In the News Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Sir Winstonus: “And thou, fair dame, art not of angels born, Thy tongue’s keen edge doth all who cross thee warn. Yet in thy zeal to strike with jest and jeer, Thou dost forget the mirror drawing near.” Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII and Catherine” by the artist B. Trell, 1887. (Wikimedia Commons)

Churchllian Shakespeare: AI Presents “You’re drunk…You’re ugly”

20 January 2025

Setting: A grand hall in Westminster. Tapestries hang from the walls, and the faint clink of goblets echoes through the air. Enter: Sir Winstonus Churchillius, goblet in hand. Lady Bessica Braddockia approaches, fanning herself dramatically. Lady Bessica: “Hail, Sir Winstonus, thou art returned, From feasting, drinking, or some sport absurd? Thy face is flushed, and eyes like moons do glow; Dost thou drown England’s cares in wine's deep flow?”

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Secrets of Statecraft with Andrew Roberts: Churchill, 150 Years On

10 January 2025

Honor(u)red to be invited to join Lord Roberts, at Secrets of Statecraft. It was fun to chat with the author of the foremost one-volume life of Churchill, about where Sir Winston stands on his 150th birthday. We mutually concluded that he stands as tall as ever. Beyond that, we need to remember him because he spoke everlasting truths about the relations between peoples, about governance, about the value of liberty. Those are as relevant as ever today.

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Churchill-Syria Analogies: A Syrious Situation

10 December 2024

Charles Krauthammer, sage as ever, cautioned against comparing modern situations like Syria (we might now add Ukraine or Gaza) to the Second World War: “There is a difference of scale…. The Second World War was an existential struggle where the future of civilization was in the balance. It could be that Syria, or these other trouble spots, will develop into a World War-like conflict. But that is fairly unlikely right now. It is not a conflict in which the existence of ways of life is at stake.”

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Churchill at 150: A Certain Splendid Memory

30 November 2024

“I pondered what had made this dynamic but gentle character so beloved and respected. First of all that there was courage. He had no fear of anything, moral or physical. There was sincerity, truth and integrity, for he couldn't knowingly deceive a cabinet minister or a bricklayer or a secretary. There was forgiveness, warmth, affection, loyalty and, perhaps most important of all in the demanding life we all lived, there was humour, which he had in abundance.” -Grace Hamblin

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It’s Baaaack! The Epstein Churchill Bust Kerfuffle, Round 4

20 November 2024

Since 1965 has been an Epstein Churchill bust at the White House, uninterrupted now for six decades. Current media confusion surrounds the SECOND Epstein, which makes regular visits on loan from the British Embassy, where it is in the Embassy’s art collection. Epstein #1 is part of the permanent White House collection. Epstein #2 is an “optional extra” at the White House, depending on the whim of the occupant. Every President is entitled to the totems of their choice.

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Stop the Churchill Comparisons! (Part #1,234)

10 November 2024

Really, these Churchill comparisons need to stop. We cannot postulate what Churchill would do about any issue or problem today. It doesn't seem far-fetched to suggest that in today's Middle East. his focus would be on the main danger. Figure out what that is, and you too can may find comparisons Winston Churchill. But, in a larger sense, there is nobody so far in the 21st century who is comparable to WSC. Nobody.

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Myths and Heresies: “Firebombing the Black Forest”

15 September 2024

The great Tucker Flapdoodle: Adolf Hitler was misunderstood, we are told. He invaded Poland only because Chamberlain and Churchill forced him. He never wanted France, dropped peace leaflets on Britain. The Germans were baffled over what to do with millions of Russian POWs because Churchill kept fighting long enough to bring Stalin in. Then Churchill got America involved. Here we consider just one of these unique charges: that in his bloodlust, Churchill firebombed Germany's Black Forest. (We hadn't heard that one before.)

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Coming: New Churchill Phrase Index in My Next Quotebook

30 June 2024

Coming from Hillsdale College Press, the new edition will carry a brand new title in keeping with its far larger content. Earlier editions contained 3500 quotations; they now total over 5000. Many new ones derive from The Churchill Documents, 1942 to 1965, also published by Hillsdale. The preliminary proofs total 736 pages, but that's without the indexes. These are being compiled by the award-winning lecturer Do Mi Stauber.

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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)

D-Day+80: National Celebrations, Eighty Years On

5 June 2024

And so on 6 June 1944 we launched the great crusade, as Eisenhower put it (today perhaps politically incorrectly). Western civilization was saved. Yet it was not, William F. Buckley Jr. argued, “the significance of that victory, mighty and glorious though it was, that causes the name of Churchill to make the blood run a little faster....It is the roar that we hear, when we pronounce his name….The genius of Churchill was his union of affinities of the heart and of the mind, the total fusion of animal and spiritual energy."

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Musical Interludes: Churchill and the Violin, 1886, 1928

20 April 2024

"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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