FAQs Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Jibes and Insults: Churchill Took As Good As He Gave

25 July 2024 Comments 0 Comments

Not all were pleasant ribbing: “The Prime Minister wins Debate after Debate and loses battle after battle. The country is beginning to say that he fights Debates like a war and the war like a Debate.... [His speech indulged] in these turgid, wordy, dull, prosaic and almost invariably empty new chapters in his book…while dressed in some uniform of some sort or other. I wish he would recognise that he is the civilian head of a civilian Government, and not go parading around in ridiculous uniforms.” —Nye Bevan

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Poland or Russia: Did Churchill Pick the Right Enemy?

20 June 2024 Comments 0 Comments

With Russia invaded and America still neutral, Churchill was desperate for allies. Decisions had to be made with what was known at the time. It was logical to conclude then that Germany not Russia was the greater expansionist threat. No one could see far ahead, yet no one worked harder than he for Poland’s independence after the war. No one more admired the valiant Poles who fought with the Allies from 1940 to D-Day and beyond.

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Q&A: “Black Dog” — Churchill and Depression

10 June 2024 Comments 0 Comments

"A lot has been made of depression in his character by psychiatrists who were never in the same room with him. He himself talks of his Black Dog, and he did have times of great depression. Some of the things he went through would depress anybody.... Of course, if you have a Black Dog, it lurks somewhere in your nature. But I never saw him disarmed by depression. I'm not talking about the depression of his much later years, because surely that is a sad feature of old age which afflicts a great many people who have led a very active life." —Lady Soames

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Churchill Misquotes: Never give up and Definition of Fanatic

30 April 2024 Comments 0 Comments

The ranks of fake Churchill quotes reaches almost 200 in the next edition of "Churchill by Himself," and are meanwhile kept up to date on this website. These two are all over the web and constantly repeated. They probably stem from the many inaccurate “wit and wisdom” quotation books.

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Australia Stories: Peace in 1918, War in 1941

25 April 2024 Comments 0 Comments

1918: "If the peace which we are going to make in Europe should lead, as I trust it will, to the liberation of captive nationalities...it will remove for ever most of the causes of possible wars. The only sure foundation for a State is a Government freely elected by millions of people, and as many millions as possible. It is fatal to swerve from that conception." This brief letter abounds with Churchillian wisdom. Had only we followed it. If only we were following it today....

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Musical Interludes: Churchill and the Violin, 1886, 1928

20 April 2024 Comments 0 Comments

"It is not widely known that Churchill once bought a cheap violin and essayed to prepare himself for the concert stage. The fancy passed. Unlike bricklaying, the musical art was tougher than it looked. About all he got out of it was a witticism from Philip Snowden, a government opponent, who said, 'I understand that Winston has taken up a new pastime—fiddling, and very appropriate, too.'" —Robert Lewis Taylor

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Did Eisenhower Offer to Quit Over WW2 Bombing Policy?

31 March 2024 Comments 0 Comments

As supporters of Israel argue over the civilian casualties in Gaza, this history lesson is relevant. It seems that civilian casualties only occur to leaders of civilized governments. Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and certainly Hamas never worried about them. In 1944, the arguments, heart searchings and constant changes of targets continued almost up to D-Day. In 1945, the battle of Manila resulted in 250,000 civilian casualties including 100,000 deaths. When told that statistic recently, Prime Minister Netanyahu was astonished. "100,000...well, we have incurred considerably fewer."

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No, Churchill Didn’t Sink the Lusitania, Either

10 February 2024 Comments 0 Comments

The scholar Harry V. Jaffa placed most of the blame on human error: “Not only was Lusitania's steam reduced; her crew was also. The best men had been taken by the Royal Navy; lifeboat drills were listless…. The davits by which they had to be lowered were virtually unworkable from the moment the ship began to list. But the greatest of all the failures was the captain’s, since he navigated almost exactly as he would have done in peacetime.” Captain Turner had slowed down after striking the Irish coast, in order to arrive with the tide at Merseyside.

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Holiday Gifts: “Marlborough: His Life and Times”

30 November 2023 Comments 0 Comments

"Marlborough" was originally published in four volumes in England (Harrap) and Canada (Ryerson and Harrap) and six in America (Scribner). Fine first editions are pricey. The current paperback edition is by the University of Chicago Press. Copies is not, but for gift giving, you may want something nicer. There are many alternatives.

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Irving Berlin, Isaiah Berlin: Churchill’s Mistaken Identity

20 November 2023 Comments 0 Comments

Enthralled by his accounts of American politics from the British Embassy in Washington, Churchill invited a "Mr. I. Berlin" to lunch. The invitee turned out to be Irving Berlin, not Isaiah, which produced a confusing dialogue around the table. ("Tell me, Mr. Berlin, what is your greatest work?" ... "White Christmas.") Later, meeting the real Isaiah Berlin, WSC acknowledged "the grave solipsism I was so unfortunate to have perpetrated."

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