Tag: Winston S. Churchill

Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (1)

Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (1)

Fate­ful Ques­tions, Sep­tem­ber 1943-April 1944, nine­teenth of the pro­ject­ed twen­ty-three doc­u­ment vol­umes, is reviewed by his­to­ri­an Andrew Roberts in Com­men­tary.

The vol­umes com­prise “every impor­tant doc­u­ment of any kind that con­cerns Churchill, and the present vol­ume is 2,752 pages long, rep­re­sent­ing an aver­age of more than eleven pages per day.” Order your copy from the Hills­dale Col­lege Book­store.

Here is an excerpt from my account, “Fresh His­to­ry,” which can be read in its entire­ty at the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project.

Fateful Questions: Excerpts

Fas­tid­i­ous­ly com­piled by the late Sir Mar­tin Gilbert and edit­ed by Dr.…

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Churchill Documents: The Italian Navy

Churchill Documents: The Italian Navy

Excerpt­ed from “The Ital­ian Navy in The Churchill Doc­u­ments, Vol­ume 19,” by Andrew Roberts. To read the full arti­cle, click here.

Fate­ful Ques­tions: Sep­tem­ber 1943 to April 1944, lat­est vol­ume in The Churchill Doc­u­ments, is avail­able from Hills­dale Col­lege Book­store. To order click here.

Andrew Roberts writes:

After the sur­ren­der of Italy to the Allies in Sep­tem­ber 1943, the Ital­ian Fleet was appor­tioned between the Allied pow­ers and absorbed into their navies. Although the Axis had by then been cleared out of the Mediter­ranean, the ships played a sig­nif­i­cant part in the rest of the war.…

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Churchill and Racism: Think a Little Deeper

Churchill and Racism: Think a Little Deeper

Q: Anoth­er new movie, A Unit­ed King­dom,  sad­dles Churchill with racism. It’s the sto­ry of Seretse Khama of the Bechua­na­land roy­al fam­i­ly and heir to the throne. After study­ing in Eng­land, he meets and mar­ries a British woman, Ruth Williams. The South African gov­ern­ment, which is adopt­ing Apartheid, is trou­bled by the inter­ra­cial mar­riage. It press­es the Attlee gov­ern­ment in Britain to exile Khama, which they do. Churchill is not a char­ac­ter in the film, but we are told that he sup­ports Khama and will restore him if Churchill’s par­ty wins the 1951 elec­tion.…

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“The Crown”: A Not So Crowning Achievement

“The Crown”: A Not So Crowning Achievement

The inaccuracies would be boring to catalogue. Is it really so big a deal? Not in itself. The trouble is, it advances ignorance. It's only drama, people will say. But as a result we will soon read on the web how Churchill’s stroke was kept from the Queen. How he "forced" the Royal Couple to move from Clarence House. And how he painted a scene repeatedly in his Black Dog of despair. Why do producers distort the past and expect people to believe it? Because most will? Because the screenwriter may appear at a Churchill event, praised for his achievement in selling a million copies?

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Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (2) Daimlers…

Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (2) Daimlers…

Hav­ing writ­ten about cars and Win­ston Churchill for fifty years, I final­ly pro­duced a piece on them both. From exot­i­ca like Daim­ler, Napi­er and Rolls-Royce to more pro­sa­ic makes like Austin, Hum­ber and Wolse­ley, the sto­ry was three decades in com­ing. I am sat­is­fied that it is now complete.

Part 2, con­tin­ued from Part 1: Excerpt only. For foot­notes,  all illus­tra­tions and a ros­ter of Churchill’s cars, see The Auto­mo­bile, (UK), August 2016. A pdf of the arti­cle is avail­able upon request: click here.

Wolseley to Austin

In the ear­ly 1930s Churchill switched from Wolse­ley to Austin cars: small fours and big six­es.…

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Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (1) Mors the Pity

Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (1) Mors the Pity

“You fool!” the policeman shouted. Then he “swore most richly for some seconds.” Churchill’s head hung. “He did have the civic sense to say he was sorry,” Thompson continued. “...the matchless voice of the man identified him at once to the constable.” ‘Sorry, Mr. Churchill,’ the policeman apologised. "Then the majesty of the constable’s office and the disgusting guilt of the violator brought forth, in gentle sarcasm, a caution that withered Churchill and kept him silent clear to the Channel. ‘Do try to stay in the road, sir.’”

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A.L. Rowse with Chartwell and Churchill, 1955

A.L. Rowse with Chartwell and Churchill, 1955

"I left in late afternoon. Beaverbrook was coming down to dine and spend the evening, till then he was going off to bed. Evening sun poured from the west into the front door, upon the flowers, the head of Roosevelt sculpted in wood, the aged bulky figure waving goodbye. I sank back exhausted in the lordly car, thrilled by it all, a last glimpse of the flag over Chartwell—and went back to Oxford to write it all down. It is only today, very many years after, that it occurs to me that he thought I would, and meant me to."

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Paris, 13 November 2015: A Churchill Moment for M. Hollande

Paris, 13 November 2015: A Churchill Moment for M. Hollande

“A Churchill Moment for M. Hol­lande” is excerpt­ed from my arti­cle in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor, 18 Novem­ber 2015.

Dear M. Hollande…

The news from France is very bad and I grieve for the gal­lant French peo­ple who have fall­en into this ter­ri­ble mis­for­tune. Noth­ing will alter our feel­ings towards them or our faith that the genius of France will rise again.  —Win­ston S. Churchill, 4 June 1940

On the 2015 Paris attacks: With every mur­der­ous threat to civ­i­liza­tion we are asked: “Where are our Churchills?” There isn’t one, and we should not expect one.…

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Hillsdale’s Online Churchill Course

Hillsdale’s Online Churchill Course

Hills­dale Col­lege offers a free, not-for-cred­it, online course, “Win­ston Churchill and States­man­ship.” The six-week course is taught by Hills­dale Col­lege Pres­i­dent Lar­ry P. Arnn. It exam­ines the life, lessons and lega­cy of Sir Win­ston. For fur­ther infor­ma­tion con­tact [email protected].

This course is part of the bat­tery of new pro­grams offered by The Churchill Project for the Study of States­man­ship, which I am hon­ored to serve as senior fel­low. I warm­ly rec­om­mend this illu­mi­nat­ing, stim­u­lat­ing, and above all accu­rate, free course because it’s a mini-edu­ca­tion on Churchill’s states­man­ship, con­duct­ed by an inde­fati­ga­ble schol­ar and a friend of forty years. …

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“Iran is Not Nazi Germany…

“Iran is Not Nazi Germany…

…And Mark Steyn is not Win­ston Churchill,” writes Tim Reuter in Forbes.

—a rather thought­ful piece, though a bit harsh on Mr. Steyn, who offered exact­ly the right take on Neville Cham­ber­lain. He was “an hon­or­able man who believed he was act­ing in the inter­est of his coun­try.” That was also how Churchill eulo­gized him after Chamberlain’s death in 1940.

It is reas­sur­ing to know that Iran is (thank good­ness) not Nazi Ger­many; and that the Iran nuclear deal and Munich are not anal­o­gous. But some of Mr. Reuter’s sen­tences rest uneasi­ly next to each other.…

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