Tag: Andrew Roberts

Churchill 101: Three Reasons to Learn about Sir Winston

Churchill 101: Three Reasons to Learn about Sir Winston

Orig­i­nal­ly writ­ten for and pub­lished by the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. This is one of sev­er­al forth­com­ing arti­cles intend­ed to encour­age younger read­ers to learn about Churchill. Read­er com­ment, sug­ges­tions of fur­ther points to make, and oth­er arti­cles on the same theme, would be appreciated.

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Learn …

Who was Win­ston Churchill? Why, half a cen­tu­ry since his death, is he the most quot­ed his­tor­i­cal fig­ure? Schol­ars know the answers. Do you? Why does it matter?

It mat­ters because Churchill con­tin­ues to offer guid­ance and exam­ple today. His indomitable courage, his abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate, his knowl­edge of his­to­ry, his polit­i­cal pre­cepts, are as valu­able now as they were in his time.…

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Assault on Winston Churchill, 2018: A Reader’s Guide

Assault on Winston Churchill, 2018: A Reader’s Guide

Assault count: Since I am los­ing track, I thought it would be con­ve­nient to cre­ate an index to smears of Win­ston Churchill fol­low­ing the film Dark­est Hour. Note the sim­i­lar­i­ty of top­ics. Many writ­ers feed off each oth­er, repeat­ing the same dis­proven argu­ments. Nev­er do they check Churchill quotes or The Churchill Doc­u­ments —which prove them irre­triev­ably wrong. The order is most recent first. . Update for 2019 Assault of 29 March: The Ezine Scroll-in report­ed that Churchill’s poli­cies caused the drought that caused the Ben­gal Famine. (Not enough to be Prime Min­is­ter, he must also be a farmer, since he need­ed to know Irri­ga­tion.)…

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“Too Easy to Be Good”: The Churchill Marriage and Lady Castlerosse

“Too Easy to Be Good”: The Churchill Marriage and Lady Castlerosse

My arti­cle, “The Churchill Mar­riage and Lady Castlerosse” was first pub­lished by The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor on 13 March 2018.

“Here Firm, Though All Be Drifting” —WSC

It’s all over the Inter­net, so it must be true. Not only did Win­ston Churchill oppose women’s rights, gas tribes­men, starve Indi­ans, fire­bomb Dres­den, nurse anti-Semi­tism and wish to nuke Moscow. He even cheat­ed on his wife—in a four-year affair with Doris Delev­ingne, Vis­count­ess Castlerosse.

So declare the authors of “Sir John Colville, Churchillian Net­works, and the ‘Castlerosse Affair’”—unre­served­ly repeat­ed by British tele­vi­sion, mul­ti­ple media, even a uni­ver­si­ty: (“Win­ston Churchill’s affair revealed by for­got­ten tes­ti­mo­ny.”

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Long View: “Churchill’s Secret Affair,” Gary Oldman and the Oscars

Long View: “Churchill’s Secret Affair,” Gary Oldman and the Oscars

Ms. Camil­la Long (“TV Review, Sun­day Times, March 11th)* has a way with words. Nev­er mind that some of them are so ultra-camp that she could be accused of gra­tu­itous­ly inflict­ing them on the rest of us pro­les with mal­nour­ished intellects.

“Hoorays,” “lilo,” “naff,” “pro­to-Wal­lis” and “pan­tomime horse-named” may be dai­ly ver­nac­u­lar in the rar­i­fied atmos­phere of the Sun­day Times Cul­ture Sec­tion. But they’re like­ly to con­fuse any­one who prefers com­mu­ni­ca­tion to obfus­ca­tion. How­ev­er, the Long View of my col­league Andrew Roberts as a “striped-piglet his­to­ri­an” makes me for­give her every­thing. I will dine out on that one many times, not least with the Striped Piglet himself.…

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“I don’t want [my views] disturbed by any bloody Indian”: Was it Churchill?

“I don’t want [my views] disturbed by any bloody Indian”: Was it Churchill?

“I am quite sat­is­fied with my views of India. I don’t want them dis­turbed by any bloody Indi­an.” Thus Win­ston Churchill said (or is alleged to have said) to Lord Hal­i­fax née Lord Irwin née Edward Wood, in 1929.

“Bludgeon of choice”

A his­to­ri­an friend says the Indi­an Ben­gal Famine (1943) “is on its way to sur­pass­ing the Dar­d­anelles (1915) as the blud­geon of choice for Churchill’s detrac­tors.” He was com­ment­ing on the lat­est out­burst of Ben­gal Famine nonsense—contested by a thought­ful Indi­an, as well as myself: scroll to comments.

“Bloody Indi­an” tracks to Ben Pim­lott, edi­tor, The Sec­ond World War Diary of Hugh Dal­ton 1940-45 (Jonathan Cape 1986), 126.…

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Churchill Bio-Pics: The Trouble with the Movies

Churchill Bio-Pics: The Trouble with the Movies

“The Trou­ble with the Movies” was pub­lished in the Amer­i­can Thinker, 5 August 2017.

David Fran­co, review­ing the film Churchill, star­ring Bri­an Cox, rais­es ques­tions he says every­one should be ask­ing. “Isn’t the abil­i­ty to accept one’s mis­takes part of what makes a man a good leader? …. To what extent should we rely [on] past expe­ri­ences in order to min­i­mize mis­takes in the future? These are the ques­tions that make a bad movie like Churchill worth seeing.”

Well, I won’t be see­ing this bad movie. Described as “per­verse fan­ta­sy” by his­to­ri­an Andrew Roberts, it joins a recent spate of slop­py Churchill bio-pics that favor skewed car­i­ca­tures over his­tor­i­cal fact.…

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Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (2)

Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (2)

Fateful Questions

Fate­ful Ques­tions, Sep­tem­ber 1943-April 1944, nine­teenth of a pro­ject­ed twen­ty-three doc­u­ment vol­umes in the offi­cial biog­ra­phy, Win­ston S. Churchill, is reviewed by his­to­ri­an Andrew Roberts in Com­men­tary. 

These vol­umes com­prise “every impor­tant doc­u­ment of any kind that con­cerns Churchill.” The present vol­ume sets the size record. Fate­ful Ques­tions is 2,752 pages long, rep­re­sent­ing an aver­age of more than eleven pages per day. Yet at $60, it is a tremen­dous bar­gain. Order your copy from the Hills­dale Col­lege Book­store.

Here is an excerpt from my account, “Fresh His­to­ry,” which can be read in its entire­ty at the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project.

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Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (1)

Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (1)

Fate­ful Ques­tions, Sep­tem­ber 1943-April 1944, nine­teenth of the pro­ject­ed twen­ty-three doc­u­ment vol­umes, is reviewed by his­to­ri­an Andrew Roberts in Com­men­tary.

The vol­umes com­prise “every impor­tant doc­u­ment of any kind that con­cerns Churchill, and the present vol­ume is 2,752 pages long, rep­re­sent­ing an aver­age of more than eleven pages per day.” Order your copy from the Hills­dale Col­lege Book­store.

Here is an excerpt from my account, “Fresh His­to­ry,” which can be read in its entire­ty at the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project.

Fateful Questions: Excerpts

Fas­tid­i­ous­ly com­piled by the late Sir Mar­tin Gilbert and edit­ed by Dr.…

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Brexit: Britannia Waives the Rules

Brexit: Britannia Waives the Rules

Brex­it after­math, June 2016: In vot­ing to leave the Euro­pean Union, Britain has opt­ed to become anoth­er Nor­way. One of the most pros­per­ous and con­tent­ed coun­tries in the world, Nor­way does fine with its own laws, cur­ren­cy, and trade agree­ments, includ­ing a good one with the EU. It is hard­ly a bad model.

Short-term troubles

The gnash­ing of teeth over the upset Brex­it vic­to­ry resounds around the world. For awhile, chaos will attend finan­cial mar­kets, and the pound will take a dip (boost­ing British exports).

The Scots vot­ed against Brex­it, though not in the num­bers pre­dict­ed.…

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Churchillnomics: The “Stricken Field”

Churchillnomics: The “Stricken Field”

Young Win­ston Churchill’s sec­ond speech in Par­lia­ment was a bravu­ra per­for­mance tak­ing up his father’s theme for econ­o­my in the budget.

In Churchill in His Own Words (p 45) I date this quo­ta­tion 12 May 1901 and cite Churchill’s Mr. Brodrick’s Army, his 1903 vol­ume of speech­es (fac­sim­i­le edi­tion, Sacra­men­to: Churchilliana Com­pa­ny, 1977), 16:

Wise words, Sir, stand the test of time, and I am very glad the House has allowed me, after an inter­val of fif­teen years, to raise the tat­tered flag I found lying on a strick­en field.

The “tat­tered flag” was Lord Ran­dolph Churchill’s cam­paign for econ­o­my in the late 1880s.…

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