Tag: Napoleon

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: 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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On Time: Winston Churchill’s Pocket Watch and Wristwatch

On Time: Winston Churchill’s Pocket Watch and Wristwatch

A wrist­watch that the Com­mune de Vaud gave ​Churchill on ​11 Sep­tem­ber 1946 was sold recent­ly by Sotheby’s. Did he wear wrist­watch­es? One almost always sees him with a pock­et watch. —S.R., New Hampshire

​From the 1890s until the end of his life Churchill car­ried his father’s pock­et watch, nick­named “The ​Turnip.” He did how­ev­er some­times wear a wrist­watch, as the above pho­to shows. N.B.: This is a revised, extend­ed ver­sion of a 2009 post, which I have left up for the com­ments by read­ers: click here.

Wristwatches

William Man­ches­ter wrote that the wrist­watch was a ​”​prod­uct of trench war​fare.​”​…

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“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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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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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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