Tag: Andrew Roberts

Statecraft
(Hoover Institution)
Secrets of Statecraft with Andrew Roberts: Churchill, 150 Years On

Secrets of Statecraft with Andrew Roberts: Churchill, 150 Years On

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Honor(u)red to be invited to join Lord Roberts, at Secrets of Statecraft. It was fun to chat with the author of the foremost one-volume life of Churchill, about where Sir Winston stands on his 150th birthday. We mutually concluded that he stands as tall as ever. Beyond that, we need to remember him because he spoke everlasting truths about the relations between peoples, about governance, about the value of liberty. Those are as relevant as ever today.

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today
The State Funeral on the flickering TV screens of 30 January 1965: the day I “woke” to Winston Churchill. Public sentiment today is scarcely changed. Photo by Jack de Nijs / Anefo, Dutch National Archives, public domain
Churchill’s Legacy Today: Undented in the Digital Age

Churchill’s Legacy Today: Undented in the Digital Age

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“This truth is incon­tro­vert­ible. Pan­ic may resent it, igno­rance may deride it, mal­ice may dis­tort it, but there it is.” —Win­ston S. Churchill, House of Com­mons, 17 May 1916

Q: His legacy today?

Peter Bak­er of The New York Times recent­ly reviewed a new book which deliv­ers some sharp arrows toward Win­ston Churchill and his lega­cy. Bak­er writes that the text labels Churchill  “not just a racist but a hyp­ocrite, a dis­sem­bler, a nar­cis­sist, an oppor­tunist, an impe­ri­al­ist, a drunk, a strate­gic bun­gler, a tax dodger, a neglect­ful father, a cred­it-hog­ging author, a ter­ri­ble judge of char­ac­ter and, most of all, a mas­ter­ful myth-mak­er.”…

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Andrew Roberts
Tea at Chartwell, 29 August 1927. Clockwise from Churchill’s left: Thérèse Sickert, Diana Mitford (later Mosley), WSC’s private secretary Eddie Marsh, scientific advisor Prof. Frederick Lindemann, Randolph Churchill, Diana Churchill, Clementine Churchill, WSC’s artist friend Walter Sickert. This photograph inspired WSC’s painting “Tea at Chartwell,” circa 1928. The photo is in the visitors book at Chartwell. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill: Andrew Roberts for the Defense (Daily Telegraph)

Churchill: Andrew Roberts for the Defense (Daily Telegraph)

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Thanks, Andrew Roberts

The Lon­don Dai­ly Tele­graph is spon­sor­ing a series of pod­casts fea­tur­ing con­ver­sa­tions with his­to­ri­ans about attacks on nation­al heroes. On Sep­tem­ber 1st, Steve Edg­in­ton engaged with Churchill biog­ra­ph­er Andrew Roberts on the Woke Movement’s num­ber one bogey­man: Win­ston Spencer Churchill….

Woke attacks on Win­ston Churchill are libel & lies | Churchill defended
Watch this video on YouTube

“To many,” writes the Tele­graph,

Win­ston Churchill is the man who saved not only Britain but the world from Nazi tyran­ny. But to some, Churchill rep­re­sents the evils of the British Empire: racism, col­o­niza­tion and vio­lence.…

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Burke
“A Literary Party at Sir Joshua Reynolds'” by D. George Thompson (1822-1892). L-R: James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Pasqual Paoli, Charles Burney, Thomas Warton and Oliver Goldsmith. Collin Brooks said Churchill would have been welcomed in the company of Burke and Johnson, although the dining society they had founded (“The Club”) blackballed him in 1911. Churchill and fellow reject F.E. Smith then formed “The Other Club,” which still meets at the Savoy. “The Club” also continues, meeting at Brooks’s. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill and Burke: “Spontaneous Humour, Unparaded Erudition”

Churchill and Burke: “Spontaneous Humour, Unparaded Erudition”

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1. Roberts on Burke

Reprised below are my small con­tri­bu­tions on Churchill and the great Irish states­man and thinker Edmund Burke (1729-1797). It was eclipsed in 2019 in a bril­liant speech by Andrew Roberts which the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project offers here. Dr. Roberts spoke after receiv­ing The New Cri­te­ri­on 7th Edmund Burke Award for Ser­vice to Cul­ture and Soci­ety. He also dis­cuss­es Churchill on Burke in a video inter­view with James Panero.

2. Churchill on Burke

A read­er writes:

I’d like to con­grat­u­late you on Churchill by Him­self, but I could not find any Churchill com­ments on Edmund Burke in the index.…

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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

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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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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

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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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race
At risk: The Churchill statue on Parliament Square, London was twice defaced in recent riots, while nearby at the Cenotaph, someone tried to burn the flags. (Photo by Ben Brooksbank, Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Foreword to a Review of “The Racial Consequences of Mr. Churchill”

Foreword to a Review of “The Racial Consequences of Mr. Churchill”

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“The Racial Con­se­quences of Mr. Churchill”: A Review

The fol­low­ing is my fore­word only to an analy­sis of the recent Churchill Col­lege pan­el, by Zewdi­tu Gebrey­ohanes and Andrew Roberts. They fol­lowed a max­im of Ran­dolph Churchill in the offi­cial biog­ra­phy: “I am inter­est­ed only in the truth.” Every Churchill schol­ar is in their debt.

Foreword

Eighty-eight years ago Hitler became Chan­cel­lor of Ger­many and the Oxford Union passed a res­o­lu­tion: “That this House refus­es in any cir­cum­stances to fight for King and Coun­try.” A week lat­er Win­ston Churchill said: “We have all seen with a sense of nau­sea the abject, squalid, shame­less avow­al made in the Oxford Union.…

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crater
By Tab in the Calgary Sun, 2005. Bucking the tide, the Calgary Churchill Society has launched a drive for a new Churchill statue (https://bit.ly/30nIMmR) and the city’s Churchill Swimming Pool has reopened (https://bit.ly/2DmzK0j)
Fake Churchill Calumny: Subsidiary Emissions from the Odd Crater

Fake Churchill Calumny: Subsidiary Emissions from the Odd Crater

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Crater erup­tions: “Isn’t it enough to have this par­ent vol­cano con­tin­u­al­ly erupt­ing in our midst? And now we are to have these sub­sidiary craters spout­ing forth the same unhealthy fumes!” —Churchill’s reply to the son of a harsh crit­ic, fresh­ly elect­ed to Par­lia­ment, who imme­di­ate­ly began attack­ing him.

From one crater to another

No soon­er does the cam­paign for Churchill’s mem­o­ry quell emis­sions from one crater than anoth­er one erupts. The cam­paign to dele­git­imize Churchill as Hero con­tin­ues, but the main vol­canos have already erupt­ed. Now we have the odd sub­sidiary crater spout­ing the same old stuff.…

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defense
The Churchill Statue by Ivor Roberts-Jones, Parliament Square, London. (Wikimedia Creative Commons, public domain)
Defcon 1: The Urgent Defense of Churchill’s Name and Legacy

Defcon 1: The Urgent Defense of Churchill’s Name and Legacy

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Case for  the defense: “If we allow our mon­u­ments and stat­ues and place-names to be torn down because of our present-day views, and claims of peo­ple being offend­ed by our built envi­ron­ment that has been around for decades and some­times cen­turies, it speaks to a pathet­ic lack of con­fi­dence in our­selves as a nation. We are on the way to a soci­ety of com­pet­ing vic­tim­hoods, atom­ized and balka­nized into small­er and small­er com­mu­ni­ties, which iron­i­cal­ly enough is some­thing racists want too.” —Andrew Roberts

Defense of the good

The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project has joined many oth­er groups and indi­vid­u­als in defense of the good.…

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John Churchill First Duke of Marlborough (mounted in red coat) at the Battle of Blenheim, 1704. (Painting by John Wootton, 1682-1764, National Army Museum, public domain)
Churchill’s Inspirations Bedizen the Pages of History

Churchill’s Inspirations Bedizen the Pages of History

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Excerpt­ed from “Which His­tor­i­cal and Con­tem­po­rary Fig­ures were Churchill’s Inspi­ra­tions?” Writ­ten for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, Feb­ru­ary 2020. For Hillsdale’s com­plete text and illus­tra­tions, please click here.

We are often asked which his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary per­son­ages most influ­enced Win­ston Churchill’s thought and states­man­ship. One is right to start with Lord Ran­dolph Churchill, Napoleon, Clemenceau and Marl­bor­ough. The clas­sics open anoth­er avenue. Read­ers can find pithy remarks by Churchill on many of the fol­low­ing fig­ures in Churchill by Him­self.

Lord Randolph Churchill

His father was the first of young Winston’s polit­i­cal inspi­ra­tions, and the sub­ject of his first biog­ra­phy.…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

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