“Among his many qualities over fifty years of political prominence was CHURCHILL’S CONSISTENCY. He might not agree with every position, biographer Martin Gilbert wrote: ‘But there would be nothing to cause me to think: How shocking, how appalling.’” —RML
“God is a Nats Fan” first appeared in The American Spectator on 21 October 2019. Scroll down to the comments for emails with fellow fanatics as the 2019 World Series unfolds.
Yankee Stadium, 1958
When Washington was in town, the drill was always the same: 15¢ for a bus to the Staten Island Ferry. A nickel ferry ride and 15¢ more for the BMT to Woodlawn and Jerome Avenues. As the subway erupted into sunlight from the bowels of the Bronx, this kid wearing his navy blue hat with its white “W” would confront the Citadel of Baseball, proud and austere with its eagle logos, bristling with pennants.…
(Updated from 2009). A statement by Churchill on health care has been offered to show that he would support U.S. heath care reforms. My Catholic parish published the aforementioned statement in its weekly bulletin.
“What Would Churchill Do? Here’s an interesting quote. It’s from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill explaining his view on health care and government in 1948. ‘The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all. That is clear. Disease must be attacked, whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman simply on the ground that it is the enemy.…
In the light of recent controversy over the right posture to take over Turkey and the Kurds, this three-year-old post seems as instructive as ever. Updated and republished.
David Goldman, Teacher
The 2016 Hillsdale College Alaska cruise aimed to educate, and so it did. I learned more from David Goldman about Erdoğan, Turkey and the Middle East in an hour than from anything I’ve read over the last five years.
David Goldman, a New York economist, is a columnist for First Things magazine and writes under the name “Spengler” for Asia Times Online. Previously he was the global head of credit strategy for Credit Suisse, and head of fixed income research at Bank of America.…
It is frequently asked: What did Churchill say about those who trade honor for peace having in neither in the end?
“War and Shame”
There are two quotations. The first was Churchill in a letter to Lloyd George on 13 August 1938, just before the Munich Conference, which led to World War II a year later.
I think we shall have to choose in the next few weeks between war and shame, and I have very little doubt what the decision will be.
“Randolph Churchill: Present at the Creation,” is from a lecture aboard the Regent Seven Seas Explorer on the 2019 Hillsdale College Cruise around Britain, 8 June 2019. Concluded from Part 2.
“The Great Work” —Randolph S.C.
After the war, Churchill willed his archive to Randolph. In 1959, impressed by his son’s biography of Lord Derby, he invited Randolph to be his biographer. Randolph devoted himself to the job, knowing by then that he had wrecked his body, that the process of disintegration was advanced. Could he finish in time? Randolph wondered.
Churchill: Walking with Destiny, Andrew Roberts’s outstanding biography was at Don Cline’s bedside, and he almost made it through. I opened his copy to where the last bookmark fell. It was January 1944, a scene redolent of the fascination we shared. The writer was Lady Diana Cooper: “There was our old baby in his rompers, ten-gallon cowboy hat and very ragged oriental dressing gown, health, vigour and excellent spirits. Never have I seen him spin more fantastic stuff, the woof of English and the warp of slang.”
That passage will now always remind me of Don, who himself spun fantastic stuff.…
"Keep England White" is not a direct quote, nor did the words ever appear in public. Also, Macmillan followed it with an exclamation mark, which could mean that Churchill said it in jest. Ask yourself: Would any astute politician, even then, seriously propose this as a campaign slogan?
When Churchill referred to "Christian civilisation" he did not mean to exclude Jews or Buddhists or Muslims. He meant those words in a broader sense. His allusions to Christianity referred to its universal ethics: the Ten Commandments (a "judgmental" set of rules now expunged from certain public places), the Sermon on the Mount, charity, forgiveness, courage.
Piers Brendon, Churchill’s Bestiary: His Life Through Animals. London, Michael O’Mara Books, 2018, 320 pages, Amazon $18.96. Excerpted from a review for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. For the full text, click here.
“An enormously agreeable side of his character was his attitude toward animals,” Sir Anthony Montague Browne, his last private secretary, said of Winston Churchill. “Although a Victorian—and they were not notably aware of animal suffering—he had a sensitivity well in advance of his time.” Ever since Sir Anthony said that we’ve been waiting for a good book on the subject, and historian Piers Brendon has obliged.…
Cita Stelzer, Working with Winston: The Unsung Women Behind Britain’s Greatest Statesman. New York, Pegasus Books, 2019, 400 pages, $28.95, Amazon $19.35, Kindle $14.99. Excerpted from a review for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. For the full text, click here.
Grace Hamblin came to Chartwell in 1932 and served as secretary to both Churchills. After Sir Winston’s death she became Chartwell’s first National Trust administrator. Through all those years she never “wrote.” Nor, with one exception, did his other office secretaries. The exception was Elizabeth Layton Nel. Her lovely book, originally Mr.…
