John Charmley Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Grand Alliance: A Way Out of the Second World War?

28 February 2021 Comments 0 Comments

Question:

“Professor John Charmley says in a podcast that Neville Chamberlain believed a prewar grand alliance against Hitler was not feasible. He was referring to alliance between the UK and France and the United States and USSR. Do you agree?”

Answer:

As Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) tells the District Attorney (Lane Smith) in “My Cousin Vinny” (1992), “that’s a B.S. question.”

(To voir dire Miss Vito on “general automotive knowledge” the D.A. had demanded the ignition timing of “a 1955 Chevrolet 327 V-8.” (Readers less mechanically inclined than Miss Vito may enjoy her devastating two-minute rebuttal to this “trick question.”)…

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 2)

6 December 2018 Comments 2 Comments

History and memory: Address to the Churchill Society of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Sir Winston’s 144th birthday, 30 November 2018 (Part 2). We were kindly hosted at Earnscliffe by the British High Commissioner, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque.

Churchill and the Perspective of History 144 Years On

Continued from Part 1…. Do you want the good news or the bad news on Churchill today? The bad news is the high level of ignorance, as measured by that electronic Hyde Park Speaker’s Corner, the Internet.

Churchill’s name elicits 100 million Google hits, a colleague says, “Some are questions, many of which simply require the answer ‘No’—such as: ‘Was Churchill anti-Semitic?…

“Churchill: The End of Glory” by John Charmley

11 September 2018 Comments 0 Comments

Q: I have just been given a copy of Churchill: The End of Glory, A Political Biography by John Charmley (1993) and am obliged to say that it has the most confused index I have ever come across. It may be idle scholarship on my part but when I open a book that is new to me the first thing that I do is look through the index to see if it contains matters that I consider it should and the next thing I check is the bibliography. I looked for Singapore and its British commander, Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival but could not find any mentions. …