In the News Archives - Page 2 of 28

Winston Churchill’s Tests of Freedom: Then and Now

10 January 2024 Comments 0 Comments

"These simple, practical tests, are some of the title-deeds on which a new Italy could be founded." Think of the years of experience, thought, and hard political lessons that went into those basic tenets. How Churchill expressed them in only 201 words, mostly of one or two syllables. How little they are thought of today, when we try to describe certain nations as free countries.

Read More Read More

“Churchill and Palestine”: Richmond, California, February 10th

30 December 2023 Comments 0 Comments

Churchill and Palestine had a long association spanning two world wars and thirty years. It began when Arthur Balfour declared Britain's objective of a "Jewish National Home" in Palestine. Almost simultaneously, T.E. Lawrence was promising the Arabs sovereignty over lands in the Middle East ruled for nearly half a millennium by the Turks. A reluctant Britain accepted responsibility for the Mandate of Palestine after the war. East Palestine became Arab-ruled Jordan. West Palestine became the source of conflict that has now lasted over a century.

Read More Read More

Today — Churchill at Harvard, 6 September 1943, with President James Conant. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)

Conant, Churchill, and the Harvard of 1943

15 December 2023 Comments 0 Comments

James Conant was a liberal. He favored admitting women and minorities, and ultimately Harvard did. I don't think he welcomed anti-Semites, although undoubtedly they existed on his campus. He was, above all, devoted to the free exchange of ideas. "Free speech carries with it the evil of all foolish, unpleasant and venomous things that are said," as Churchill once remarked. "But on the whole we would rather lump them than do away with it."

Read More Read More

Churchill and Lincoln: Scholars Consider the Cooper Union Speech

31 October 2023 Comments 0 Comments

In June 1860, Lincoln wrote that “when I came of age I did not know much.... The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.” Churchill in March 1949 would echo these remarks: “I frankly confess that I feel somewhat overawed in addressing this vast scientific and learned audience.… I have no technical and no university education, and have just had to pick up a few things as I went along.” Their observations undervalued the immense effort both had put into self-improvement.

Read More Read More

Churchill. the Kilkenny Cats, and the U.S. Congress

20 October 2023 Comments 1 Comment

"Indeed, the more we force ourselves to picture the hideous course of a modern naval engagement, the more one is inclined to believe that it will resemble the contest between Mamilius and Herminius at the Battle of Lake Regillus, or the still more homely conflict of the Kilkenny cats." —Churchill, 1912

Read More Read More

“Jarring Gong”: Benjamin Netanyahu on Winston Churchill

15 October 2023 Comments 2 Comments

"The nature of man has remained hitherto practically unchanged. Under sufficient stress—starvation, terror, warlike passion, or even cold intellectual frenzy—the modern man we know so well will do the most terrible deeds, and his modern woman will back him up.... We have the spectacle of the powers and weapons of man far outstripping the march of his intelligence; we have the march of his intelligence proceeding far more rapidly than the development of his nobility." —Winston S. Churchill, 1931

Read More Read More

Winston Churchill’s Revulsion over Napalm Bombing

25 July 2023 Comments 0 Comments

"My own feeling is that Napalm ought not to be used in the way it is being done by the American Forces. This is I am sure the overwhelming feeling of the House of Commons, but I do not take my opinion from them. I certainly could not agree to our taking any responsibility for it, otherwise than in the general duty of serving with and under the United Nations Commander. I do not see how Press articles and jabber of that kind compares with splashing about this burning fluid on the necks of humble people...."

Read More Read More

One Last Shining Moment: Churchill’s Paean to Beaverbrook

16 June 2023 Comments 0 Comments

"I was glad to be able sometimes to lean on him. He did not fail. This was his hour. Time has but added to the intensity of what I then felt, and to my regard and affection." —Sir Winston Churchill on the 85th birthday of Lord Beaverbrook, 25 May 1964.

Read More Read More

OMG — “Lord Fisher comes aboard.” Cartoon on Churchill’s reappointment of retired Admiral Fisher as First Sea Lord shortly after the start of the First World War. (Cartoon by F.H. Townsend in Punch, public domain)

OMG: Churchillian Origins of the Popular Texters’ Phrase

31 May 2023 Comments 0 Comments

Yes, credit OMG to Admiral Fisher. He had a flamboyant writing style, often signing his letters to Churchill, “Yours till a cinder” or "Yours till Hell freezes over." Many other other loquacious salutations made his lexicon of salubrious sign-offs. Given his sudden resignation and disappearance from the Admiralty in May 1915, they were rather less than sincere.

Read More Read More

Enduring Legacy: U.S. National Churchill Day April 9th

9 April 2023 Comments 1 Comment

"In this century of storm and tragedy, I contemplate with high satisfaction the constant factor of the interwoven and upward progress of our peoples.... Our comradeship and our brotherhood in war were unexampled. We stood together, and because of that fact the free world now stands. Nor has our partnership any exclusive nature." —WSC

Read More Read More