For lec­ture appear­ances since 2017 please con­sult the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project.

Lecture: “Current Contentions,” Nashville 2017

Repro­duced in six parts begin­ning here.

Win­ston Churchill was here on his 1932 lec­ture tour. He espe­cial­ly liked Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Cincin­nati, and Ann Arbor—the lat­ter not too far from Hills­dale Col­lege. “And who would miss Chat­tanooga,” he wrote, “lying in its cup between the Blue Ridge and Look­out Mountain?”

East, west, north, and south he rode the rails, “liv­ing all day on my back in a rail­way com­part­ment and address­ing in the evening large audi­ences.” His theme was Anglo-Amer­i­can uni­ty. He con­clud­ed, rather star­tling­ly for some­one with his back­ground: “It is the hard­est work I have had in my life.”

Aside from mak­ing money—something he was always short of in those days—he was keen to vis­it bat­tle­fields of the Civ­il War, which he would describe in his His­to­ry of the Eng­lish-Speak­ing Peo­ples. At Murfrees­boro, he observed “the great­est brav­ery by both sides.” The Fed­er­als lost 9000, Brax­ton Bragg’s Con­fed­er­ates over 10,000. “The Fed­er­al hold on Nashville was unshak­en, and Bragg with­drew to cov­er Chat­tanooga. Murfrees­boro gave the impres­sion of a drawn battle….”

Lecture events, 2007-2010

10 May 2010: Toron­to. Annu­al Din­ner, Churchill Soci­ety of Canada.

11 Sep­tem­ber 2009: Churchill for Today: “Shall We All Com­mit Sui­cide?” and Churchill’s oth­er futur­ist essays: pan­elist and moderator.

7 May 2009 lec­ture: Eng­lish-Speak­ing Union and New Eng­land Churchillians, Union Club, Boston

3 May 2009, Detroit: Win­ston Churchill Soci­ety of Michi­gan, Dear­born Inn.

2 May 2009, Chica­go:  Churchill Friends of Greater Chica­go, Fair­mont Hotel, 6PM.

30 Novem­ber 2008: “Churchill by Him­self.” North Texas Church­llians, Pap­padeaux Seafood Kitchen, Dal­las, Texas. Lec­ture and book signing.

30 Novem­ber 2007 lec­ture: “Churchill and Ire­land: Notable Pro­nounce­ments on Ire­land, 1901-1948.” New Eng­land Church­llians, Union Club, Boston.

1999 – 2006

4 Sep­tem­ber 2006, Brad­ford, Ver­mont: “Packard’s Hen­ry Joy: I  Wish He Were Here.” Packard Auto­mo­bile Clas­sics Joy Tour, Brad­ford Inn.

2003: “Lead­ing Churchill Myths”: A cor­nu­copia of his­tor­i­cal false trails, explod­ed by trolling through the facts. Lec­ture and udi­ence discussion.

2001: “Churchill’s Wis­dom Calls to Us Across the Years”: For five days after Sep­tem­ber 11th we were asked: What did Churchill say in sim­i­lar cir­cum­stances? What effect did it have? Is it appro­pri­ate now? Of course it is appro­pri­ate now.

1999-2000: “Churchill and the Art of the States­man-Writer”:  How to become the high­est paid  jour­nal­ist of your time and win the Nobel Prize for Lit­er­a­ture. Lec­ture and read­ings from Churchill’s books. Deliv­ered at the Boston Athenaeum, fol­lowed by Philadel­phia, 2000 and Wash­ing­ton, 2002.