Tag: Napoleon

John Churchill First Duke of Marlborough (mounted in red coat) at the Battle of Blenheim, 1704. (Painting by John Wootton, 1682-1764, National Army Museum, public domain)
Churchill’s Inspirations Bedizen the Pages of History

Churchill’s Inspirations Bedizen the Pages of History

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.…

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Liberties
Oblivious to it all: Lake Winnipesaukee, the “Swallow Boathouse,” Moulonborough, New Hampshire. (Photo by the author)
Liberties: Where will it end? A very good question.

Liberties: Where will it end? A very good question.

Liberties watch, 8 April 2020

…we must regard the next week or so as a very impor­tant peri­od in our his­to­ry. It ranks with the days when the Span­ish Arma­da was approach­ing the Chan­nel and Drake was fin­ish­ing his game of bowls; or when Nel­son stood between us and Napoleon‘s Grand Army at Boulogne. We have read all about this in the his­to­ry books, but what is hap­pen­ing now is on a far greater scale and of far more con­se­quence to the life and future of the world and its civil­i­sa­tion than these brave old days of the past.…

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Schama
Photograph by Walter Stoneman, 1940.
“Unswerving Moral Decency”: Churchill Remembered by Simon Schama

“Unswerving Moral Decency”: Churchill Remembered by Simon Schama

At a time when Churchill is under vio­lent and irra­tional attack, it is time for a ton­ic. One good anti­dote to it all  is an elo­quent essay by Simon Schama.

Years ago the Colum­bia his­to­ri­an reviewed, for The New Repub­lic, Mar­tin Gilbert‘s offi­cial biog­ra­phy Vol­ume VI, Finest Hour 1939-1941. It was, inci­den­tal­ly a fine trib­ute to Sir Mar­tin, whose epic biog­ra­phy Pro­fes­sor Schama chris­tened “The Churchilliad.”

What we should con­sid­er right now, though, are Schama’s ever­green words about Churchill. Mar­tin Gilbert’s vol­ume VI reach­es its apogee in May 1940—the very time com­mem­o­rat­ed by the movie Dark­est Hour.…

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Attlee
Churchill and Attlee, 1941.
Clement Attlee’s Noble Tribute to Winston Churchill

Clement Attlee’s Noble Tribute to Winston Churchill

My col­league Richard Cohen com­mends a eulo­gy to Churchill by the great Labour Par­ty leader Clement Attlee. It occurred in the House of Lords on 25 Jan­u­ary 1965, the day after Sir Win­ston died. It is notable for its fine words. More­over, it shows how their rela­tion­ship as col­leagues eclipsed that of polit­i­cal oppo­nents. At a time of great­ly strained rela­tions between the par­ties, on both sides of the pond, this is a thought­ful reminder that things could be different.

Attlee was the first prime min­is­ter of a social­ist gov­ern­ment with an out­right major­i­ty (1945-51).…

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Hitler essays
Churchill’s perceptive article about Hitler in The Strand Magazine, November 1935. (Ronald I. Cohen collection)
Nashville (5). The Myth that Churchill Admired Hitler

Nashville (5). The Myth that Churchill Admired Hitler

Part 5 of Win­ston Churchill, Myth and Real­i­ty exam­ines mul­ti­ply­ing fables between the two World Wars. Churchill was an alco­holic, we are often assured. He flip-flopped over Bol­she­vism. All Jews were com­mu­nists, he said. He despised Gand­hi. A clos­et fas­cist, he sup­port­ed Mus­soli­ni. But one tall tale per­haps eclipses all the oth­ers. It is the idea that Churchill admired Hitler. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from Part 4…

Judging Hitler

It is impor­tant to under­stand just how right Churchill was about Hitler. In May 1935 the Führer wrote a reveal­ing let­ter to the British news­pa­per mag­nate Esmond Harmsworth, Lord Rother­mere, one of his pro­mot­ers.…

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