civ­il War.”…

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Churchill and the Destruction of Monte Cassino Abbey, 1944

Churchill and the Destruction of Monte Cassino Abbey, 1944

Cassino Abbey

An Ital­ian jour­nal­ist writes for Churchill ref­er­ences to the attacks on Monte Cassi­no dur­ing the Italy cam­paign in spring 1944, ask­ing about “his silence, lat­er con­tra­dic­to­ry” on the bomb­ing of the town’s ancient monastery. If the impli­ca­tion is that Churchill was uncar­ing over the destruc­tion of ancient shrines and grand build­ings, that would con­tra­dict his revul­sion over the bomb­ing of Dres­den. If it is that this par­tic­u­lar destruc­tion didn’t appear in his state­ments at the time, that is true. War is hell, and to expect him to eulo­gize every dev­as­tat­ing loss is to expect a lot.…

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“Greeks Fight Like Heroes – Heroes Fight Like Greeks”: Not by Churchill

“Greeks Fight Like Heroes – Heroes Fight Like Greeks”: Not by Churchill

Q: Did Churchill say this about the Greeks? “Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.” This quote is attrib­uted to Churchill and some­times accom­pa­nied by an audio clip which does not sound like him. My assump­tion is that he may have writ­ten it but the words were deliv­ered by some­one else. Is there any source of this quote or pos­si­ble mis­quote? It is used reg­u­lar­ly by the Greeks dur­ing Ohi Day cel­e­bra­tions.* It would be nice to find a source either way. —M.A.,…

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Churchill’s Legacy Today: Undented in the Digital Age

Churchill’s Legacy Today: Undented in the Digital Age

“This truth is incon­tro­vert­ible. Pan­ic may resent it, igno­rance may deride it, mal­ice may dis­tort it, but there it is.” —Win­ston S. Churchill, House of Com­mons, 17 May 1916

Q: His legacy today?

Peter Bak­er of The New York Times recent­ly reviewed a new book which deliv­ers some sharp arrows toward Win­ston Churchill and his lega­cy. Bak­er writes that the text labels Churchill  “not just a racist but a hyp­ocrite, a dis­sem­bler, a nar­cis­sist, an oppor­tunist, an impe­ri­al­ist, a drunk, a strate­gic bun­gler, a tax dodger, a neglect­ful father, a cred­it-hog­ging author, a ter­ri­ble judge of char­ac­ter and, most of all, a mas­ter­ful myth-mak­er.”…

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Sean Connery Remembered: James Bond and His Motorcars (Update)

Sean Connery Remembered: James Bond and His Motorcars (Update)

Fifteen minutes to nine:

The Red Phone in the Bond flat gives its loud, dis­tinc­tive jan­gle. It’s the Chief of Staff. “At once, please, James. Spe­cial from ‘M.’ Some­thing for every­one. Crash dive and ultra hush. If you’ve got any dates for the next few weeks, bet­ter can­cel them. You’ll be off tonight.”

The archetypal, irreplaceable 007 In 2020 Sean Con­nery, the orig­i­nal James Bond, died at 90 at his home in Nas­sau. “He’s one of the few actors on the plan­et I tru­ly mourn,” a friend writes. “He was great man and dig­ni­fied, and stayed that way his whole life.”…

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Churchilliana: Return to Glory for an Icon or Two (Update)

Churchilliana: Return to Glory for an Icon or Two (Update)

Icon of war: the old War Office, Whitehall

(Updat­ed from 2016). Home to Sec­re­taries of State for War Lord Hal­dane, Lord Kitch­en­er, David Lloyd George and Win­ston Churchill, it was a key venue in two glob­al con­flicts. But in 2016 the old War Office build­ing was sold to devel­op­ers of a five-star hotel and res­i­den­tial apart­ments. That work is expect­ed to fin­ish in 2022, and res­i­dents are being sought.

Built in 1906 for £1.2, mil­lion, the Grade II-list­ed prop­er­ty changed hands for £300 mil­lion. The buy­ers were the Hin­du­ja Group, in part­ner­ship with a Obras­con Huarte Lain Desar­rol­los (OHLD), a Span­ish indus­tri­al company.…

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Unpunctuality: Churchill Tried and Repeatedly Failed to Cure Himself

Unpunctuality: Churchill Tried and Repeatedly Failed to Cure Himself

Q: Unpunctuality

I have been told that Churchill arrived late for a meet­ing with HM The Queen, express­ing his regret by say­ing, “My sin­cere apolo­gies Madam, I start­ed too late.” But I haven’t found any ref­er­ence to this. Can you help? —A.P.H., England

A: His perennial vice

Churchill had some­what cured his unpunc­tu­al­i­ty in lat­er years, when as prime min­is­ter he com­mand­ed prompt trans­porta­tion. He was not known to be late for Queen Eliz­a­beth II. But his unpunc­tu­al­i­ty was known to have dis­pleased the  Prince of Wales, lat­er Edward VII (1901-10). And here is the source of your sto­ry.…

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Q&A: Churchill at the Stroke of a Pen: Jordan and the Indian Army

Q&A: Churchill at the Stroke of a Pen: Jordan and the Indian Army

Excerpt­ed from “Cre­at­ing Jor­dan with the Stroke of a Pen on a Sun­day After­noon,” Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, August 2021.

Q: On creating Transjordan

What is the verac­i­ty of this alleged quote by Churchill, which has many ver­sions? “In his lat­er years, he liked to boast that in 1921 he cre­at­ed Tran­sjor­dan (6/7ths of the British Pales­tine Man­date, today’s King­dom of Jor­dan, ‘with the stroke of a pen, one Sun­day after­noon in Cairo.’” The source cit­ed by The New York Times is “Bor­der­lines and Bor­der­lands: Polit­i­cal Odd­i­ties at the Edge of the Nation-State,” edit­ed by Alexan­der C.…

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The Biblical Churchill (3) “Be Ye Men of Valour”

The Biblical Churchill (3) “Be Ye Men of Valour”

N.B. “Be Ye Men of Val­our” is from the orig­i­nal Appen­dix IV in my book Churchill By Him­self. It was delet­ed in the lat­er edi­tion, Churchill in His Own Words, to make room for an index of phras­es. Con­clud­ed from Part 2

From the Book of Maccabees

On 19 May 1940, Churchill made his first broad­cast as Prime Min­is­ter, a speech which lift­ed the hearts even of for­mer critics:

A tremen­dous bat­tle is rag­ing in France and Flan­ders. The Ger­mans, by a remark­able com­bi­na­tion of air bomb­ing and heav­i­ly armoured tanks, have bro­ken through the French defences north of the Mag­inot Line, and strong columns of their armoured vehi­cles are rav­aging the open coun­try, which for the first day or two was with­out defend­ers.…

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