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consistency
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, in happier times, late 1920s. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill’s Consistency: “Politics Before Country” (Part 1)

Churchill’s Consistency: “Politics Before Country” (Part 1)

“Churchill’s Con­sis­ten­cy,” first pub­lished in 2011, is updat­ed with mate­r­i­al from my book, Churchill and the Avoid­able War. It exon­er­ates, par­tial­ly, the state­ments and actions of Mr. Bald­win in the debate of rear­ma­ment in the 1930s.

“Politics before country”

A U.S. Con­gress­man, observ­ing America’s spend­ing prob­lem, pro­posed an elab­o­rate plan to fix it. In the process he didn’t wilt under the assault direct­ed toward any­one who defies the sta­tus quo by propos­ing prac­ti­cal change. Intend­ing to defend his ideas in a speech, his pri­vate office asked me to ver­i­fy what Churchill said on con­sis­ten­cy among politi­cians.…

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Parker
Best pals by 1942: Ambassadors to the United States Lord Halifax and Maxim Litvinov chatting at the New Zealand Legation, Washington. (Photo by Marjory Collins, U.S. National Archives, public domain)
Alistair Parker Presents a Balanced, Scholarly Cambridge Seminar

Alistair Parker Presents a Balanced, Scholarly Cambridge Seminar

Review of Park­er excerpt­ed from the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text includ­ing more images and end­notes, please click here. Sub­scrip­tions to this site are free. You will receive reg­u­lar notices of new posts as pub­lished. Just scroll to SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW. Your email address guar­an­teed to remain a rid­dle wrapped in a mys­tery inside an enigma.

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Alis­tair Park­er, ed., Win­ston Churchill: Stud­ies in States­man­ship. Lon­don: Brasseys, 2003, 282 pages, paper­back, Ama­zon $32; hard­bound copies also available.

“There are times,” wrote a great Cam­bridge schol­ar, Sir Geof­frey Elton, “when I incline to judge all his­to­ri­ans by their opin­ion of Win­ston Churchill: whether they can see that no mat­ter how much bet­ter the details, often dam­ag­ing, of man and career become known, he still remains, quite sim­ply, a great man.”…

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Magnanimity
Kampala, 1907: Colonial Undersecretary Churchill and King Daudi Chewa II watching a Bugandan war dance. (Wikimedia Commons)
Winston Churchill, Magnanimity and the “Feeble-Minded,” Part 2

Winston Churchill, Magnanimity and the “Feeble-Minded,” Part 2

Con­tin­ued from Part 1…

Youthful discretions

Churchill was born into a world in which vir­tu­al­ly all Britons, from the Sov­er­eign to a Covent Gar­den gro­cer, believed in their moral supe­ri­or­i­ty. They preached it to their chil­dren. All learned that the red por­tions of the map showed where Bri­tan­nic civ­i­liza­tion had tamed sav­agery and cured pan­demics. Churchill’s asser­tions, espe­cial­ly as a young man, were often in line with this. And yet he con­sis­tent­ly dis­played this odd streak of mag­na­nim­i­ty and lib­er­tar­i­an impulse.

It was Churchill, the aris­to­crat­ic Vic­to­ri­an, who argued that Dervish ene­my in Sudan had a “claim beyond the grave…no less good than that which any of our coun­try­men could make.”…

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chicken
Addressing the Canadian Parliament, 30 December 1941. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill’s “Wrung Like a Chicken”: Who Said It First?

Churchill’s “Wrung Like a Chicken”: Who Said It First?

“Wrung Like a Chick­en” is excerpt­ed from an essay for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text includ­ing more images and end­notes, please click here. Sub­scrip­tions to this site are free. You will receive reg­u­lar notices of new posts as pub­lished. Just scroll to SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW. Your email address is nev­er giv­en out and remains a rid­dle wrapped in a mys­tery inside an enigma.

Ottawa, 30 December 1941

In his first and as it proved only address to the Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment, Win­ston Churchill brought down the house in words which will live as long as his sto­ry is told:

The French Gov­ern­ment had at their own sug­ges­tion solemn­ly bound them­selves with us not to make a sep­a­rate peace….…

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Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Territory was organized on 7 August 7 1789. Congress accepted North Carolina’s cession of its western lands in 1790. (User:Golbez, Creative Commons)
How the Northwest Ordinance Promoted a Just Society

How the Northwest Ordinance Promoted a Just Society

“The great title deeds” In an illu­mi­nat­ing inter­view on the North­west Ordi­nance, Hills­dale Col­lege Pres­i­dent Lar­ry P. Arnn explains one of America’s key found­ing doc­u­ments.  This is not a usu­al sub­ject here. Indeed Churchill’s His­to­ry of the Eng­lish-Speak­ing Peo­ples doesn’t even men­tion it. Nonethe­less— the North­west Ordi­nance of 1787 qual­i­fies as one of Churchill’s “great title-deeds of Anglo-Amer­i­can liberties.” . The inter­view didn’t answer all my ques­tions but taught me things I didn’t know. I doubt that many Amer­i­can school­child­ren know them either. Nev­er­the­less, the North­west Ordi­nance deserves broad­er familiarity. Northwest Ordinance Provisions Dr. Arnn’s remarks need lit­tle elab­o­ra­tion here.…

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AQ
“The drone of the engine went on as a background of gigantic sound….The song of the car bayed over wide spaces of country, was bruised and battered between the walls of startled village streets, was flung back in echoes from the walls of hills.” —Leslie Charteris, from an AQ tribute to “The Saint’s” fabulous, fictional Hirondel. (Painting by Ted Lodigensky, author’s collection)
Automobile Quarterly: The Memories (AQ Vol. 10, No. 1, 1972)

Automobile Quarterly: The Memories (AQ Vol. 10, No. 1, 1972)

If I have written anything worthwhile over 50 years it's thanks to my five years as a minor player at Automobile Quarterly. Between Don Vorderman and Beverly Rae Kimes, I learned things that couldn't be acquired in a school of journalism. The foregoing began with an email to a friend who acquired an old issue. I just wanted him to know the treat he was in for.

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Questions
Will it still be there in 100 years? “I’m not even sure Parliament will be there—didn’t Orwell make London the capital of Oceania?” (Photo by Pete R, Wikimedia Creative Commons)
In Defense of Churchill (4): Questions and Answers

In Defense of Churchill (4): Questions and Answers

Text of my Zoom address to the Chartwell Soci­ety of Port­land, Ore­gon on 10 May 2021, 81st anniver­sary of Churchill tak­ing office as Prime Min­is­ter. “Ques­tions and Answers” are part of an iTunes audio file. For a copy, please email [email protected].

 

Questions and Answers (continued from Part 3)

From Sen­a­tor Bob Pack­wood (who recalls shelling peas with you on a pleas­ant for­mer occa­sion): Every­body asks what Churchill’s posi­tion would be today on the Mid­dle East. It appears that he want­ed to do right by everybody—guarantee the Jews a home­land but respect the rights of the Arabs.…

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precepts
December 1899: Post- jail-break, young Winston in Durban, South Africa, after haranguing the Boers over their treatment of black Africans. Published in “The Black and White Budget,” 1900. (Wikimedia Commons)
In Defense of Churchill (2): Precepts -Surrender Nothing, Honor the Whole

In Defense of Churchill (2): Precepts -Surrender Nothing, Honor the Whole

Text of my Zoom address to the Chartwell Soci­ety of Port­land, Ore­gon on 10 May 2021, 81st anniver­sary of Churchill tak­ing office as Prime Min­is­ter. “Cur­rent Con­tentions: Pre­cepts” is part of as an iTunes audio file. For a copy, please email [email protected].

Precepts for defenders (continued from Part 1)

Here are two pre­cepts for us to fol­low when con­fronting per­ver­sions of the truth sur­round­ing Win­ston Churchill.

First, “Surrender nothing”

In pro­tect­ing his good name we can­not dis­sem­ble. As Mark Steyn says in anoth­er context[13], “Unless you’re pre­pared to sur­ren­der every­thing, sur­ren­der noth­ing.…

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Defense
VE-Day Broadcast, Downing Street, 8 May 1945 (Maj. Horton, War Office, public domain)
Current Contentions: In Defense of Churchill (1): Cancel Culture

Current Contentions: In Defense of Churchill (1): Cancel Culture

Text of my Zoom address to the Chartwell Soci­ety of Port­land, Ore­gon on 10 May 2021, 81st anniver­sary of Churchill tak­ing office as Prime Min­is­ter. “Cur­rent Con­tentions: In Defense of Churchill” is avail­able as an iTunes audio file. For a copy, please email [email protected].

Part 1: Defense, defense

Sen­a­tor Pack­wood, Jus­tice Gillette, mem­bers and guests of the Chartwell Soci­ety: I wel­come you, if only vir­tu­al­ly, so you won’t even be able to throw rolls if I say some­thing sil­ly. Tak­ing his first tv screen test, Sir Win­ston mut­tered: “Even though we have to sink to this lev­el, we always have to keep pace with mod­ern improve­ments.”…

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misquotes
Think of all the quips that were NOT recorded! President Truman sharing a laugh with WSC aboard the Presidential yacht “Williamsburg” during Churchill’s visit to Washington, 5 January 1952. (National Archives, public domain)
Churchill Misquotes: The Red Herrings Now Number 175

Churchill Misquotes: The Red Herrings Now Number 175

Quotes and Misquotes

Churchill by Him­self, my ency­clo­pe­dia of Win­ston Churchill’s most quotable remarks, is to be repub­lished. (If the pub­lish­ers can ever agree about what form and sub­stance they will allow each oth­er to pro­duce.) To the the orig­i­nal 4000 quotes I’ve added so far 600 new ones.

The “Red Her­rings” appen­dix of mis­quotes has also grown apace. That, how­ev­er, is always kept up to date online. You can look it up:

All the “Quotes” Churchill Nev­er Said

Mis­quotes Part 1: Accept­ing Change to Euro­pean Union

Part 2: Fanat­ic to Liberty

Mis­quotes Part 3: Lies to Sex

Part 4: Sex­ism to Ypres

A trove of misquotes

The orig­i­nal “Red Her­rings” appen­dix (2008) con­tained about 80 mis­quotes.…

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