Search Results for: EU

best
Churchill plants a boutonniere on President Truman before dining at the British Embassy, Washington, 8 January 1953. Six months later he was not sending bouquets. (Library of Congress, public domain)
Churchill Quotations: The Best Telegram He Ever Sent

Churchill Quotations: The Best Telegram He Ever Sent

"I warned the Americans before Potsdam not to withdraw from any of the part of Germany we occupied until we had a satisfactory understanding. They would not listen. And they will not listen now when I warn them about Germany. At Potsdam I wanted Prussia isolated and Germany divided horizontally and not vertically." —Churchill according to Moran

Read More Read More

Memoirs
An immaculate set of the true first edition, by Houghton Mifflin, Boston. WSC, insisting that the UK edition be definitive, held up British proofs with last-minute corrections, allowing the Americans into print first—much to the discomfort of Cassell in London. (Photo courtesy Marc Kuritz, churchillbookcollector.com)
Churchill’s War Memoirs: Aside from the Story, Simply Great Writing

Churchill’s War Memoirs: Aside from the Story, Simply Great Writing

"No other wartime leader in history has given us a work of two million words written only a few years after the events and filled with messages among world potentates which had so recently been heated and secret. The Memoirs are not just a unique revelation of the exercise of power from atop an empire in duress but also one of the fascinating products of the human spirit, both as an expression of a personality and as a somewhat anomalous epic tale filled with the depravities, miseries and glories of man." —Manfred Weidhorn

Read More Read More

JFK
President John F. Kennedy signs a proclamation declaring Sir Winston an honorary US citizen, Oval Office, 9 April 1963. L-R: possibly Kay Halle, who had much to do with it; unidentified; Rep. Frances P. Bolton (R.-Oh.); Sen. Olin D. Johnston (D.-S.C.); Sylvia Ormsby-Gore: British Ambassador David Ormsby-Gore; Rep. Michael A. Feighan (D.-Oh.); Sen. J. William Fulbright (D.-Ark.); Rep. Carl Vinson (D.-Ga.); Sen. Leverett Saltonstall (R.-Mass.). (JFK Library, public domain)
Churchill Meets JFK, 1958: “He thought you were a waiter, Jack”

Churchill Meets JFK, 1958: “He thought you were a waiter, Jack”

Churchill rarely nursed a grudge. Though Joe Kennedy had upset him with defeatism when the war began, he quickly forgot. He sent condolences and flowers to the funeral of Kathleen Kennedy in 1948 and admired JFK from what he read about the young man and mutual acquaintances. He was anxious to meet Jack in 1959.

Read More Read More

Jordan
“Somewhere West of Laramie there’s a bronco-busting, steer-roping girl who knows what I’m talking about. She can tell what a sassy pony, that’s a cross between greased lightning and the place where it hits, can do with eleven hundred pounds of steel and action when he’s going high, wide and handsome. The truth is—the Jordan Playboy was built for her…” (Artwork by Fred Cole)
What Price Tiffany? Ned Jordan and History’s Greatest Car Ad

What Price Tiffany? Ned Jordan and History’s Greatest Car Ad

"We built the Playboy just for the fun of doing it. Stepped on it, and the dogs barked and the chickens ran.... The letters poured in. A girl in Ohio wrote: 'I don’t want a position with your Company. I just want to meet the man who wrote that advertisement. I am 23, blonde, weight 130. My wings are spread. Just say the world and I’ll fly to you.' I think the best things are written like that. You write as you feel…. Stephen Foster asked his brother to name a southern river to use in his song…rejected “Peedee” for the name “Suwanee.” Brother knew his geography, Stephen knew rhythm.... With the right copy you can get a smile out of the Sphinx."

Read More Read More

Hess
Nazis who participated in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, photographaed at Landsberg Prison, 1924: L-R: Adolf Hitler, Emil Maurice, Hermann Kriebel, Rudolf Hess, Friedrich Weber. (Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, public domain)
Did Hitler Authorize the Flight of Rudolf Hess?

Did Hitler Authorize the Flight of Rudolf Hess?

Peter Padfield, in "Hess, Hitler & Churchill: The Real Turning Point of the Second World War," claimed that Rudolf Hess’s May 1941 flight to Britain (generally thought to be a solo act) was authorized by Hitler. Allegedly Hess had with him a proposal for an armistice with Britain and German withdrawal from Western Europe in exchange for a free hand to attack Russia.

Read More Read More

Indie Auto
Capitalism all over again: Public taste, not myopic Detroit execs, decided what cars to build. In 1960, economy was on the public’s mind, and Rambler replaced Plymouth as No. 3 in the sales race. (1960 Rambler Super Cross Country wagon, photo by michel, Creative Commons)
Indie Auto: Did Detroit Give Us the Dinosaurs?

Indie Auto: Did Detroit Give Us the Dinosaurs?

Detroit spent millions trying to understand what buyers wanted—and acted accordingly. It wasn’t a case of “Grosse Pointe myopians” dictating their preferences. Almost every failure—from the Henry J to the Edsel to the longer-wider-faster American Motors mid-60s models—was an example of product planners misreading market forces. Every notable success, from the early Rambler to the ponycar to the musclecar, was an example of getting it right. For whatever they built (and they built some pretty bad cars): Don’t blame Detroit. Blame us.

Read More Read More

Works
Above and below: The 34 volumes of Collected Works, in the one and only bespoke bookcase, used in early promotions. The cased set was presented to Sir Iain Stewart, whose name is on the brass plaque. (Mark Weber photo)
The Sordid History of Churchill’s Collected Works

The Sordid History of Churchill’s Collected Works

The Collected Works are less important than their spectacular appearance suggests. However incomplete, they do constitute the first collected edition. But lacking the original texts, they are not bibliographically compelling: “expensive reprints,” as one cynic put it. Collectors prefer to hold a book in the form Sir Winston first gave it to the world (errors and all). So the Works will never replace first editions.

Read More Read More

Bristol
After receiving an honorary degree and addressing “Anglo-American Unity,” Harvard, 6 October 1943. At left are Harvard President James B. Conant and WSC’s ubiquitous bodyguard, Detective Inspector Walter Thompson. (Capt. Horton, War Office, public domain)
“The Most Important Thing about Education” —Churchill at Bristol

“The Most Important Thing about Education” —Churchill at Bristol

"Education does not begin with the university, and it certainly ought not to end there. I have seen a lot of people who got cleverer until about 21 or 22 years of age, then seemed to shut down altogether.... Take full advantage of these years...but do not spend too much time in buckling on your armour in the tent. The battle is going on in every walk and sphere of life." —WSC, Bristol, 1929

Read More Read More

George Washington
Mount Vernon, 1 January 1942: President Roosevelt accompanied Winston Churchill for a wreath-laying at the tomb of George Washington. (MountVernon.org)
Reflections on the Birthday of George Washington

Reflections on the Birthday of George Washington

"George Washington holds one of the proudest titles that history can bestow. He was the Father of his Nation. Almost alone his staunchness in the War of Independence held the American colonies to their united purpose. His services after victory had been won were no less great. His firmness and example while first President restrained the violence of faction and postponed a national schism for 60 years." —WSC

Read More Read More

Buchanan
Detail from the cover.
Pat Buchanan and the Art of the Selective Quote

Pat Buchanan and the Art of the Selective Quote

No animus toward Pat. I admired him and even voted for him in a NH Primary. I helped him with a couple of items during his research (while lampooning his beliefs in friendly banter). “I like a man who grins when he fights,” as Churchill said. But a problem with his book is the rampant use of selective quotes. Partial quotations edited to distort reality, or to fit a predetermined conclusion are out of bounds.

Read More Read More