Winston S. Churchiill Archives - Richard M. Langworth

How Olaf Stapledon Inspired Churchill’s Vision

25 October 2024

Of Stapledon’s “Last and First Men” Churchill wrote: “A race of beings was evolved which had mastered nature. A state was created whose citizens lived as long as they chose, enjoyed pleasures and sympathies incomparably wider than our own, navigated the interplanetary spaces, could recall the panorama of the past and foresee the future.” But “without an equal growth of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love, Science herself may destroy all that makes human life majestic and tolerable....”

Read More Read More

Teapot Tempest: DeSantis Misquote Goes Viral

25 January 2024

Note! This post falls under the title "pedantry." As I said when Politifact asked: Who cares? Many fake Churchill quotes like Governor DeSantis uttered are honorable things for anyone to have said, and Churchill said many things like them. We like to keep the record straight, and we will keep doing the job of verifying. But these are not big questions, of which there are plenty. RML

Read More Read More

Winston Churchill’s Tests of Freedom: Then and Now

10 January 2024

"These simple, practical tests, are some of the title-deeds on which a new Italy could be founded." Think of the years of experience, thought, and hard political lessons that went into those basic tenets. How Churchill expressed them in only 201 words, mostly of one or two syllables. How little they are thought of today, when we try to describe certain nations as free countries.

Read More Read More

Williams on Her Majesty and Churchill: Get It Right

10 September 2023

A beautiful tribute to The Queen and Winston Churchill—only a click away—is by David Dilks. This book reminded me of it. Not because it is related to what Dr. Dilks wrote, but because it should have been. A good, short appreciation of their relationship, now that the last page has been turned for both, is needed. This paperback leaves us waiting.

Read More Read More

President John F. Kennedy signs a proclamation declaring Sir Winston an honorary US citizen, Oval Office, 9 April 1963. L-R: possibly Kay Halle, who had much to do with it; unidentified; Rep. Frances P. Bolton (R.-Oh.); Sen. Olin D. Johnston (D.-S.C.); Sylvia Ormsby-Gore: British Ambassador David Ormsby-Gore; Rep. Michael A. Feighan (D.-Oh.); Sen. J. William Fulbright (D.-Ark.); Rep. Carl Vinson (D.-Ga.); Sen. Leverett Saltonstall (R.-Mass.). (JFK Library, public domain)

Churchill Meets JFK, 1958: “He thought you were a waiter, Jack”

25 April 2023

Churchill rarely nursed a grudge. Though Joe Kennedy had upset him with defeatism when the war began, he quickly forgot. He sent condolences and flowers to the funeral of Kathleen Kennedy in 1948 and admired JFK from what he read about the young man and mutual acquaintances. He was anxious to meet Jack in 1959.

Read More Read More

Martin on Churchill: No One Left Without Feeling a Braver Man

31 March 2022

In May 1940 Stanley Bruce argued for a peace settlement with Hitler. Churchill struck out this paragraph, and wrote in the margin: “No.” Next, Bruce wrote that “the further shedding of blood and the continuance of hideous suffering is unnecessary.” Churchill wrote: “Rot."

Read More Read More

Churchillian Phrases: “Special Relationship” and “Iron Curtain”

4 September 2019

"Iron Curtain" has been tracked back to Martin Luther in a 1521 essay, “Concerning the Letter and the Spirit.” The relevant passage is as follows: “The letter [law] does not allow anyone to stand before his wrath. The Spirit does not allow anyone to perish before his grace. Oh, this is such an overwhelming affair that one could talk about it endlessly! But the pope and human law have hidden it from us and have put up an iron curtain in front of it."

Read More Read More

“Rascals, Rogues and Freebooters”: Churchill and India

22 July 2017

“Rascals, Rogues and Freebooters”

“Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low calibre & men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles.”

The statement above is attributed to Churchill. I cannot find it, as a speech or in a book. Although it is widely and increasingly quoted in the Indian press and, given what is happening, he seems to have been prophetic! —K.P., India

This post has the distinction of engendering the most comment among the 500 on my website.…

Read More Read More

Dardanelles-Gallipoli Centenary

25 April 2015

The original idea for forcing the Dardanaelles was not proposed by Churchill, who initially doubted it. His First Sea Lord, Fisher, who later deserted him, at first supported it. Churchill was First Lord not “Lord” of the Admiralty; Prime Minister Asquith was not at that time a Lord. The landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula were not originally part of the plan.

Read More Read More

Churchill’s Funeral, 50 Years On: His Words Still Call to Us

26 January 2015

In the time since his funeral I learned that Churchill’s life and thought—the eerie relevancy of his challenges and experiences—still call to us across the years. There will always be scoffers, who portray him as an anachronism. “In doing so, it is they who are the losers,” Martin Gilbert concluded, “for he was a man of quality: a good guide for our troubled present, and for the generations now reaching adulthood.”

Read More Read More