Category: Uncategorized

State of Israel
“No more yielding than a dream.” Camp David, 2000: Israel Prime Minister Barak, President Clinton, Palestine Authority Chairman Arafat pondered the eighth Two-State Solution. It proved no more acceptable than its predecessors. (Wikimedia Commons; the quote is from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”)
Churchill, Palestine and the State of Israel, Part 2: 1945-1951

Churchill, Palestine and the State of Israel, Part 2: 1945-1951

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"The Middle East is one of the hardest-hearted areas in the world. It has always been fought over, and peace has only reigned when a major power has established firm influence and shown that it would maintain its will. Your friends must be supported with every vigour and if necessary they must be avenged. Force, or perhaps force and bribery, are the only things that will be respected.... At present our friendship is not valued, and our enmity is not feared." —WSC, 1958

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Palestine
West Palestine over time. (איתמראשפר Creative Commons)
Churchill, Palestine and Israel, Part 1: 1917-1945

Churchill, Palestine and Israel, Part 1: 1917-1945

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Churchill and Palestine had a long association, spanning two world wars and thirty years. It began in 1917, when British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour promised a “Jewish National Home” in Palestine. Almost simultaneously, Lawrence of Arabia was offering the Arabs sovereignty over a Middle East ruled for nearly half a millennium by the Turks. By war’s end, the Ottoman Empire was a shambles. “At this truly horrendous moment,” Professor Fromkin told us, “Prime Minister David Lloyd George turned to his Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill and said in effect, ‘You deal with it.’”

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duty
April 1955: Sir Winston and Lady Churchill visiting the British War Cemetery in Syracuse, Italy. “The historical atmosphere of Syracuse,” he wrote to The Queen, “grows perceptibly upon me and my companions here as the days pass.” (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill on Duty: Representatives of the People, Please Note

Churchill on Duty: Representatives of the People, Please Note

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For him, the safety and honor of the nation always came first. He pursued that tenaciously, often at risk to his career. Second came the constituents who elected him. He makes a fine distinction between a “representative” (the duty of the Member) and a “delegate.” There is a world of constitutional contrast between them. Third among his priorities was “duty to the party organization or programme.” All too often, representatives today place that duty above the other two.

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Wells
H.G. Wells in 1890. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill, Wells, and Government by “Experts”

Churchill, Wells, and Government by “Experts”

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Churchill shared Wells’s faith in science, but he never lost his reservations about experts. Four months after they met, he declared in Parliament: “It was a principle of our Constitution not to employ experts, whether business men or military men, in the highest affairs of State.” Four decades laster he reiterated: “Expert knowledge, however indispensable, is no substitute for a generous and comprehending outlook upon the human story with all its sadness and with all its unquenchable hope.”

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funeral
Eleanor Roosevelt at the Franklin D. Roosevelt funeral in Hyde Park, New York, 15 April 1945. (FDR Library, public domain)
Why Churchill Skipped the Roosevelt Funeral in 1945

Why Churchill Skipped the Roosevelt Funeral in 1945

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The funeral quandary: “...everyone here thought my duty next week lay at home, at a time when so many Ministers are out of the country” (per Martin Gilbert). “P.M. of course wanted to go. A[nthony Eden] thought they oughtn’t both to be away together.... P.M. says he’ll go and A. can stay. I told A. that, if P.M. goes, he must.... Churchill deeply regretted in after years that he allowed himself to be persuaded not to go at once to Washington” (per Alexander Cadogan).

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rapscallions
Whitehall, London, 21 October 1921: Prayer vigil by Irish sympathizers as the Irish Treaty was being negotiated. Inset, Arthur Griffith, followed by Michael Collins, two of the Irish negotiators. Later Collins sent a message: “Tell Winston we could never have done anything without him.” (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain)
Rapscallions? What Churchill Actually Said and Thought about the Irish

Rapscallions? What Churchill Actually Said and Thought about the Irish

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“Rap­scal­lions”: Excerpt­ed  from an arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text includ­ing end­notes, please click here. Sub­scrip­tions to this site are free. You will receive reg­u­lar notices of new posts as pub­lished. Just fill out SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW (at right). Your email address will remain a rid­dle wrapped in a mys­tery inside an enigma.

On cancelling Winston

Mary Ellen Syn­on is a feisty Irish jour­nal­ist who doesn’t mind tak­ing a contrarian’s posi­tion on pop­u­lar ortho­dox­ies. Writ­ing to oppose the lat­est uproar over Win­ston Churchill, she first explains that she’s enti­tled to be offend­ed by him: “If you think Churchill was heavy on Indi­ans, Mus­lims and Africans, brace your­self for what he said about the Irish.”…

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Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Territory was organized on 7 August 7 1789. Congress accepted North Carolina’s cession of its western lands in 1790. (User:Golbez, Creative Commons)
How the Northwest Ordinance Promoted a Just Society

How the Northwest Ordinance Promoted a Just Society

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“The great title deeds” In an illu­mi­nat­ing inter­view on the North­west Ordi­nance, Hills­dale Col­lege Pres­i­dent Lar­ry P. Arnn explains one of America’s key found­ing doc­u­ments.  This is not a usu­al sub­ject here. Indeed Churchill’s His­to­ry of the Eng­lish-Speak­ing Peo­ples doesn’t even men­tion it. Nonethe­less— the North­west Ordi­nance of 1787 qual­i­fies as one of Churchill’s “great title-deeds of Anglo-Amer­i­can liberties.” . The inter­view didn’t answer all my ques­tions but taught me things I didn’t know. I doubt that many Amer­i­can school­child­ren know them either. Nev­er­the­less, the North­west Ordi­nance deserves broad­er familiarity. Northwest Ordinance Provisions Dr. Arnn’s remarks need lit­tle elab­o­ra­tion here.…

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boxing
Boxing world champion Jack Johnson with a racing runabout in 1916. Johnson liked fast cars. Once fined $50 for speeding, he offered the policeman $100, saying he’d be driving back at the same speed. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill, Johnson, and the British Boxing Controversy of 1911

Churchill, Johnson, and the British Boxing Controversy of 1911

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“The British Box­ing Con­tro­ver­sy” is excerpt­ed from an essay for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text includ­ing more images and end­notes, please click here. Sub­scrip­tions to this site are free. You will receive reg­u­lar notices of new posts as pub­lished. Just scroll to SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW. Your email address is nev­er giv­en out and remains a rid­dle wrapped in a mys­tery inside an enigma.

Boxing, 1911

In Feb­ru­ary a Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty pan­el of four, all shar­ing the same opin­ions, brand­ed Win­ston Churchill an over­rat­ed racist impe­ri­al­ist. The British Empire, one speak­er added, was worse than the Third Reich.…

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monarchy
Buckingham Palace, VE Day, 1945: Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth, WSC, George VI, Princess Margaret. (Wikimedia Creative Commons)
What Good’s a Monarchy? “To Separate Pomp from Power” -Churchill

What Good’s a Monarchy? “To Separate Pomp from Power” -Churchill

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Excerpt­ed from “What Good’s a Monar­chy? Churchill’s Case for an Anachro­nism,” for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text includ­ing end­notes please click here.

Sub­scrip­tions to this site are free. You will receive reg­u­lar notices of new posts as pub­lished. Just scroll to SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW. Your email address is nev­er giv­en out and remains a rid­dle wrapped in a mys­tery inside an enigma.

On Monarchy

“It is wise in human affairs, and in the gov­ern­ment of men, to sep­a­rate pomp from pow­er.” —Win­ston S. Churchill1

In an age of lam­poon­ing any­thing which smacks of tra­di­tion, the ques­tion aris­es: what good is monar­chy?…

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race
At risk: The Churchill statue on Parliament Square, London was twice defaced in recent riots, while nearby at the Cenotaph, someone tried to burn the flags. (Photo by Ben Brooksbank, Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Foreword to a Review of “The Racial Consequences of Mr. Churchill”

Foreword to a Review of “The Racial Consequences of Mr. Churchill”

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“The Racial Con­se­quences of Mr. Churchill”: A Review

The fol­low­ing is my fore­word only to an analy­sis of the recent Churchill Col­lege pan­el, by Zewdi­tu Gebrey­ohanes and Andrew Roberts. They fol­lowed a max­im of Ran­dolph Churchill in the offi­cial biog­ra­phy: “I am inter­est­ed only in the truth.” Every Churchill schol­ar is in their debt.

Foreword

Eighty-eight years ago Hitler became Chan­cel­lor of Ger­many and the Oxford Union passed a res­o­lu­tion: “That this House refus­es in any cir­cum­stances to fight for King and Coun­try.” A week lat­er Win­ston Churchill said: “We have all seen with a sense of nau­sea the abject, squalid, shame­less avow­al made in the Oxford Union.…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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