Category: In the News

women
A suffragette protestor alongside, Churchill rides through Dundee after winning his “seat for life,” 1909. (Illustrated London News)
Nashville (3). Churchill and Women’s Rights

Nashville (3). Churchill and Women’s Rights

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Votes for Women, Yeas and Nays

Among the more per­ni­cious dis­tor­tions of Churchill’s record is that he was a life­time oppo­nent of rights for women, includ­ing their right to vote. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from part 2….

In 1999 Time mag­a­zine explained that Churchill could not be “Per­son of the Cen­tu­ry” because he “bull­dogged­ly opposed women’s rights.” In 2012 London’s Dai­ly Tele­graph wrote: “Churchill believed that women shouldn’t vote, telling the House of Com­mons that they are ‘well rep­re­sent­ed by their fathers, broth­ers and husbands.’”

As I show in my book, Win­ston Churchill, Myth and Real­i­ty, Churchill nev­er said those words, in or out of Par­lia­ment.…

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Indian
Sioux headdress presented to Churchill by the Congress of American Indians, 1963. (Chartwell)
Nashville (2). Joyful Humbug: Churchill’s “Indian Forebears”

Nashville (2). Joyful Humbug: Churchill’s “Indian Forebears”

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Many of the Churchill fam­i­ly down at least through Sir Winston’s grand­son believed that Amer­i­can Indi­an blood ran in their veins. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from part 1….

“Mama is part red Indian…”

No excep­tion to the fam­i­ly belief (until she saw con­trary evi­dence) was Churchill’s daugh­ter Mary. “I remem­ber my daugh­ter Emma, play­ing with her friends,” Lady Soames recalled. “Sud­den­ly she warned them not to mis­be­have. ‘Mama, you know, is part red Indi­an, and if we are naughty she will go on the warpath.’”…

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lecture
What an honor: Nashville portraitist Shane Neal set to work. Thanks, Shane!
Nashville (1). Winston Churchill: Current Contentions and Things That Go Bump in the Night

Nashville (1). Winston Churchill: Current Contentions and Things That Go Bump in the Night

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NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 14TH— The Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee kind­ly invit­ed me to talk about Win­ston Churchill: Myth and Real­i­ty and the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. Our hosts, John and Karen Math­er and Dick and Lin­da Knight, could not have been more thought­ful, kinder and more gen­er­ous to Bar­bara and me. If I per­formed any­thing for them or Mr. Churchill,  that’s only a poor con­tri­bu­tion in an attempt at requital. *** As a bonus, I was hon­ored by a por­trait by Shane Neal​, a bril­liant Nashville artist and a gent​, as their way of say­ing thanks. In dis­cussing Churchill’s art, Shane was joined by fel­low artist Joseph Dai­ly, ​who paint­ed some forty por­traits of the Churchill fam­i­ly and their friends in Eng­land. …

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Bullock
Neville Bullock, Churchill Bodyguard, R.I.P.

Neville Bullock, Churchill Bodyguard, R.I.P.

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Neville Bullock…

…a kind and decent man, died aged 92 on August 29th, sur­round­ed by his fam­i­ly. Neville had served most recent­ly as a parish and dis­trict coun­cil­lor for Billinge and Sene­ley Green. Described as a “great bloke” by his friends, he will be deeply missed by all who knew him. Among these are Churchill his­to­ri­ans, who had the ben­e­fit of his remem­brances. Bul­lock was prob­a­bly the only man alive whose encoun­ters with the great bridged Churchill in 1945 with Rudy Giu­liani in 1996.

Trained as a Roy­al Marine, aged only 19, Neville Bul­lock sud­den­ly found him­self a body­guard to the Prime Min­is­ter.…

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Civil
Robert E. Lee on Traveller, by Frederick William Sievers, Gettysburg National Battlefield.
Civil War Memorials: What We Need to Remember

Civil War Memorials: What We Need to Remember

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Of Civil War…

“We think we are whol­ly supe­ri­or peo­ple,” said the Civ­il War his­to­ri­an Shel­by Foote. The 50th and 75th Anniver­saries of the Civ­il War Bat­tle of Get­tys­burg were poignant, inspir­ing moments. The words spo­ken of those occa­sions give cause to won­der. In the wel­ter of emo­tions, have we for­got­ten what we need to remember?

 

Footage of Civ­il War Vet­er­ans at 50yr Anniver­sary in 1913 & 75yr Anniver­sary in 1938
Watch this video on YouTube “We may be given to meet again…”

Shel­by Foote:

We think we are whol­ly supe­ri­or peo­ple. If we’d been any­thing like as supe­ri­or as we think we are, we’d nev­er have fought that Civ­il War.…

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Lindemann
Frederick Lindemann Viscount Cherwell (1886-1957), arriving for a Cabinet meeting, 1951. (Fred Ramage, history.net)
Frederick Lindemann: Churchill’s Eminence Grise?

Frederick Lindemann: Churchill’s Eminence Grise?

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Revi­sion­ist His­to­ry, Sea­son 2, Episode 5, “The Prime Min­is­ter and the Prof [ Fred­er­ick Lin­de­mann ],” pod­cast by Mal­colm Gladwell.

A pop­u­lar week­ly half hour pod­cast, Revi­sion­ist His­to­ry takes aim at shib­bo­leths, real and imag­ined. This episode is Churchill’s turn in the barrel.

Scientific Nemesis

The vil­lain, aside from Sir Win­ston, is his sci­en­tif­ic advis­er, Fred­er­ick Lin­de­mann,  lat­er Lord Cher­well, aka “The Prof.” You’ve prob­a­bly nev­er heard of him, says nar­ra­tor Mal­colm Glad­well. You should have. It was Lin­de­mann who made Churchill bomb inno­cent Ger­man civil­ians and starve the Bengalis.

Iron­i­cal­ly, the pro­gram begins with an ad for its spon­sor, Chanel Per­fume.…

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rhinoceros
Cover of the first edition MAJ, 1908.
Rhinoceros Table, Mr. Churchill? Thanks but No.

Rhinoceros Table, Mr. Churchill? Thanks but No.

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The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project received a nov­el ques­tion: “After his 1908 African safari, Churchill’s  taxi­der­mists ask if he wants a ‘Rhi­noc­er­os Table.’ What in the world is a Rhi­noc­er­os Table?”

Rhinoceros Table, anyone? The ref­er­ence is in The Churchill Doc­u­ments, vol. 4, Min­is­ter of the Crown, 1907-1911 (2007), page 753:

Row­land Ward Ltd., 167 Pic­cadil­ly, to WSC, 4 March 1908

Sir, In accor­dance with instruc­tions giv­en on your behalf by Lieu­tenant Colonel Gor­don Wil­son, we have in hand the fol­low­ing: MODELLED HEADS 1 Rhi­noc­er­os, 1 Zebra, 1 Warthog, 1 Wilde­beest, 1 Coke’s Har­te­beest, 1 Grant’s Gazelle, 1 Thomson’s Gazelle and the dress­ing of three Zebra skins, at a total cost of £​32.…

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quotations
Holding forth in Parliament, 1912. (Illustrated London News)
How Would Churchill Tweet? -National Review

How Would Churchill Tweet? -National Review

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“How Would Churchill Tweet?” appeared in Nation­al Review, 12 August 2017.

Since Pres­i­dent Trump has tak­en office, the pub­lic has quick­ly learned to get its polit­i­cal news from a nov­el source—namely, the President’s Twit­ter account.

The move to this plat­form rep­re­sents a shift in the nature of pol­i­tics, both for good and for ill. Trump might be among the first polit­i­cal lead­ers to use this medi­um to attack oppo­nents or make major announce­ments. He is cer­tain­ly not the first to uti­lize the kind of brevi­ty the plat­form requires to make his points.

Such brevi­ty also char­ac­ter­ized the rhetor­i­cal style of Win­ston Churchill, whose wit, humor and insight com­ple­ment­ed his deci­sive and effec­tive polit­i­cal lead­er­ship.…

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movies
Well-cast leads in “Churchill: The Wilderness Years” (1981). L-R: Edward Woodward (Sir Samuel Hoare), Peter Vaughan (Sir Thomas Inskip), Robert Hardy (Winston Churchill), Eric Porter (Neville Chamberlain), Peter Barkworth (Stanley Baldwin).
Churchill Bio-Pics: The Trouble with the Movies

Churchill Bio-Pics: The Trouble with the Movies

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“The Trou­ble with the Movies” was pub­lished in the Amer­i­can Thinker, 5 August 2017.

David Fran­co, review­ing the film Churchill, star­ring Bri­an Cox, rais­es ques­tions he says every­one should be ask­ing. “Isn’t the abil­i­ty to accept one’s mis­takes part of what makes a man a good leader? …. To what extent should we rely [on] past expe­ri­ences in order to min­i­mize mis­takes in the future? These are the ques­tions that make a bad movie like Churchill worth seeing.”

Well, I won’t be see­ing this bad movie. Described as “per­verse fan­ta­sy” by his­to­ri­an Andrew Roberts, it joins a recent spate of slop­py Churchill bio-pics that favor skewed car­i­ca­tures over his­tor­i­cal fact.…

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Nolan
Dunkirk 2017: avoiding computer imaging made it hard to convey the real dimensions of the operation (see photo below).
Nolan’s Dunkirk: “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans”

Nolan’s Dunkirk: “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans”

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(Reviewed for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project.) Dunkirk, pro­duced by Christo­pher Nolan, sets out to por­tray the 1940 res­cue of the Allied armies from the clutch­es of Hitler’s Wehrma­cht in terms of courage, hero­ism, sur­vival, and a few exam­ples of cow­ardice. In that he suc­ceeds admirably. In terms of context—in con­vey­ing an under­stand­ing of what Dunkirk was about—he fails utterly.

Drama Sans Meaning

Mr. Nolan says con­text wasn’t the aim. Dunkirk is about com­mu­nal togeth­er­ness and uni­ver­sal good­ness. But that could be shown on any beach in any war in the last hun­dred years from Gal­lipoli to Nor­mandy to Inchon.…

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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
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