Lord Randolph Churchill Archives - Page 2 of 8

Churchill’s Racist Epithets are Remarkably Rare (Hearsay doesn’t Count)

3 August 2020 Comments 0 Comments

Extracted from “Hearsay Doesn’t Count: The Truth about Churchill’s ‘Racist Epithets,'” for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. For the original article, please click here. Readers please note: a footnoted version of this article will be published this year in a Hillsdale journal of Churchill Studies.

Epithets and expressions

In recent weeks Winston Churchill has become a target of ignorance. “Racist,” read the spray-painted label of the mob on his London statue. He should be knocked from perch, plinth and prominence. Some historians claim he used all the racist epithets we abhor, from the n-word to nationalities: “As the great tribal leader of 1940,” read one account, “his glorious speeches were peppered with references to the British race.”…

“American Jennie” and Other Books on Lady Randolph Churchill

29 May 2020 Comments 4 Comments

A reader requests recommendations for good books about Sir Winston’s mother, Lady Randolph Churchill (1854-1921). The most rounded and thoroughly sourced is Anne Sebba’s American Jennie (2007). Barbara Langworth published a thorough review and analysis of Jennie’s many accomplishments, below. Scroll to the end for a Bibliography and commentary on other books about Lady Randolph. RML

Barbara F. Langworth: The Right Parent Survived

Jennie Churchill: Winston’s American Mother, by Anne Sebba (London, Murray, 2007). American Jennie: The Remarkable Life of Lady Randolph Churchill), (New York: Norton, 2007).

It may seem a new story to many readers, since the previous biographies of Lady Randolph Churchill date back up to eight decades.…

Churchill’s Inspirations Bedizen the Pages of History

13 April 2020 Comments 3 Comments

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.…