Hillsdale College Churchill Project Archives - Page 5 of 5

“Churchill and his Military Commanders”

10 February 2016 Comments 0 Comments

Part I: “War Statesmanship,” in “Churchill and his Military Commanders,” by Eliot A. Cohen. Read in full on the Hillsdale College Churchill Project.

“The generals had in mind a concept of civil-military relations to which many still, amazingly, pay lip service: a world in which civilians provide resources, set goals, and step out of the way to let professionals do their work. War statesmanship, in Churchill’s view, focused at the apex of government an array of considerations and calculations that even those one rung down could not fully fathom.”

Eliot A. Cohen is professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and has served as Counselor of the Department of State.…

Last Try to Avoid Hell, 1914

22 January 2016 Comments 0 Comments

“Saving the Nations from Hell”: The “Kingly Conference,” 1914 (Excerpt)

Churchill’s faith in personal diplomacy—solving intractable problems by meetings at the highest level—was famously expressed during World War II.

Less widely known is Churchill’s 1914 proposal for a conference of heads of state (including, it seems, French President Raymond Poincaré) in an effort to head-off World War I. The scheme failed, but not for Churchill’s lack of trying.

There is little on Churchill’s “kingly conference” in the literature. There is no reference in Churchill’s The World Crisis, Asquith’s memoirs, or biographies by Manchester, Jenkins, Rose, Charmley and Birkenhead, though Sir Martin Gilbert includes in the official biography an excerpt from a cabinet member which records Churchill’s words in the cabinet of July 27th:

Churchill said we were now in a better than average condition, & the fleet was at war strength….Churchill,…

Hillsdale College Senior Fellow

6 November 2014 Comments 2 Comments

I am pleased to post this press release, and honored to be associated with the distinguished Churchill scholars at Hillsdale. Without their work, the Churchill Official Biography would be out of print and unfinished. With them, you can buy every volume at a modest price, all 31 volumes. It's nice to be among friends.