Mr. Randall Brown writes: “I’ve just read Ralph Raico‘s article ‘Rethinking Churchill,’ dating back over 20  years. He was I believe a voice for the Mises Institute. He makes Churchill sound like a war-mongering, fuming socialist liberal, a cheap power-mad opportunist! It really upset me. How do you answer writers like this?

A: Not quite the right fit

He was profoundly for a liberal society, in which the economy is driven by private enterprise, and in which money is allowed to “fructify,” as he quoted John Morley, “in the pockets of the people.” The modern world, the world that requires freedom of religion and limited government, can abide no other kind of politics. But this kind of politics is demonstrably vulnerable to war. It is also vulnerable domestically. If a disaffected majority, necessarily made up of the many who are poor, or relatively poor, expropriate the wealth of the few, it is a tragedy that will destroy justice in the state—even if the poor have a grievance against the rich.

Churchill was trying to prevent that. How? There one must understand what he meant by “Constitutionalism.” For Churchill, this is a very rich subject, rather like the writings of James Madison.He saw the problem of bureaucracy, and of excesses by the majority, very clearly from an early day. The problem is more mature now than it was in his time. That is why it is easy for some of Churchill’s solutions to look leftish from our modern vantage point.

Liberty

The answer to your question, then, is that not a “closet socialist.” He thought socialism, a far milder form than what we know today, incompatible with human liberty and an obstruction to human progress. Careful study of Churchill’s complex views will show that above all he regarded liberty as the most important characteristic of a just society.

Further reading

Soren Geiger, “Churchill: What We Mean by ‘Civilization,'” 2019

Richard Langworth, “Democracy is the worst form of government….,” 2009

_____ _____, “A Life Devoted to Constitutional Liberty,” 2021

This essay on William F. Buckley Jr. was published shortly after his death. In the 2020 controversy over giving political partisans the Presidential Medal of Freedom (*PMF), I update and reprint it with an addendum.

Reader question: “In Right Time, Right Place, his book about his life working with Wiliiam F. Buckley, Jr. at National Review, Richard Brookhiser aserts that WFB disliked Sir Winston. I queried Brookhiser who replied: “WFB’s obituary for Churchill in NR was notably grudging, and reflected I think his youthful America First convictions.” As these two men are my only heroes, I was disappointed to see such an assertion from someone who apparently knew Buckley very well. Based on hosting him at the 1995 International Churchill Conference, do you think this is true? —C.C.

Mr. Brookhiser’s book is by many accounts outstanding, but I think his comment is not dispositive. Bill Buckley’s attitude to Churchill was more nuanced, and mellowed over time. And we Churchillians had a minor role in this.

Buckley, Schlesinger, Churchill

We wanted Buckley (and Arthur Schlesinger) as conference speakers a long time before we got them, at a 1995 Boston conference. WFB long resisted our invitation, saying he was unqualified to speak on the subject. I argued somewhat subjectively that there was no subject on which he was unqualified.

We approached Bill Rusher, former publisher of National Review, who earlier spoke to us. Mr. Rusher had explanations that mirrored Brookhiser. “You have to remember that the Buckleys were all America Firsters before the war. Not to mention Irish. They were not natural allies of Churchill.” He added that he often debated WFB on the subject. (Rusher’s college roommate was Henry Anatole Grunwald, who produced American Heritage’s Churchill: The Life Triumphant, If you don’t have this, you should get a copy.)

“Peacetime catastrophe”

Possibly, Bill Buckley’s antipathy preceded even the America First movement. As a boy, his father sent him away from his beloved Sharon, Connecticut to boarding school in England. This he hated, especially the upper class masters who looked down their noses at Yanks. He got even, so to speak, in his first novel, Saving the Queen. His fictional hero, Bradford Oakes, like Bill, was whipped by his English Headmaster—”Courtesy of Great Britain, Sir.”

Saving the Queen involves CIA agent Oakes knowing the fictional Queen Caroline in the biblical sense— “Courtesy of the United States, Ma’am.” On his book tour in London a cheeky reporter asked, “Mr. Buckley, do you want to sleep with our Queen?” Very droll. And entirely disrespectful. Ah, the media.

When Churchill died in 1965, Buckley’s obituary called him a “peacetime catastrophe.” From Bill’s standpoint this referred to not rolling back socialism, and campaigning for summits with the Soviets. He ended: “May he sleep better than those who depended upon him.”

On the spot

With the help of my dear friend Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale College, we finally hosted Buckley at Boston. We ended with a National Press Club-style Q&A session.

My question was to quote his “peacetime catastrophe” line, and to ask if he had ever reconsidered that judgment. WFB amusingly replied: “I have often been asked to reconsider my judgments, but try as I might I have never found any reason to cause me to do so.”

(Nobody could put him on the spot that night. Another questioner asked, “If you could have Winston Churchill to yourself for an entire evening, what would you say to him?” Bill quickly replied: “I would say: ‘Please talk non-stop.'”)

“Union of heart and mind”

But his great speech on that occasion caused me to think that he had by then taken a longer view. He considered Churchill indispensable in the battle with Hitler, if ineffective in later battles. I’ve often quoted his peroration:

Mr. Churchill had struggled to diminish totalitarian rule in Europe which, however, increased. He fought to save the Empire, which dissolved. And he fought socialism, which prevailed. He struggled to defeat Hitler, and won. It is not, I think, the significance of that victory, mighty and glorious though it was, that causes the name of Churchill to make the blood run a little faster…. But it is the roar that we hear, when we pronounce his name.

It is simply mistaken that battles are necessarily more important than the words that summon men to arms, or who remember the call to arms. The Battle of Agincourt was long forgotten as a geopolitical event, but the words of Henry V, with Shakespeare to recall them, are imperishable in the mind, even as which side won the Battle of Gettysburg will dim from the memory of those who will never forget the words spoken about that battle by Abraham Lincoln.

The genius of Churchill was his union of affinities of the heart and of the mind, the total fusion of animal and spiritual energy….It is my proposal that Churchill’s words were indispensable to the benediction of that hour, which we hail here tonight, as we hail the memory of the man who spoke them; as we come together, to praise a famous man.

The entire speech can be found in the Buckley volume of collected speeches, Let Us Talk of Many Things.

Stalin vs. Hitler

In fairness it should be said that Buckley considered Stalin a more virulent disease than Hitler. In our correspondence he made a telling remark. “My thought has always been that Nazism had absolutely no eschatology. It would wither on the vine. Only the life of Hitler kept it going, and I can’t imagine he’d have lasted very long. The Communists hung in there [after the war] for forty-six years.”

Of course, in the context of the 1930s, I disagreed.

Addendum: the Medal of Freedom

On general grounds I deprecate giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to political partisans. I especially disapprove of giving it at a State of the Union Speech. True, the 2020 recipient performed notable charitable work, particularly for veterans. But that was eclipsed by his political partisanship. Of course, he was not the first partisan recipient, and doubtless not the last.

Ronald Reagan gave the PMF to Bill Buckley, and in this case I think he deserved it. In the mid-Fifties, Buckley rescued the conservative movement. Until he came along, it was fast growing into a preserve of John Birchers and nutcases. He rejected that, and added a corpus of intelligent argument. Moreover, with one or two notable outbursts, he was always cordial and courteous to his opposition.

Some of Bill’s political opponents truly loved him. Allard Lowenstein  and John Kenneth Galbraith spring to mind. Harriet Pilpel was another. (Her son Robert wrote one of the great specialized studies, Churchill in America.) Buckley’s long-running political program, Firing Line, was a model of decorum and intelligent debate. He left a legacy that will defy time, and the passing rigors of political repartee. He deserved it, all right.

David Goldman, Teacher

The 2016 Hillsdale College Alaska cruise aimed to educate, and so it did. I learned more from David Goldman about Erdoğan, Turkey and the Middle East in an hour than from anything I’ve read over the last five years.

David Goldman, a New York economist, is a columnist for First Things magazine and writes under the name “Spengler” for Asia Times Online. Previously he was the global head of credit strategy for Credit Suisse, and head of fixed income research at Bank of America. In addition to his journalism and financial work, he was a regular on CNBC.

The Book

Goldman’s book is entitled, How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam is Dying Too). Reviewers praised it:

“David Goldman muses on population trends and religion with a breathtaking depth, originality, and panache. Some of his startling but documented predictions: Europe is in its death throes. Muslim demographic collapse will undercut Islamic triumphalism. The United States and Israel will emerge triumphant. And that’s just the start.” —Daniel Pipes, President of the Middle East Forum and Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University

“Goldman has explored the political implications of demography with rare insight [to produce] a mind-expanding peek into the likely political future of our planet.” —Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University

Mr. Erdoğan’s Coup

The Result…

Whether planned by Erdoğan or his opposition, the coup attempt worked out well for the bossman. Der Spiegel described the aftermath (Fethullah Gülen is Erdoğan’s convenient straw man, an exiled dissenter holed up in Pennsylvania)…

Erdoğan arrested over 2000 soldiers and fired several tens of thousands of civil servants. Among them are 36,200 teachers and officials in the Education Ministry, 8000 police officers and almost 3000 judges, many of them alleged followers of Gülen. Forty-seven provincial governors resigned, as did the deans of all of Turkey’s universities. Academics and scientists may no longer leave the country. Now, though, in the wake of the failed coup, what remains of public opposition is likely to disappear entirely.

Some might say in relation to Erdoğan something like Henry the Young King said about Thomas Becket: “Who will rid me of this pestilent priest?” He is the definition of a loose cannon. Nobody really knows how deep is his commitment to the Islamic state he says he favors. How to get rid of Erdoğan? Goldman said it was really quite simple: stop looking upon Turkey as a stalwart NATO ally; and stop loaning him money. Of course this would take, er, courage. Maybe someone will find it.

Churchill’s Wisdom

One area of political agreement exists between America’s divided Left and Right. It is that we’ll never make the Middle East over in our image. So what’s the strategy? Well, there is energy independence—which now seems to be accomplished. Beyond that, there’s the strategy Winston Churchill enunciated in 1958 (Mr. Putin seems already to have read his Churchill)….

The Middle East is one of the hardest-hearted areas in the world. It has always been fought over, and peace has only reigned when a major power has established firm influence and shown that it would maintain its will. Your friends must be supported with every vigour and if necessary they must be avenged. Force, or perhaps force and bribery, are the only things that will be respected. It is very sad, but we had all better recognise it. At present our friendship is not valued, and our enmity is not feared. —Churchill by Himself, 439

So. Support your friends, by bribery if necessary. Avoid wars with your enemies, but don’t make life easy for them. At present we hold our collective noses over El-Sisi in Egypt, but declare Erdoğan a loyal friend, and frequently loan him lots of money.

“You’re doing it just backwards,” said our Turkish waiter.

Hillsdale College has announced acquisition of an important part of the Ronald Cohen collection of the writings of Sir Winston Churchill. It numbers almost 2000 individual items. They comprise six categories: forewords, prefaces, and introductions by Churchill; periodical articles; works and periodicals containing Churchill speeches; letters, memoranda, statements and letters to the editor. Some 15% of these writings have not seen print since their original, limited editions, and therefore comprise a “submerged canon,” because they open a fresh field of Churchill scholarship.

Hillsdale College also has a temporary, exclusive purchase option for the balance of the collection, books written by Winston Churchill. They number over 1200 volumes, and 640 are first editions in their country of origin. Seven books are signed by Churchill. As a whole, this is the most comprehensive Churchill library ever assembled.

This material was collected over fifty years by Ronald Cohen, author of the Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, a three-volume definitive work listing and describing each edition, translation, and imprint of everything by Churchill ever published.

“Present at the Creation”

I had the privilege of seeing “what Cohen wrought” at Ron’s home in Ottawa last November. It brought back memories because I was “present at the creation.” In 1984, Ron and I toured scores of British bookshops in a friendly rivalry. We took turns at “first choice” in each venue. So in Lyme Regis, Ron walks through the door and says, “Do you have anything by….” He turns around, and sees a row of The World Crisis in its rare original dust jackets. “I’ll take those.” Because I was out parking the car, I was fuming!

Assembling such a collection is the work of a lifetime. It could not be reproduced today because the sources have dwindled, and many items are one-of-a-kind. It is a treasure trove for researchers, students, and scholars. I am very glad also to have been “present at the finale.”

Cohen in His Own Words

Let Ron Cohen explain the uniqueness of his achievement:

“It has virtually every edition, issue, printing, state and variant of every work (save, for obvious reasons, The Second World War), many, perhaps most (but not all) in their original jackets. Plus a very large number of translations, including one previously thought not to exist (The World Crisis in Serbian).

“There are eighteen editions of Churchill’s first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force (every variant). More African Journeys are here than anywhere, including all three variants of the American issue, which is almost unknown. There is every printing of every Cassell war speech volume in jackets (plus American, Canadian and Australian editions). Included are 416 Churchill-written pamphlets and leaflets.

“No stone was left unturned, including the Korean and pirated Taiwanese English-language editions of The Second World War and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. There is complete Hansard for all the years of Churchill’s service in Parliament. Hillsdale has acquired the bibliographically Churchill forewords, introductions, letters, statements, interviews virtually unknown today.

* * *

“I have seen virtually every, if not every, significant collection, private or public, of WSC’s writings, as a part of my bibliographical research. None of these notable collections carry the same bibliographical depth. I also visited all the great public libraries with focused Churchill collections, such as Trinity College and the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto, the Forsch Collection at Dartmouth, Fulton, Longleat, the Schweizerische Churchill Stiftung Bibliothek in Zurich, the University of Illinois Mortlake Collection, and the Churchill Memorial Trust Library (Canberra).

“Also I visited the great public libraries with excellent Churchill holdings, such as the British Library, Library of Congress, Bodleian, House of Commons, Houghton Rare Book Library and Widener Library at Harvard, the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), the Dundee and Guildhall Libraries. None were as complete as mine. Of course I was on a mission. I felt it was my duty as bibliographer to describe every edition, issue, state, printing and variant.

“I do not believe this collection could be duplicated today. Even back then, it was extremely difficult to assemble. To collect everything, one had to know what there was. Would a bookseller have offered a major collector the sixth printing of Into Battle—or any printing other than a first? Is there anyone who’d have looked at Churchill in Ottawa closely enough to see whether the date of WSC’s arrival in Ottawa was on the 29th or 30th of December (hence two states of that pamphlet)? Would anyone have offered, or sought to purchase, a Colonial Malakand with a raised 1 in the page number 231? Or a copy of Victory with a missing 1 in page number 177? So it went!”

A Churchilliana Triad

The Cohen Collection forms a triad with the recently acquired Martin Gilbert Papers and Sir Martin’s meticulous Official Biography. His thirty-one volumes include twenty-three volumes of documents besides Gilbert’s “wodges” of papers, news reports, and, most importantly, interviews for each day of Churchill’s life. Hillsdale earlier acquired the Cohen audio collection: the voice of Churchill dating back to 1909. The college is digitalizing these for ease of access by scholars.

We thus acquire the Cohen collection, or most of it, and, besides, Ron himself, as a sometime curator, lecturer and speaker: an invaluable asset, as I know from experience.

Hillsdale College launched the Churchill Project to propagate a right understanding of Churchill’s record and to better understand his contributions to statecraft and leadership. The Project seeks to promote Churchill scholarship through national conferences, scholarships, and other resources. For more information on the Churchill Project, visit its website and subscribe for mailings.

Exhibited at Hillsdale College

In the 1970s, Sarah Churchill was involved in the commercial publication of a series of twenty-eight intaglio drawings by Curtis Hooper entitled, “A Visual Philosophy of Sir Winston Churchill.”  The drawings were based upon famous Churchill photographs and Sarah supplied suitable quotations for each.

Decades have passed since Sir Winston’s death, but Curtis Hooper’s dramatic graphite drawings are as lifelike as ever. “While many only know Churchill for his wartime leadership, the ‘Visual Philosophy’ series is unique in that it contains vignettes drawn from throughout his entire life,” said Churchill Fellow and Hillsdale senior Ross Hatley.

In October and November 2018, the Hillsdale College proudly displayed not only the total collection of intaglio prints, but the original artwork for each. The exhibit was at Hillsdale’s Daughtery Gallery. It was part of a regular rotating schedule of art exhibits by students, faculty, and from the College’s collections. For the current schedule, click here.

Hooper Background

I am often asked about these drawings by collectors wishing to know what they are worth. I am qualified neither to appraise art nor to testify to its genuinity, but I have talked to Mr. Hooper and offer what we know herewith.

Each picture was based on a famous photograph of Sir Winston. They range from childhood to old age. The publisher was Graphic House in New Jersey, and the scheme was quite successful.

Each print carries Churchill quotation and the signatures of Sarah Churchill and Curtis Hooper. Each was numbered, and presented with a debossed coat of arms and Churchill quotation. (One exception was the print at left, which was assigned a quotation written by Sarah.)

The published format was 22 1/2″ x 34 1/2″. Some sources say each print had an edition of 400, some prints indicate 300. In fact the actual number produced is much lower (see below).

Varieties

These prints exist (also signed in pencil by Sarah) in smaller format, about the size of a sheet of U.S. stationery. But they were not part of the original project and appear to be reproductions. Indeed the pencil signature may not actually be hers. Also, some of large format prints now offered could be reproductions.

According to Mr. Hooper, genuine large-format versions must carry both his signature and Sarah Churchill’s. As always with all fine art, one should buy from a reputable dealer who is able to supply provenance and assure authenticity.

Aside from the Hillsdale collection, few full sets of full-size prints exist, but the smaller versions seem to be very numerous. Since the latter are not originals, they carry no authenticity and no great value. The larger prints, properly authenticated, are worth much more.

There is a huge residual interest in the “Visual Philosophy” series today, over four decades on. Many of the finest Churchill collections exhibit them.  I am very glad that Hillsdale has acquired this collection, which will inspire new generations of Churchillians.

“Give us the Tools….

Every student of Winston Churchill knows of Hillsdale College’s Churchill Project and the “official biography.” (The term is misleading, because nothing was ever censored.) Read more on this effort on the Project website

Sir Martin Gilbert completed the eighth and final biographic volume in 1988. But the accompanying volumes of documents (aka “Companion Volumes”) ceased in the 1990s. My colleagues and I played a small role in securing financing for three more Document Volumes covering events through 1941. With that the great work stalled.

…And we fill finish the job.”

Then in 2006, President Larry Arnn of Hillsdale College, once Gilbert’s research assistant, arranged to take on the job. He has pursued it with determination. Without him, it is unlikely that the work would have finished.

Before his death in 2015, Sir Martin had assembled thousands of documents. There were papers literally for every day of Churchill’s life. Hillsdale republished the eight biographic and the first sixteen document volumes at modest prices. Since 2013, we have added five new ones:

Testing Times, 1942.

One Continent Redeemed, January-August 1943. 

Fateful Questions, September 1943-April 1944.

Normandy and Beyond, May-December 1944. 

The Shadows of Victory, January-July 1945.

Biographic e-books are already available, and the document e-books will follow.

The Biography He Deserved

As we edit the documents we are struck by the volume and variety of issues Churchill confronted. Those who criticize his sometimes bizarre notions or impatience have never considered the enormity of his task. Toward the end of the war, his workload increased. There was the Italian surrender, U.S. and Russian demands, critical planning for D-Day. Churchill worried over squandering the Italian campaign to feed the invasion of France. He received belligerent notes from Stalin. The War Cabinet harangued him. He tried juggle satisfactory locations for summit meetings. Parliamentary business was constant. Japan and the Pacific war were growing paramount. There were speeches to the country, appointments to fill, family crises, postwar planning.

The volumes go on, fascinating in their detail, millions of words. We take no opinion (except in the editor’s forewords). Randolph Churchill declared when he first took on the biography in 1962: “He shall be his own biographer.” Churchill’s output was extraordinary, his prescriptions usually understandable and wise. His foresight, given the strain of those years, was remarkable. The wisdom of his colleagues is also well documented here.

“The End of the Beginning”

We have just completed proofs for Document Volume 22, importantly documenting Churchill’s recovery from defeat in the 1945 to triumph in 1951. This will be published by early 2019, leading to Volume 23, November 1951 to the end of Churchill’s life,  June 2019. We then celebrate with a cruise around Britain on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. Any reader with questions is most welcome to comment below. I will try to answer.

“Now this is not the end…but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The Churchill Project has imortant new goals, in order to build this institution. Our aim is to foster knowledge and understanding of Winston Churchill through publishing, scholarly events, free online courses, and the internet. We are building a massive archive including the Gilbert papers. My own books, collections and papers will someday be there, together with those of many others. To learn how you may join or support our efforts, click here.

The best editor I ever had wrote: “There is nothing to be said when a friend dies, even among people whose trade is words.” Much nevertheless is being said about Charles Krauthammer. That is fitting, and it is what we have the Internet for. (Some of the most touching tributes are linked below. Fox News produced a very fine tribute, “Krauthammer in His Own Words” click here.)

My editor meant, rather, that for some, words are inadequate against “a big, empty hole where there was once someone you loved. And all the talk in the world won’t change that. Everybody who knew him well misses him.” For CK, those who think they knew him well include millions who encountered him only as a face on the evening news. And were mesmerized by his intellect, eloquence, humor and collegiality.

All those are very Churchillian traits. So is courage. Unlike many of those talking faces, Dr. Krauthammer never indulged in introspection or self-pity. In his forties and his seventies, Winston Churchill was thrown violently out office. He ignored it and rebuilt his life, declaring: “Never give in.” In his twenties, young Charles dove into a swimming pool, banged his head, and was confined forever after to a wheelchair. He ignored it and became a psychiatrist, a writer, syndicated columnist, a husband and father, a TV personality, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Now that is a Churchillian performance.

Things That Matter

His book is one of a score I would take with me if confined to a desert island. Significantly, among its nearly ninety columns and essays, the Churchill chapter ranks second—in Part I (entitled “Personal”)—after a piece on his beloved brother Marcel. Churchill was a very personal subject to Dr. Krauthammer, who was always quoting him (accurately). Many chapters touch on Churchill’s saga: the Middle East, wars in Asia, bioethics and the future, serious enquiries into the nature of man and the universe. (Churchill covered those in Thoughts and Adventures.)

Churchill-related columns include insults (“In Defense of the F-Word”), the “Joy of Losing” (a thing Sir Winston knew something about), how to define democracy (Churchill laid out precepts, Krauthammer laid out Albania), the Holocaust, Zionism, Language, Leadership, the question of Germany’s “collective guilt.” There’s plenty here to interest Churchillians.

* * *

And much else besides. CK was fascinated by “the innocence of dogs, the cunning of cats, the elegance of nature, the wonders of space…fashions and follies…manners and habits, curiosities and conundrums social and ethical. Is a doctor ever permitted to kill a patient wishing to die? Why in the age of feminism do we still use the phrase ‘women and children?’” Churchill wrote an essay asking, “Are There Men on the Moon?” Krauthammer studied Enrico Fermi and wondered: “With so many habitable planets out there, why in God’s name have we never heard a word from a single one of them?” Fermi’s answer, as CK explained, is disquieting. These are subjects, he wrote, that “fill my days, some trouble my nights.”

I wrote all this and more in a review, the best words I could summon up. I sent it to my hero through a mutual friend with a copy of Churchill by Himself. He didn’t have to reply, but of course, being CK, he did: “How kind and generous was your assessment of my writing. And how gratifying to receive such appreciation. As you know, being a writer as well, the point of writing is less self-expression than trying to express and impress certain ideas on others. Your kind review makes me think that I might have succeeded in some way.”

* * *

Fortune and the magic name of Churchill gave me the chance to meet him twice. The first was at a dinner for Sir Martin Gilbert hosted by a World War II Veteran’s Association in 2004. I presented him with the Sir Winston Churchill Birthday Book, which a friend and I had just republished. It contains a Churchill quote for every day of the year, with space opposite for penciling in someone’s birthday. It has an uncanny knack for providing suitable quotations for everyone. CK’s birthday was March 13th: “There is always much to be said for not attempting more than you can do….But this principle…has its exceptions.” Said Charles: “He had that one right.”

The second was just a few years ago at a Hillsdale College Churchill seminar. That video is not online, but I recommend one that is. In 2011, CK spoke to 50,000 people (99% online) at a Hillsdale Constitution Day celebration. He spoke with piercing clarity, as Brit Hume said. “He was as kind a man as I ever known. His personal grace and gentleness were just remarkable. He was one of a kind.”

One should not attach any great importance to those encounters, and hope I don’t sound like a groupie. But since Bill Buckley died, he was my go-to source of political wisdom. Forever after his Hillsdale appearance, whenever I was unsure of something I would say: I have to read Charles Krauthammer, who will tell me what to think.”

“Hinged” : Krauthammer at Large

I must present a few blades from my sheaf of Krauthammeriana.

Career choices: “How do you go from Walter Mondale to Fox News? The answer is short and simple. I was young once … It is true that I’m a psychiatrist in remission. People ask me the difference [between psychiatry] and what I do in Washington and the answer is rather simple. In both lines of work I deal every day with people who have delusions of grandeur. The only difference is that here in Washington these deluded have access to nuclear weapons….” (2011)

Donald Trump: After a heated news conference, CNN’s Jake Tapper called the President “unhinged.” Dr. Krauthammer (a devout Never Trumper before the election) replied: “I found it entirely hinged … The high point was when he mentioned me. I thought I was going to be the surprise new national security adviser, so I was somewhat disappointed. The country is really divided. He’s not the one who caused it, but his supporters will love this, and those who are skeptical about him are going to wonder about how hinged he is.” (2017; this reminded me of Churchill using “choate” as the opposite of “inchoate.”)

* * *

The Universe: “I read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time as a public service—to reassure my readers that this most unread bestseller is indeed as inscrutable as they thought.” Speaking of the attempts to contact alien life forms (Voyagers 1 and 2), CK noted that the greetings they carry, on behalf of all mankind, are from UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, a Nazi. “Makes you wish that we’d immediately sent out a Voyager 3 beeping frantically: Please disregard all previous messages.” (2000)

Vladimir Putin: “Being a good, well trained KGB agent, he lies with a smile. I love the fact that this week he’s been saying it could’ve been Russian patriots—who are artists who act on their own—who might have hacked. But of course the state is innocent. Nothing like that happens in Russia without the state. He knows it, we know it, but he’s a very good liar.” (2017)

* * *

Baseball: Rick Ankiel was the first player since Babe Ruth to have won at least ten games as a pitcher and also to hit at least fifty home runs. Recalling how Ankiel’s pitching career was destroyed by a nervous breakdown, and how he came fighting back as an outfielder, CK summoned up his own life’s impulses: “The catastrophe that awaits everyone from a simple false move, wrong turn, fatal encounter—every life has such a moment. What distinguishes us is whether—and how—we ever come back.” (2011)

And after our beloved Washington Nationals set the team record of eight home runs in a game, including four in a row and the all-time record of five in an inning: “Oh, the glory! With the White House on fire, the Congress in chaos, and the world going to hell in a handbasket, we need happy news like this. This is why God created baseball, late on the sixth day.” (2014)

Friends and Colleagues

[Churchill and Krauthammer] have many things in common. Both have a wit as dry as a properly-made martini. They both exhibit an unparalleled intellectual capaciousness, enabling a supremely wide range in their writing.  Both men dictate their prose. Charles may think my comparison of him to the great statesman is extravagant, but I do not think so, for this simple reason: Charles rightly refers to Churchill in his essay as “the indispensable man.” Well, for those of us trying to make sense of what is happening in our country right now, Charles is our indispensable man. —Steve Hayward

I remember attending an event at the Kennedy Center which Charles and his wife put on to celebrate ancient Hebrew music, and my wife saying to me, “We wouldn’t be here for anybody but Charles Krauthammer.” On the 4th of July Charles would have all his colleagues and friends out at his summer home on the Chesapeake, but it wasn’t all hot dogs and cokes, it was something special. Charles would have each of us read a passage from the Declaration of Independence. Nothing was more emotional than being among people of different political perspectives….attracted to a fine intellect, Robyn’s husband, Daniel’s dad, who loved America. —Juan Williams

* * *

Like a lot of his friends we started out as ideological adversaries …We spent many dinners together. I had the foolishness to challenge him at chess. I never beat him but they were very instructive games. He would even correct my moves before he clobbered them. We spent a lot of time splitting theological hairs … He knew Aquinas, the principle articulator of Catholic theology, better than I did, and I studied it formally… It is said that “no great man is a good man.” Charles was an exception to that. —Andrew Napolitano

The loss to America is dwarfed by the loss to his family and friends, but nevertheless it is enormous. Especially at this time. The nation is deeply divided. Americans are having difficulty separating fact from fiction. Today’s debates lack the intellectual rigor and civility that Charles championed in his columns, his appearances on Fox News, and his many speeches and essays. When Donald Trump emerged on the political scene, Charles was no cheerleader. But after the election, Charles insisted on treating Mr. Trump with the fairness and respect due the president of the United States. Still, he kept watch for dangers to the institutions the Founding Fathers put in place-the “guardrails” that constrain any president’s behavior. —Irwin Stelzer

May we all say this at the end…

Two weeks ago he wrote to all to say that his fight with cancer was lost. “I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life—full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.”

That does not diminish our loss, however eloquent and typical of him. He died as he had lived, brave and unaffected, facing the most traumatic of human experiences. I have quoted this passage before, but it is irresistible now. It fits him so perfectly—almost as if Churchill in 1931, writing of Arthur Balfour, intended it for Charles:

As I observed him regarding with calm, firm and cheerful gaze the approach of Death, I felt how foolish the Stoics were to make such a fuss about an event so natural and so indispensable to mankind. But I felt also the tragedy which robs the world of all the wisdom and treasure gathered in a great man’s life and experience and hands the lamp to some impetuous and untutored stripling, or lets its fall shivered into fragments upon the ground.

.

Justine Hardy posted a lovely three minute video about the wrench of parting with the effects of her father’s robust, admirable life. She wrote: “My father was such a mountain in our landscape, it has been quite a shuddering since the mountain fell.”

Robert as Raconteur

Great Contemporaries

Churchill in Nashville, 1932

Winston Churchill was here on his 1932 lecture tour. He especially liked Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Ann Arbor—the latter not too far from Hillsdale College. “And who would miss Chattanooga,” he wrote, “lying in its cup between the Blue Ridge and Lookout Mountain?”

East, west, north, and south he rode the rails, “living all day on my back in a railway compartment and addressing in the evening large audiences.” His theme was Anglo-American unity. He concluded, rather startlingly for someone with his background: “It is the hardest work I have had in my life.”

Aside from making money—something he was always short of in those days—he was keen to visit battlefields of the Civil War, which he would describe in his History of the English-Speaking Peoples. At Murfreesboro, he observed “the greatest bravery by both sides.” The Federals lost 9000, Braxton Bragg’s Confederates over 10,000. “The Federal hold on Nashville was unshaken, and Bragg withdrew to cover Chattanooga. Murfreesboro gave the impression of a drawn battle….”

Churchill viewed the Civil War as Lincoln did, “with malice toward none and charity for all”—as a milestone toward what the Constitution calls “a more perfect union.” He understood and admired the courage and devotion of both sides. I doubt he would approve tearing down any of their statues. But that’s just my opinion.

And because he had studied the Civil War, he knew on December 7th, 1941 that World War II was won. He didn’t attempt to guess how long it would take. But he knew for certain that  “America was in the war, up to the neck, and in to the death.”

Current Contentions

Alas, this noble spirit is the subject of current contentions, and bad movies from “Dunkirk” to “The Crown.” Not a month passes when he is not accused of something dreadful, from alcoholism and racism to misogyny and warmongering. Confronting this busy industry is the purpose of my book.

Critics often set Churchill up as the savior of 1940, then tear him down with a familiar litany: his self-centeredness; his liking for gas warfare and carpet bombing; the rude things he said about Hindus or Jews or Muslims; his disdain for the uncivilized, meaning anyone other than card-carrying Englishmen.

The assault is both personal and political. The personal includes charges that he was a school dunce, a failure in marriage, avid for conflict. There are side-claims about his parents. Lord Randolph died of syphilis. Lady Randolph slept with 200 men. His brother Jack was not Lord Randolph’s son.

Policy critiques range from what he did—like defending Antwerp and attacking the Dardanelles—to what he didn’t do—not bombing Auschwitz, not feeding occupied Europe, not stopping the Bengal famine.

Where do people get these notions? The scholar Harry Jaffa said that detraction of the great has become a passion for those who cannot suffer greatness—a skewed vision of the egalitarian principle, the theory that there are no great figures, we are all the same.

We may not claim that Churchill was infallible. It diminishes him to treat him as superhuman. On some topics in the book, accomplished scholars have catalogued his failings. I acknowledge these. But I offer certain exculpatory, but more obscure facts.

What to Know

The first thing to know about Churchill is that there is more to him than 1940. Sir Martin Gilbert, his great biographer, wrote: “As I open file after file of Churchill’s archive, from his entry into Government in 1905 to his retirement in 1955, I am continually surprised by the truth of his assertions, the modernity of his thought, the originality of his mind, the constructiveness of his proposals, his humanity, and, most remarkable of all, his foresight.”

The “macro-Churchill” thought deeply about the nature of humanity and its institutions. The “micro-Churchill” helped to solve intractable problems. In 1921, he helped to secure Irish independence. In Cairo around the same time, he drew boundaries of today’s Middle East.

This was an act some say we should not thank him for. Yet he established a stable Jordan, which is there yet. He confirmed Britain’s commitment to a Jewish national home, which is also there. Churchill also proposed a Kurdish homeland. Let us, he said, “protect the Kurds from some future bully in Iraq.” That’s just Winston being silly, the Foreign Office said. We’ll never have any trouble from Iraq.

In the 1930s he opposed self-government for India, and lost. He then sent a message to Gandhi… “Use the powers that are offered. Make the thing a success.” Gandhi actually admired Churchill. Since 1906, in fact. “I have a good recollection from when he was in the Colonial Office,” Gandhi said. “I have held the opinion that I can always rely on his sympathy and goodwill.”

Liberal Reformer

As a young statesman, Churchill campaigned for a “minimum standard” guaranteed by the state. But he called socialism “the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, the gospel of envy.” He strove to help the needy while not dislocating the system that generated that help. “Churchill’s writings and speeches are full of reflections and philosophy that offer food for thought,” wrote the historian Paul Addison. “It is rare to dis­cover in the archives the reflec­tions of a politi­cian on the nature of man.”

In the first part of the book, covering Churchill’s early youth, I consider his mother’s supposed indiscretions, the parentage of his brother Jack, his early troubles with education, and what really killed Lord Randolph Churchill. But I think you’ll most enjoy Chapter 1—the lighthearted myth that Churchill was part Native American. Like Elizabeth Warren. He himself believed this, and was proud of it.

* * *

Continued in Nashville (2):The Myth of Churchill’s American Indian Ancestors

Note: Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality is now available in paperback, with a lower price for the Kindle edition.  Click here.

These free online courses cover topics such as Winston Churchill, the Constitution, American history, free market economics, and more. Well over a million people have already taken at least one course.

Why do we make our online courses available at no charge? Because education on behalf of liberty is our mission. We don’t want to turn away any citizen who is willing to learn because of financial need.

Hillsdale’s motto is “Pursuing Truth and Defending Liberty Since 1844.” We believe that learning and liberty are closely connected.

Pursuing Truth

Will you consider supporting Hillsdale’s courses and our other educational outreach by giving a gift of any amount to the College today? This is especially important as we close out our fiscal year in a strong financial position.

Our goal is to raise $300,000 by June 30, and we can only reach it with your help.

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Thank you for helping Hillsdale teach any citizen willing to learn.

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Hillsdale Churchill Project

The Churchill Project serves to propagate a right understanding of Churchill’s record. Its goal is to teach statesmanship, through its academic resources at all levels from undergraduate to online courses.

Since 2006 Hillsdale College Press has been publisher of Winston S. Churchill, the official biography, including its eight biographic and nineteen (to date) document volumes through 2017. The Churchill Project will complete the remaining volumes of The Churchill Documents, bringing to over thirty volumes what is already the longest biography in history.

The Churchill Project is also the archive for the papers of Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s official biographer from 1968 to 2012. And it will promote Churchill scholarship through national conferences, scholarships, online courses, and an endowed faculty chair. Through these endeavours, Hillsdale College will establish itself at the forefront of Churchill research, scholarship, and analysis.

For more information please visit The Churchill Project website. There you may subscribe for frequent updates of articles and videos, and news of seminars and educational programs.

The 2016 Hillsdale College cruise of southwest Alaska aboard Crystal Serenity (27 July-3 August) provided an impressive visit to a spectacular state. Accompanying the fine dining and entertainment was a crew which could not have done more. Crystal Cruises seems to own all the highest ratings in the business, and it’s easy to see why. There’s no separate bar bill, and they’ll deliver up to two bottles a day to your stateroom. No one could drink this much! Tips are included, nobody duns you for handouts, and you’re not presented with a list of “estimated gratuities” on your last day aboard.

Crystal ships offer more than average public space. We had only 1000 passengers (much less than capacity), aboard an 820 foot, 69,000-ton ship), so it never felt congested. As they used to say at Brooklands racing circuit: “the right crowd and no crowding.” More passengers are usual, however. On 16 August Serenity set sail to Alaska again with 1700 customers on a 28-day cruise from Vancouver to New York via the Northwest Passage. She is the largest ship ever to navigate that course.

Fun Afloat

Aside from the attentive staff and perfect organization, there was nightly entertainment at four or five different venues. Bar room piano player Perry Grant kept us at the Avenue Saloon 9:30-12:30 every night, as he played, sang and interviewed guests. Perry has a touch: never too bawdy, always fun. He seems to know hundreds of tunes, hardly ever repeats one. For those of “a certain age,” it’s a memorable combination. We understand he has a small army of followers, who sign on wherever he goes. Here’s Perry’s version of “My Way.”

(We couldn’t get enough. This one’s for you, and you know who you are….)

The route began from Vancouver to Juneau, Alaska’s capital. There was a sea voyage the Hubbard Glacier, then to the Alaska towns of Hoonah, Skagway and Ketchikan. We reentered British Columbia via Nanaimo, and ended in Vancouver. Well organized excursions (extra cost) were available, but you could easily pass a day walking around a town, or just relaxing on the ship.

We aren’t cruise folk. Viking’s Danube River cruise, with 180 aboard, is more our style. We confess to hankering for a canal barge for twelve, a big ketch for six, or the Claymore II, supply ship for Pitcairn Island, which takes three days to float six passengers to the storied hideaway of Fletcher Christian and a handful of rebels after the Mutiny on the Bounty. That we enjoyed a “big” cruise speaks volumes of Crystal quality and Hillsdale’s organizing.

Hillsdale Seminars

The College’s educational program is a great way to while away days at sea. Our speakers were an eclectic mix. Hillsdale President Larry Arnn always has worthwhile things to say to thoughtful people. Worrisome things these days, with so many uncertainties facing America and the world. Victor Davis Hanson spoke about Athens and Sparta, eloquently and well, not without parallels to modern problems. John Steele Gordon, the historian and columnist, spoke about his illuminating book on the Washington Monument and other obelisks.

Screenwriter Michael Walsh said movies don’t really start off to be liberal or conservative. If you want to write one of those, you’re on the wrong track. What matters—despite Hollywood’s reputation as a hotbed of wealthy lefties who can bear any tax burden levied on the rest of us—is the story line: “The Godfather could have been set a million years BC and would still have been a success because of the story line.”

Walsh incidentally wrote a great prequel/sequel to Casablanca called As Time Goes By, which all Casablanca fans should read. The prequel explains why Rick Blaine(who grew up in New York as Itzhak Baline) could not return to his home town. The sequel describes how Elsa, Victor, Louie, Sam and Rick  helped to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, “the Butcher of Prague.”  So now you know how that happened.

David Goldman was so riveting on the demographics of Islam and the Middle East that I bought his book. Prompted by a Turkish waiter, I also asked him about Turkey, which is worthy of a separate post.

For information on future Hillsdale cruises, click here.

Mr. Lehrman is author of Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point (2008) and Lincoln “by littles” (2013). Uniquely among the Lincoln scholars I’ve heard on Churchill, he has as fine a grasp of the English statesman as he does the American president. He tells me he regards each as the outstanding figure of his respective century. No argument there.

1. Lehrman on Preparation for Greatness

Excerpt: President Lincoln and Prime Minister Churchill found themselves challenged by wars of national survival. Even though their early lives appear to be different, there are similar aspects in their educational preparation.

“If a man will stand up and assert, and repeat and re-assert, that two and two do not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument that can stop him,” declared Abraham Lincoln at Peoria on 16 October 1854. In this case, he implied that Senator Stephen Douglas, his political adversary, made irrational arguments on the subject of slavery.

Young Lincoln never had much of a chance to study mathematics. In June 1860, Lincoln wrote to a journalist that “when I came of age I did not know much….I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.”

Mr. Churchill would echo these biographical remarks of Mr. Lincoln in his speech at the Mid-Century Convocation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on 31 March 1949: “I frankly confess that I feel somewhat overawed in addressing this vast scientific and learned audience.…I have no technical and no university education, and have just had to pick up a few things as I went along.” Read more….

2. Lehrman on Statesmen of War

Excerpt: “We cannot escape history,” President Lincoln declared in his Second Annual Message to Congress in December 1862. “We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.”

Churchill, gifted historian that he was, learned lessons from the history he wrote. He certainly understood the importance of patience and hard work from writing his four-volume biography of John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough. “The real reason why I succeeded in my own campaigns is because I was always on the spot—I saw everything, and did everything for myself,” the Duke had observed.

Lincoln’s memory was as good as Churchill’s, but Lincoln’s opportunity to study British history had been very limited. In February 1865, President Lincoln attended a peace conference in Hampton Roads, Virginia. After Lincoln set stiff Union conditions for any negotiations, one of the Confederate commissioners argued, as a precedent, that King Charles I had reached agreements with rebels during an English Civil War.

“I do not profess to be posted in history,” said Lincoln in concluding the discussion. “All I distinctly recollect about the case of Charles I is that he lost his head in the end.”

When it came to the future judgments of history, Winston Churchill had an advantage over Lincoln. “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it,” the British Prime Minister told World War II associates. Abraham Lincoln, however, had his own advantage. More even than Churchill, perhaps, Lincoln was attuned to the realities of the present and the promises of the future. In his 1862 Message to Congress, Lincoln revealed in a single line his ability to adapt to whatever came:

“As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” Read in full…

“Give people something they want to believe and they will take it and run with it and make it their own. After all, who doesn’t like a monster story—especially one that allows the teller to express his own superiority. To say, ‘I’m not a slave to feelings of racism and anger like this pathetic man was. I look down upon that kind of behavior.’ A scary story that is also a feel-good story is hard to beat.”

Charles Leerhsen has done a rare thing: bucked popular cant and human nature. He delivers a breathtaking reappraisal of the greatest baseball player of all time. Click here to watch his brilliant lecture at Hillsdale College. I also strongly recommend his book, A Terrible Beauty—which teaches us a lot, and not just about baseball. (Click here for Cobb’s numbers.)

“The Anti-Jackie Robinson”

Leerhsen set out with the typical view of Ty Cobb, only to encounter scores of inconvenient truths missed. Many were ignored by biographers who inspired the sick portrait in Ken Burns’s documentary, Baseball. Cobb was no saint. Leerhsen documents his flaming temper and readiness for brawls. But most of the other allegations are either vastly exaggerated or demonstrably false.

Cobb was 180 degrees from the popular image of a racist, murdering, spike-flying, child-hating misanthrope, who steamed stamps off the envelopes kids sent him for his autograph. Re the latter: Leerhsen found that Cobb replied to all who wrote, often sending multiple autographed photos, writing five-page letters to some, and telling them all how honored he was that they had written to him.

For equality

Born in Georgia in 1886, Cobb was descended from abolitionists. His great-grandfather preached against slavery. His grandfather was a conscientious objector who refused to fight in the Confederate Army because of slavery. Ty’s father was an educator and state senator who once broke up a lynch mob. Leerhsen obliterates the prevailing picture of Cobb as the “anti-Jackie Robinson”:

Cobb was not asked about race until In 1952 when the Texas League was integrated. He said: “The negro should be accepted wholeheartedly and not grudgingly. The negro has the right to play professional baseball and who’s to say he has not?”

At that time other players were keeping mum, or saying they didn’t think mixed-race baseball was a good idea….[But Cobb] attended Negro League games, sometimes tossing out first balls, sometimes sitting in the dugout with the players. He said Willie Mays was the only player he’d pay to see, and that Roy Campanella was the player who reminded him most of himself.

And it’s not just about Cobb

Read this book and reflect.

Never Surrender: Winston Churchill and Britain’s Decision to Fight Nazi Germany in the Fateful Summer of 1940

_____________________

May 1940: Lord Halifax “sounded like a nervous solicitor reading from a half-thought-out brief….When Churchill spoke of fighting on alone, the mantle of history—Agincourt, Waterloo, Trafalgar, the Armada—sang through his sentences.”

Here is a well-written and organized review of mainly well-known events, retold with dramatic prose and crisp analysis. It’s an ideal book for young people unfamiliar with the scope of Churchill’s achievement in 1940, and, indeed, for anyone who wants a good account of the events that saved Western civilization.

Halfway through the book the perils mount and Churchill becomes prime minister: Dunkirk is evacuated, France falls, and the tempo intensifies in the rapid march of events. By the end of May 1940, the war cabinet faces a bitter choice: fight on, with no obvious route to victory, or accept an armistice or cease-fire, on whatever terms Hitler (who is anxious to make them) might offer. Kelly describes the stark options, and their leading advocates: Halifax the pragmatist, Churchill the “maximalist and romantic.”

Churchill, Kelly writes, “opened up his imagination and invited the House and the country in,” telling Britons they were defending not just their country, but the world cause: “Churchill’s particular genius as a leader lay in his ability to make people feel they had to rise to his level, which had the effect of making them a little bigger and braver than they were….”

Kelly’s fine writing and feel for those perilous times, puts us in mind of Larry Arnn’s lectures in the Hillsdale College online Churchill course. Some things, Dr. Arnn said, are indeed worth the ultimate effort. “Some things you may have to die for.”

We need to keep that thought in mind today.

Read complete review on the Hillsdale Churchill Project site.

I find the glorification of Churchill quite disgusting. It is typical British-American arrogance to ignore the outcome of WW2 for the peoples of Eastern Europe, not to speak of the Germans. Churchill knew from the beginning about the terrible fate of the Russians and many other East European peoples under Bolshevist dictatorship. He obviously didn’t care. He was obsessed with anti-German hatred. Knowing that he bombed German cities, killing thousands of civilians long before the Germans were retaliating, makes him in my opinion even worse than Hitler. Why  did he go into alliance with Stalin against the Germans? That is his crime and the recognition of it will come. —H.W. via email.

The choice before Churchill and Britain in 1939-40 was anything but clear-cut. There were good reasons, however, supporting the choice they made.

While considering the fate of Eastern Europe it is reasonable also to consider that of Western Europe, and what Europe would have looked like had Hitler triumphed, and moved on into the nuclear age.

Before assuming that Churchill didn’t care about Bolshevism, it is necessary to read a little. Read about 1919-20, when he supported the Whites against the Bolsheviks, earning no love from his practical, wise and eminent colleagues, who didn’t see what he did.

Read on into the 1930s. Who occupied the Rhineland in violation of treaties? What was the March 1938 Anschluss about? What happened at Munich? What about March 1939, and the absorption of all those Bohemians, Moravians and Slovakians into the Reich? Which country first allied herself with Russia—Britain or Germany? Cities like Guernica, Warsaw and Rotterdam were all hit before the RAF had dropped a single bomb on the Reich. Indeed, for many months after the war started in 1939, the most the British would drop were pamphlets. Bombing, some in the government believed, would amount to destruction of private property.

Why side with Stalin in 1941? If your back is to the wall you tend to welcome allies without being too choosy about them. It is a legitimate criticism that Churchill was too trusting of Stalin; those arguments are not coming out, they’ve been out for thirty years. But if he hated Germans, his postwar declaration that the only way to salvage Europe was through rapprochement between France and Germany was an odd way to express it. “My hate,” he wrote later, “died with their surrender.”

In 1931 Churchill wrote “Mass Effects in Modern Life”: words that still ring today:

No material progress, even though it takes shapes we cannot now conceive, or however it may expand the faculties of man, can bring comfort to his soul. It is this fact, more wonderful than any that Science can reveal, which gives the best hope that all will be well. Projects undreamed-of by past generations will absorb our immediate descendants; forces terrific and devastating will be in their hands; comforts, activities, amenities, pleasures will crowd upon them, but their hearts will ache, their lives will be barren, if they have not a vision above material things.

“Implicit in those words,” says Dr. Larry Arnn, “are the speeches of 1940. Churchill told the British people we must fight to the death—better to die than to give this thing up. The sin of Hitler, almost superhuman in its scale but not, is that he tried too form a polity that would eliminate the very heart of humanity. No one saw that more clearly than Winston Churchill.”

Churchill was certainly a “Constructive Alternative” to established policies throughout his career, and 2015 contains many significant Churchill anniversaries: his first election to Parliament (115 years), the Dardanelles and Gallipoli disasters (100 years), his first premiership (75 years), his retirement as Prime Minister (60 years), his death and state funeral (50 years). To that end, Churchill was the subject of Hillsdale College’s first Center for Constructive Alternatives (CCA) event of the 2015-16 academic year.

I was pleased to be part of a program featuring two old friends: Timothy Robert Hardy, the most inimitable and genuine actor to ever play the role of Winston Churchill; and Minnie Churchill, Sir Winston’s granddaughter-in-law, an expert on Churchill’s oil paintings. We were joined in presentations by two outstanding scholars, Andrew Roberts and John Maurer. CCA events are open to Hillsdale students, faculty and members of the College’s President’s Club.

Program

Sunday, October 4th

4:00 pm: “Churchill’s Early Life,” with Andrew Roberts, author, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900.

8:00 pm: “Churchill and His Pastime of Painting,” with Minnie Churchill, Chairman, Churchill Heritage Ltd., and co-author of Sir Winston Churchill: His Life and His Paintings.

Monday, October 5th

12:00 pm: “Churchill and the Written Word,” with Richard Langworth CBE, Senior Fellow, Hillsdale College Churchill Project.

4:00 pm: Showing of selections from “Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years,” starring Robert Hardy and Sian Phillips (1981).

8:00 pm: “Churchill in My Life,” with Robert Hardy CBE.

Tuesday, October 6th

4:00 pm: “Churchill as War Leader,” with John Maurer, Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.

8:00 pm: “Churchill in Peacetime,” with Larry P. Arnn, President, Hillsdale College.

Wednesday, October 7th

4:00 pm: Faculty Roundtable

——————————————————

“In High Places”: Munich, 1932

In “The Wilderness Years,” Robert Hardy faithfully captures Martin Gilbert’s image of Churchill in the Thirties: politically frustrated, less than effective as a father and a husband, worried over ominous developments in Germany—yet also enjoying his most productive decade as a writer and historian.

This defining excerpt is set in Munich on 30 August 1932, before Hitler gains power, as Churchill comes as close as he ever will to meeting Hitler face to face—amid sobering scenes of marching, chanting brownshirts singing Die Horst Wessel Lied.

Churchill has been touring the Danubian battlefields of the First Duke of Marlborough, whose biography he is writing. He is accompanied by his wife Clementine (Sian Phillips), their son Randolph (Nigel Havers), their daughter Sarah (Chloe Salaman), his close friend Frederick Lindemann, “The Prof” (played by David Swift). With them are Brigadier Packenham-Walsh who is drafting maps for Marlborough, and his wife (known to Churchill as “Mrs. P-W”).

At the hotel they are met by Randolph’s acquaintance and Hitler’s foreign press secretary, Harvard-educated Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl (played very accurately by Roger Bizley). Putzi hopes to introduce Churchill to his boss.

Writer-director Ferdinand Fairfax takes liberties to shorten and dramatize what actually happened. Hitler (a very grim-looking Gunter Meisner) is shown in evening dress, apparently ready to sit down with the Churchills. But first he watches furtively from a distance, and then balefully gazes through the restaurant window, catching the eye of the ever-curious Prof, who signals Hanfstaengl. Putzi tries to fetch Hitler, but is furiously turned away.

Here is what really happened. Hanfstaengl left the restaurant in mid-meal in search of the Fuhrer, who he found near his Munich apartment. “Herr Hitler,” he said, “don’t you realise the Churchills are sitting in the restaurant?…They are expecting you for coffee and will think this a deliberate insult.” Hitler said he was unshaven and had too much to do. “What on earth would I talk to him about?,” he added. “They say he is a rabid Francophile. What part does Churchill play? He is in opposition and no one pays any attention to him.” Hanfstaengl replied: “People say the same about you.”

Fairfax neatly gets around all this with the brief, dramatic scene we see here. True to fact, Churchill makes his famous declaration about the pitfalls of anti-Semitism, not to Hitler, but to his press secretary.

Putzi Hanfstaengl is considered reliable. Suave and westernized, he tried to exert a moderating influence, but fell out of favor in 1936. Suspecting he was marked for assassination by Goebbels, he left Germany in 1937 and wound up in the United States, where he advised Roosevelt on the Nazi regime. The anecdote is based on his 1957 book, Hitler: The Missing Years, and corroborates Churchill’s The Gathering Storm.

“Thus Hitler lost his only chance of meeting me,” Churchill cutely wrote. In the film he says he would be glad to meet Hitler in London, but alas the Fuhrer—er—never quite got there. “Later on, when he was all-powerful,” Churchill added, “I was to receive several invitations from him. But by that time a lot had happened, and I excused myself.”

This episode begins with a poignant scene between Winston and Clementine which neatly defines their marriage—one of deep mutual devotion, but needing periods of separation from time to time, lest the high-strung Clemmie collapse from the pressure. Winston longs for a closer relationship; Clementine says he should have married Goonie (Lady Gwendolyne Bertie, his sister-in-law). She wishes he would be content with things as they are.

This course is part of the battery of new programs offered by The Churchill Project for the Study of Statesmanship, which I am honored to serve as senior fellow. I warmly recommend this illuminating, stimulating, and above all accurate, free course because it’s a mini-education on Churchill’s statesmanship, conducted by an indefatigable scholar and a friend of forty years. 

WSC Online

Winston S. Churchill was the leading statesman of the 20th century, and one of the greatest in all of history. From a young age, Churchill understood the unique dangers of modern warfare, and he worked to respond to them. Though best known for his leadership during World War II, he was also a great defender of constitutionalism. A close study of Churchill’s words and deeds offers timeless lessons about the virtues, especially prudence, required for great statesmanship.

“Churchill’s life and career may be the best example modern historians have of what it means to be a statesman, providing timeless lessons of justice and injustice, of life and death, and how to lead with strength and conviction,” said Dr. Arnn.

Course Synopsis

The course comprises six 30-40 minute sessions. All are available on-demand:

Week 1 – “Why Study Churchill?”
October 5, 2015

Week 2 – “The Problem of Modern War”
October 12, 2015

Week 3 – “A Strategy for Modern War”
October 19, 2015

Week 4 – “The Problem of Modern Politics”
October 26, 2015

Week 5 – “Churchill’s Plan for Freedom”
November 2, 2015

Week 6 – “What Churchill Teaches Us About Our Time”
November 9, 2015

Hillsdale College offers a catalog of free online courses taught by its faculty in subjects ranging from the Constitution, education, great books, and economics. More than 830,000 students have generated more than 1.2 million course enrollments since the program launched in autumn 2011.

For more information or to register for “Winston Churchill and Statesmanship,” click here.

About Hillsdale

Hillsdale College, founded in 1844, has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans. It also conducts an outreach effort promoting civil and religious liberty, including a free monthly speech digest, Imprimis, with a circulation of more than 2.9 million.

“If a man is coming across the sea to kill you, you do everything in your power to make sure he dies before finishing his journey. That may be difficult, it may be painful, but at least it is simple. We are [today] entering a world of imponderables, and at every stage occasions for self-questioning arise. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”  —Winston S. Churchill, 18 February 1945

It was recently asserted that Churchill doesn’t have much to say to us today, and that the only people who use Churchill as a guide nowadays are “over-testosteroned American neocons.” Let me say this about that.

I don’t particularly care what “American neocons” think. Given the money raised and spent, the successes attained, and the enthusiastic reception of Churchill seminars, symposia and teacher institutes over the last forty years on what we can learn from Churchill—by Hillsdale College, the Churchill Centre, Ashland University, the College of William and Mary, George Washington University and the Churchill Museums in London and Fulton, to name a few—such a declaration seems incomprehensible.

The Soames Commandment

Churchill’s daughter’s famous commandment, “Thou shalt not say what my papa would do today,” is broadly misunderstood. She was referring to doctrinaire pronouncements about specific policies: because Churchill did W about X in 1935, he would do Y about Z today. Such a pronouncement is alike futile and foolish.

In a broader sense, however, Lady Soames agreed that his precepts, his principles, can be applied today. For example, her father talked about the primacy of conscience in his eulogy of Neville Chamberlain. He would follow that primacy if he were alive now.

Learning is so essential

Every turn of events has its unique features. Understanding them, and applying principles to them today, is still the challenge. The study of history depends upon finding truths that persist and are understandable across time.

The challenge for leaders today is to judge whether discretion should take priority over boldness, whether diplomacy is a feasible option, and when and where to deploy a bluff. In these areas, Churchill’s experience is an invaluable guide, because human nature is unchanging.

Was Churchill right that the Second World War was preventable? The answer, I think, is yes—at one juncture in particular—but with great difficulty.

Was he right that it is foolish to put off unpleasant reality “until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong”? Undoubtedly. There is nothing that dates that advice.

The sad story of Churchill’s failed attempt to prevent the greatest of wars reminds us once again of a maxim by someone other than he: The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

________

Excerpted from the preface to my book, Churchill and the Avoidable War, an examination of his stance on the issues in the run-up to the Second World War from 1930 to 1939.

Further reading

“Conant, Churchill, and the Harvard of 1943,” 2023.

On the eve of the British General Election, Metro UK declares: “Winston Churchill said the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

This is alas a reappearance of an ever-popular red-herring quote that Churchill never said.

Churchill had thoughtful critiques of democracy. See in particular his essay on “Mass Effects in Modern Life” in his book, Thoughts and Adventures. But he also had more respect for the average voter than this non-quote suggests. In the House of Commons on 31 October 1944 he said:

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper [we still vote that way in New Hampshire]—no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.

Churchill’s faith in the people to elect sensible candidates is the cause of some debate on both sides of the Atlantic these days. And yet the fabled “Little Man” has always been able to vote-in the right candidate at the right time, occasionally in last-ditch situations. Of course Churchill assumed the little man would be carrying some valid form of voter ID….

—From remarks at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar, “Churchill’s True Greatness: Lessons for Today,” Denver, April 21st.