Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill
Term of office May 10, 1940 - 1945
Political party	Conservative Party
Preceded by	Neville Chamberlain
Succeeded by	Clement Attlee
Term of office 1950 - 1955
Preceded by	Clement Attlee
Succeeded by	Anthony Eden
Born	November 30, 1874 Blenheim
Died	January 24, 1965 Kensington
Religion	Anglican

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH (1874-1965), was a British politician who served as the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for most of the Second World War and again from 1951-55.

Churchill was a leader of the Liberal Party before it collapsed in the 1920s; then he rejoined the Conservative Party. Although he supported the beginning of the welfare state around 1910, he was temperamentally and culturally a conservative, and though in his youth a liberal socially, soon became a conservative as the liberals ramped up criticism of the empire. He became a leading opponent of socialism after 1945, as well as an opponent of Gandhi's movement for the independence of India after 1930. Winston Churchill was racist against Indians and Hindus. When Leopold Amery the British secretary of state, told him that rotting corpses lined the streets of Calcutta, Winston Churchill by saying, "I hate Indians." "They are a beastly people with a beastly religion."^[1] He was one of the few leaders to achieve high office in both World Wars and to write profusely about his experiences.

Throughout Churchill's career he was pro-business and opposed to labor unions.

“

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

”

Churchill was also an amateur landscape painter and pilot, soldier, farmer, and even bricklayer. When he retired from the House of Commons in 1964, he had spent over six decades in public life, a career that ran from the 1890's Boer War to the nuclear age.

Career[edit]

Early life[edit]

Churchill was a younger son of the top aristocracy. He was born in 1874 to Lord Randolph Churchill and an American mother. Winston's father, Lord Randolph Churchill (1849–1895) was a third son of a poor English duke with a very famous family name; Randolph became a prominent Conservative politician. He married Jennie Jerome (1854–1921), the daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome. She was of colonial American stock of English ancestry and brought a dowry of £50,000. Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, the palace of the dukes of Marlborough. He had one brother, John Strange Churchill (1880–1947). Their parents' marriage faltered, in part because of Lord Randolph's debilitating disease (which resembled syphilis); Lady Randolph became notorious for her romantic attachments, becoming known as "Lady Jane Snatcher." She liked Winston, but largely ignored him.^[2] His mother later became his ardent ally, helping him achieve key assignments as a war reporter and smoothing his career in politics. The son idealized his always-absent mother. "She shone for me like the Evening Star," Churchill later wrote. "I loved her dearly—but at a distance."^[3]

Winston spent a typical upper-class childhood in the hands of nurses and headmasters at a succession of private schools from the age of eight. While he was no more neglected than most boys of his age and class, his sensitive nature suffered as a result of his parents' aloofness and he always regretted his failure to achieve a close relationship with his father, who died in 1895 at the age of only 45 and Winston was 21. Churchill rarely spoke with his father, who served as Secretary of state for India, Leader of the House and chancellor of the exchequer. However the son systematically adopted his father's ideas and political positions, and thereby became well known in political circles.

He entered Harrow School in 1888 with a track for the Army. Churchill had an independent and rebellious nature; he lacked self-discipline and displayed slovenly or unruly behavior. His grades were poor apart from English and history; he avoided team sports but was a fencing champion. His father did not think he was smart enough for Oxford, so he went to the military academy at Sandhurst in 1893. He excelled at tactics, fortifications and horsemanship, graduating twentieth out of a class of 130 in 1894; he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant cavalry officer in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, where he excelled at polo.

Military experience[edit]

Posted to Bangalore, India, in 1896, he ignored local conditions. His duties were done well before noon; apart from polo he did not socialize with his peers, who considered the slender, short, highly ambitious young man to be pushy, bumptious and not a proper gentleman. In 1902 the intellectual Beatrice Webb found him "egotistical, bumptious, shallow-minded and reactionary, but with a certain personal magnetism, great pluck and some originality, not of intellect but of character. More of the American speculator than the English aristocrat." ^[4] Churchill became an intellectual, as he immersed himself in the classics, devouring the works of Adam Smith, Gibbon, Macaulay, Hallam, Lecky, and Darwin. He carefully studied the parliamentary debates of the 1870s to 1890s, adding to them his own imaginary speeches. He never learned Latin or Greek so he fashioned a prose style modeled on the two finest writers among English historians, Gibbon and Macaulay. A book on the evolution of civilization that ridiculed Christianity^[5] led to his loss of religious faith; he believed in evolution and the inevitability of progress.

Between 1897 and 1900, with the aid of his mother's lobbying in London, Churchill fought in three imperial wars while doubling as a war correspondent and writing three books. In 1897 he joined three brigades in fighting a Pathan tribe. His lively account of the skirmishes proved he could write for the popular press; he received £5 per column from the Daily Telegraph and soon became the highest paid war correspondent in the world.

In late 1899 Churchill went to South Africa as a war correspondent to cover the Second Boer War; his salary was a remarkable £250 per month plus expenses. Caught in an ambush Churchill was captured and held in a POW camp in Pretoria; he escaped—an adventure that made him a minor national hero. He rejoined General Redvers Buller's army on its march to relieve Ladysmith and take Pretoria. Churchill was one of the first British troops into Ladysmith and Pretoria. In 1900, he published two books on the Boer war, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria^[6] and Ian Hamilton's March^[7]

Churchill's mother used her connections with the prince of Wales to get the her son assigned to the force commanded by Lord Kitchener for the reconquest of the Sudan. Churchill arrived just in time to join the cavalry charge at the battle of Omdurman (2 September 1898), in which his regiment galloped by accident into a ravine crammed with armed men. Churchill, who shot and killed at least three of the enemy, was cool, courageous and lucky.^[8] The Morning Post ran his stories, and the public snatched up his two-volume The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan (1899).^[9] It displayed a remarkably sympathetic history of the Sudanese revolt against Egyptian rule. A speaking tour of Britain, the U.S. and Canada in 1900 netted £10,000, proving the funding he needed for a political-literary career.^[10]

Early politics[edit]

In late 1900, Churchill was elected to Parliament as a Conservative. His independent nature soon saw him at odds with his party, and in 1904 he "crossed the floor" to the Liberals, who won a landslide election in early 1906. He served the Liberal government as President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary, where he helped pass social reform legislation that laid the foundations of the British welfare state.

When Herbert Henry Asquith became Prime Minister in 1908, Churchill was promoted to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade. Working closely with David Lloyd George he helped pass major social welfare legislation, called the "New Liberalism.". Churchill focused on the "Trade Boards Bill," a scheme to end the sweatshops in the garment industry; on labour exchanges, designed to reduce unemployment by making job searches easier; and unemployment insurance for 3 million workers in cyclical industries. He supported Lloyd George's highly controversial "People's Budget" of 1909-10 (with spending increase of 11% and multiple tax increases that especially targeted rich landowners), even as it caused a constitutional crisis with the House of Lords.^[11]

Churchill in 1910 denied that war with Germany was a threat and opposed the tripling of the warship budget proposed by the Admiralty.^[12] Churchill generally was on the winning side, though he was beaten on the warships.^[13]

In 1910, Churchill was promoted to Home Secretary. Regarding a dispute at the Cambrian Colliery coal mine in Tonypandy, initially Churchill blocked the use of troops fearing a repeat of the 1887 "bloody Sunday" in Trafalgar Square. Nevertheless, he deployed soldiers to protect the mines and to avoid riots when thirteen strikers were tried for minor offences, an action that broke the tradition of not involving the military in civil affairs and led to lingering dislike for Churchill in Wales.

In 1911, he became First Lord of the Admiralty (civilian head of the Royal Navy), working especially to complete the conversion of ships from coal to oil. Together with his two First Sea Lords, Prince Louis of Battenberg and Admiral Lord Fisher, Churchill promoted fast, powerful battleships and outproduced the Germans to maintain British naval supremacy. He founded the Naval Air Service, and made numerous visits to ships and navy bases, where he was admired for his efforts to improve conditions for officers and crews.

First World War[edit]

At Churchill's direction, the fleet was at its war station before war broke out in 1914, but it was never able to engage the Germans in a decisive early sea battle. Churchill designed and supervised the Gallipoli campaign to force a route to Constantinople (now Istanbul). It was an unmitigated failure, and led to his removal from the Admiralty in May 1915. Reporting to his regiment in the trenches of Belgium, he was under fire for three months before returning to Parliament. In 1917, he was appointed Minister of Munitions and in 1919, Secretary for War and Air. He wrote a major 4-volume history of the war that added to his literary reputation.

1920s[edit]

As Colonial Secretary in 1921-22, he advocated the dropping of poison gas on rebellious tribes of Iraqi Arabs [2] and during this period Churchill enjoyed two notable diplomatic achievements. At the 1921 Cairo conference, he helped establish the borders of the modern Middle East, though he failed in his attempt to set up a Kurdish homeland "to protect the Kurds against some future bully in Iraq." Closer to home, he helped to forge the Irish Treaty, which kept the peace in Ireland for 50 years. Michael Collins, the IRA revolutionary with whom Churchill negotiated, said from his deathbed: "Tell Winston we could have done nothing without him."

In 1924, Churchill rejoined the Conservatives, serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer through spring 1929. He returned Britain to the gold standard and ran a government newspaper, The British Gazette, during the general strike of 1926, and is still remembered in South Wales as the politician who sent tanks onto the streets to force striking miners back to work.

Political exile in 1930s[edit]

He became increasingly separated from the Conservatives in the 1930s, first over the plan to grant India dominion status; later over Britain's slow rearmament in the face of Hitler's aggression; and finally when he championed King Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936.

Second World War[edit]

Not until war had broken out again in 1939 was he asked to rejoin the Government, again becoming First Lord of the Admiralty, which according to legend, signaled to its ships: "Winston is Back." He renewed his energetic naval policies but was repulsed in an attempt to wrest Norway from the invading Germans in April 1940, having first had to drop ambitious plans to invade neutral Sweden.

With the Nazi blitzkrieg pouring into the Low Countries in May, 1940, The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned and Churchill was appointed Prime Minister as head of in an all-party coalition government with Labour and the Liberals. Although Britain continued to be defeated elsewhere, in the Battle of Britain the German Air Force was unable to gain the air superiority required for an invasion of Britain. In those months, as Edward R. Murrow said, "he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." Some of Churchill's most famous speeches were given at this time. The Germans turned their attention east, to their ally the Soviet Union.

After Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Churchill saw the chance to defeat Hitler using Soviet manpower. He vowed to help the Soviets, declaring, "If Hitler invaded hell I would at least make a favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons."

By 1940 Churchill had developed close ties with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he secured American military aid and financial support, but his ultimate goal was to have America fighting at Britain's side. Together they proclaimed the "Atlantic Charter" in 1941. The U.S. became the "Arsenal of Democracy," using Lend Lease to send $50 billion in military supplies to the Allies; most went to Britain, which in turn sent munitions to Russia.^[14] When the United States declared war after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, Churchill admitted that he "slept the sleep of the saved and the thankful."

Europe was the centre of his attention; the Australians complained about his neglect of their interests (and turned to the U.S. for protection). Recalling the horrible death tolls of 1914-1918, he was reluctant to invade France, proposing instead invasions of North Africa and Italy (which took place in 1942-43) and the Balkans (which did not happen). Churchill strongly supported the strategic air campaign that bombed enemy cities, railyards and oil refineries. He worked very well with Dwight D. Eisenhower, the American general in overall command of the invasion of France that was launched successfully in June 1944. Despite complaints by senior generals and admirals that Churchill interfered too much in military matters, he was successful in balancing the economic, manpower, diplomatic, psychological and military dimensions of the war.

Defeat in 1945[edit]

Churchill was disappointed by the failure to control an expansionist Soviet Union toward the end of the war, and watched with mounting concern another totalitarian state rise dominant in Europe. To the amazement of many outside Britain, his party was routed in the 1945 general election and he became Leader of the Opposition. His famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Fulton, Missouri, in 1946 was the opening salvo and warning of the Cold War, unpopular at the time but later considered prophetic. In 1949, he predicted the demise of Communism, "ignited by a spark coming from God knows where, and in a moment the whole system of lies and oppression is on trial for its life."

Return in 1951[edit]

In 1951 the Conservatives regained an electoral majority and Churchill became prime minister again, but he was disappointed in his effort to achieve a peaceful settlement of Cold War antagonisms, and his domestic record was indifferent. He became a Knight of the Garter, acquiring the title "Sir Winston" in 1953.

Suffering from age and poor health, he retired in April 1955, but remained a Member of Parliament for another nine years. He declined a peerage in order to remain in Commons. In 1963 he was declared an Honorary Citizen of the United States by President John F. Kennedy. He died at age 90 on January 24, 1965,^[15] a remarkable longevity suggesting that he was not really the heavy lifelong drinker of alcohol as some of his contemporaries asserted about him.^[16]

Churchill as historian[edit]

Churchill was a prolific historian with a lively style and a very wide audience who authored his books under the pen name "Winston S. Churchill." He won the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature, bestowed for his numerous books on history, biography and politics. His greatest biography was Marlborough (4 volumes, 1933–38); his best-known historical work was A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (4 volumes, 1956-1958). His personal memoirs, My Early Life (1930), The World Crisis (5 volumes, 1923–31) and The Second World War (6 volumes, 1948–53) are readable personal accounts of his Victorian youth and the two world wars. In all, Churchill wrote over 40 titles in over 60 volumes, nearly 1,000 articles and uncounted speeches. Having an immense vocabulary, Churchill is estimated to have used 45,000 to 60,000 different words in his works, which exceeded that of even Shakespeare.

Churchill wrote Lord Randolph Churchill, a two-volume biography of his father which was published in 1906 and received much critical acclaim. Some historians suggest Churchill used the book in part to vindicate his own career and in particular to justify crossing the floor.^[17] His The World Crisis (six volumes, 1923–31) was a broad-scale history of the First World War, with Churchill never far offstage. His greatest work was, The Second World War (six volumes, 1948–53), using secret papers not available to other for many years; he did not reveal the prime secret of breaking the German codes (which was revealed in the early 1970s). Churchill's highly detailed narrative structured much of the historiography for the first decade or two after the war, especially in his analysis and denunciation of the appeasement policy of the late 1930s.^[18]

Evaluation[edit]

Asked to summarize Churchill in one sentence, his biographer Martin Gilbert said: "He was a great humanitarian who was himself distressed that the accidents of history gave him his greatest power at a time when everything had to be focused on defending the country from destruction, rather than achieving his goals of a fairer society."

To Martin Gilbert also we owe these last lines from Sir Winston's biography: "When at last his life's great impulses were fading, Churchill's daughter Mary paid him perhaps the most eloquent tribute of all: 'In addition to all the feelings a daughter has for a loving, generous father, I owe you what every Englishman, woman & child does--Liberty itself.'"

Margot Asquith said it was not his mind or uneven judgment Britons respected but rather "his courage and colour — his amazing mixture of industry and enterprise." "He never shirks, hedges or protects himself; he takes huge risks."^[19]

Famous Quotes[edit]

• Churchill wrote, "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

• "There are two places where socialism will work, in heaven where it is not needed, and in hell where they already have it."

• “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.”

• "The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is."

• "Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world." (1899)

• Winston Churchill, election broadcast (May, 1945) "I must tell you that a socialist policy is abhorrent to British ideas on freedom. There is to be one State, to which all are to be obedient in every act of their lives. This State, once in power, will prescribe for everyone: where they are to work, what they are to work at, where they may go and what they may say, what views they are to hold, where their wives are to queue up for the State ration, and what education their children are to receive. A socialist state could not afford to suffer opposition - no socialist system can be established without a political police. They (the Labour government) would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo."

• "Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

• "Delight in smooth-sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts, desire for popularity and electoral success irrespective of the vital interests of the State, genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation, obvious lack of intellectual vigor in both leaders of the British coalition government,… the strong and violent pacifism which at this time dominated the Labour-Socialist Party, the utter devotion of the Liberals to sentiment apart from reality … constituted a picture of British fatuity and fecklessness which, though devoid of guile, was not devoid of guilt, and, though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries which even so far as they have unfolded, are already beyond comparison in human experience." (Referring to Britain's culpability in the rise of Hitler's Germany and its results.) ^[20]

• "Winston, if I were married to you I'd put poison in your coffee"...."Nancy, if I were married to you I'd drink it." (Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, b.1879, speaking to Sir Winston, and his reply, this occurred during a weekend house party at Blenheim Palace in the early 1930's)

• "If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."^[21]

• "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realized; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."[3]

• The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist" -- Winston Churchill, November 21, 1943.

• We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender! Speech in the House of Commons, 4 June 1940, following the evacuation of British and French armies from Dunkirk, as the German tide swept through France.[4]

• What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may more forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their Finest Hour." Speech in the House of Commons, 18 June 1940, following the collapse of France. Many thought Britain would follow. [5]

• The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. Tribute to the Royal Air Force, House of Commons, 20 August 1940. He had worked out the phrase about "The Few" in his mind as he visited the Fighter Command airfields in Southern England. [6]

• "To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day."

• "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome." - The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan^[22]

Though possibly apocryphal, Churchill has been credited by some for the following quotation:

“

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.[23]

”

Alcoholism[edit]

Winston Churchill was an alcoholic who was extremely lucky to live to the age of 90, as the addiction shortens lifespan by an average of 25 years.^[24] In 1936, Churchill had accumulated a tab with his wine merchant that amounts to an equivalent of $75,000 today. After becoming Prime Minister in 1940, Churchill refused to cut down on his alcohol consumption. Lunch and Dinner were always accompanied by brandy and champagne and he at all times throughout the day, had a glass of whiskey by his side. According to Churchill's private secretary, Jock Colville, he'd kick off his day with a "daily whiskey mouthwash." ^[25]

Views about Darwinian Evolution[edit]

As a Brit, Churchill wrote an unpublished essay in 1939 which accepted Darwin's theory of evolution.^[26] But that was before World War II and the ravages caused by the racist "survival of the fittest" mentality. It is unknown what Churchill's post-war views of evolution were.

See also[edit]

• Yalta conference
• Charles de Gaulle
• Franklin D. Roosevelt

Bibliography[edit]

Biographies[edit]

• Addison, Paul. "Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer (1874–1965)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online
• Addison, Paul. Churchill: The Unexpected Hero. (2005). 320 pp. excerpt and text search
• Best, Geoffrey. Churchill: A Study in Greatness (2003), 400pp; very well received biography
• Blake, Robert. Winston Churchill. Pocket Biographies (1997), 110 pages
• Charmley, John. Churchill, The End of Glory: A Political Biography (1993). revisionist; favors Chamberlain; says Churchill weakened Britain
• D'Este, Carlo. Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874-1945 (2008), stresses his many military roles.
• Gilbert, Martin. Churchill: A Life (1992); one volume version of 8-volume life (8900 pp); amazing detail but as Rasor complains, "no background, no context, no comment, no analysis, no judgments, no evaluation, and no insights." excerpt and text search
• Heywood, Samantha. Churchill (2003) 162 pp, online edition
• James, Robert Rhodes. Churchill: A Study in Failure, 1900-1939 (1970), 400 pp.
• Jenkins, Roy. Churchill: A Biography (2001), 1000 pp; strong on Parliamentary roles excerpt and text search
• Keegan, John. Winston Churchill (2002) 208 pp online excerpt
• Manchester, William. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory 1874-1932, 1983; vol 2 is The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940, 1988,; no more published excerpt and text search
• Pelling, Henry. Winston Churchill (1974), 736pp; comprehensive biography
• Rose, Norman. Churchill: An Unruly Life (1994), full-length biography excerpt and text search
• Wrigley, Chris. Winston Churchill: A Biographical Companion. ABC-CLIO, 2002. 367 pp.; online at some libraries

Specialized studies[edit]

• Addison, Paul. Churchill on the Home Front 1900-1955 (1992)
• Ball, Stuart. "Churchill and the Conservative Party," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6th Ser., Vol. 11 (2001), pp. 307–330 in JSTOR
• Bell, Christopher M. "Winston Churchill, Pacific Security, and the Limits of British Power, 1921-41," in John H. Maurer, ed. Churchill and Strategic Dilemmas before the World Wars (2003) pp 51–120 online edition
• Ben-Moshe, Tuvia. Churchill, Strategy and History. 1992, covers world wars online edition
• Beschloss, Michael R. The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945 (2002) excerpt and text search
• Best, Geoffrey. Churchill and War. 2005. 353 pp.
• Blake, Robert and Louis William Roger, eds. Churchill: A Major New Reassessment of His Life in Peace and War Oxford UP, 1992, 581 pp; 29 essays by scholars on specialized topics online edition
• Callahan, Raymond. Churchill and His Generals, (2007) 310pp
• Cannadine, David. "Churchill and the British Monarchy," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6th Ser., Vol. 11 (2001), pp. 249–272 in JSTOR
• Charmley, John. Churchill's Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940-57 (1996)
• Charmley, John. "Churchill and the American Alliance," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6th Ser., Vol. 11 (2001), pp. 353–371 in JSTOR
• Danchev, Alex. "'Dilly-Dally', or Having the Last Word: Field Marshal Sir John Dill and Prime Minister Winston Churchill," Journal of Contemporary History Vol. 22, No. 1 (Jan., 1987), pp. 21–44 in JSTOR
• Delaney, Douglas E. "Churchill and the Mediterranean Strategy: December 1941 to January 1943." Defence Studies 2002 2(3): 1-26. Issn: 1470-2436 Fulltext: in Ebsco
• Gilbert, Martin. Churchill and America 2005. 352 pp.
• Gorodetsky, Gabriel. "The Origins of the Cold War: Stalin, Churchill and the Formation of the Grand Alliance," Russian Review Vol. 47, No. 2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 145–170 in JSTOR 7
• Jablonsky, David. "Churchill and Technology," in John H. Maurer, ed. Churchill and Strategic Dilemmas before the World Wars (2003) pp 121–158 online edition
• Keegan, John, ed. Churchill's Generals (1991) 17 essays by experts
• Kersaudy, François. Churchill and De Gaulle 1981
• Kimball, Warren. Forged in war: Churchill, Roosevelt and the Second World War (1997)
• Lambakis, Steven James. Winston Churchill, Architect of Peace: A Study of Statesmanship and the Cold War (1994) 194 pp. online edition
• Larres, Klaus. Churchill's Cold War: The Politics of Personal Diplomacy. Yale U. Press, 2002. 569 pp.
• Lawlor, Sheila. Churchill and the politics of war, 1940–1941 (1993)
• Lewin, Ronald. Churchill as warlord (1973)
• Lukacs, John. Churchill: Visionary, Statesman, Historian 2002. 202pp, interpretive essays
• Marder, Arthur. Winston is back: Churchill at the admiralty, 1939–1940 (1973)
• Massie, Robert Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War; ch 40-41 on Churchill at Admiralty
• Maurer, John H. "The 'Ever-Present Danger': Winston Churchill's Assessment of the German Naval Challenge before the First World War" in John H. Maurer, ed. Churchill and Strategic Dilemmas before the World Wars (2003) pp 7–50 online edition
• Miner, Steven Merritt. Between Churchill and Stalin: The Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the Origins of the Grand Alliance (1988) online edition
• Parker, R. A. C. ed. Winston Churchill: studies in statesmanship (1995), scholarly studies
• Parker, R. A. C. Churchill and appeasement (2000)
• Wrigley, Chris. "Churchill and the Trade Unions," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6th Ser., Vol. 11 (2001), pp. 273–293 in JSTOR
• Young, John W. Winston Churchill's Last Campaign: Britain and the Cold War, 1951-5 1996 online edition
• Young, John W. "Churchill and East-West Detente," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6th Ser., Vol. 11 (2001), pp. 373–392 in JSTOR

Historiography[edit]

• Ashley, Maurice. "Churchill and History," International Affairs Vol. 42, No. 1. (Jan., 1966), pp. 87–94. in JSTOR, Churchill as author
• Ramsden, John. Man of the Century: Winston Churchill and His Legend since 1945. Columbia U. Press, 2003. 672 pp.
• Rasor, Eugene L. Winston S. Churchill, 1874-1965: A Comprehensive Historiography and Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Press. 2000. 710 pp. describes several thousand books and scholarly articles. online edition
• Reynolds, David. In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War. 2005. 631 pp.
• Reynolds, David. "Churchill's writing of history: appeasement, autobiography and The Gathering Storm", Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 11 (2001), 221–48 online edition
• Stansky, Peter, ed. Churchill: A Profile 1973, 270 pp. essays for and against Churchill by leading scholars
• Wood, Ian S. Churchill 2000. 209pp evaluates numerous studies

Primary sources[edit]

• Churchill, Winston. Lord Randolph Churchill (1906) online edition
• Churchill, Winston. The World Crisis (six volumes, 1923–31), 1-vol edition (2005); on World War I. Vol. I, 1911-1914; Vol. II, 1915; Vol. III, 1916-1918 Part I; Vol. IV, 1916-1918 Part II; and Vol. V: The Aftermath.
• Churchill, Winston. The Second World War (six volumes, 1948–53); Vol. I, The Gathering Storm; Vol. II, Their Finest Hour; Vol. III, The Grand Alliance; Vol. IV, The Hinge of Fate; Vol. V, Closing the Ring; and Vol. VI, Triumph and Tragedy; excerpt and text search from 1-vol. abridged edition (1991); excerpt and text search complete edition
• Churchill, Winston. Lord Randolph Churchill (1907) online edition, biography of his father
• Gilbert, Martin, ed. Winston S. Churchill: Companion 15 vol (14,000 pages) of Churchill and other official and unofficial documents. Part 1: I. Youth, 1874-1900, 1966, 654 pp. (2 vol); II. Young Statesman, 1901-1914, 1967, 796 pp. (3 vol); III. The Challenge of War, 1914-1916, 1971, 1024 pp. (3 vol); IV. The Stricken World, 1916-1922, 1975, 984 pp. (2 vol); Part 2: The Prophet of Truth, 1923-1939, 1977, 1195 pp. (3 vol); II. Finest Hour, 1939-1941, 1983, 1328 pp. (2 vol entitled The Churchill War Papers); III. Road to Victory, 1941-1945, 1986, 1437 pp. (not published, 4 volumes are anticipated); IV. Never Despair, 1945-1965, 1988, 1438 pp. (not published, 3 volumes anticipated, See the editor's memoir) Martin Gilbert, In Search of Churchill: A Historian's Journey, (1994).
• James, Robert Rhodes, ed. Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897-1963. 8 vols. London: Chelsea, 1974, 8917 pp.
• David Coombs, Sir Winston Churchill, His life through his paintings, Pegasus, 2003
• Winston Churchill. Victory: War Speeches by the Right Hon. Winston S. Churchill, (1946) online edition
• Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt and Churchill: Their Secret Wartime Correspondence ed by Francis L. Loewenheim, Harold D. Langley and Manfred Jonas (1975) 807 pgs online edition
• Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Churchill-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1953-1955 ed by Peter G. Boyle; University of North Carolina Press, 1990 online edition
• Winston Churchill and Harry S. Truman. Defending the West: The Truman-Churchill Correspondence, 1945-1960 ed by G. W. Sand; (2004) online edition

External links[edit]

• Churchill College Biography of Winston Churchill
• Books written by Churchill
• online Winston S. Churchill, "Churchill's American Heritage , essay by his grandson
• Imperial War Museum: Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. Comprising the original underground War Rooms perfectly preserved since 1945, from which Churchill ran the War, including the Cabinet Room, the Map Room and Churchill's bedroom, and the new Museum dedicated to Churchill's life.
• Winston Churchill Chronology World History Database
• Churchill Archives Centre, based at Churchill College, Cambridge
• Churchill and the Great Republic. WC'a lifelong relationship with the United States.
• documents edited by the National Library of Scotland
• Audio about the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri from the Speaking of History podcast #17 - site also includes video slideshow of the museum
• War Cabinet Minutes (1942 - 42), (1942 - 43), (1945 - 46), (1946 - 46)
• MCE European Navigator European Union History tool, contains a number of Churchill recordings etc.
• Works by Winston S. Churchill - text and free audio - LibriVox

Speeches[edit]

• http://www.churchill-speeches.com/
• Audio of Churchill's "finest hour" speech
• Timeline of the Spencer-Churchill family
• Winston Churchill Audio Soundboard

Notes[edit]

1. ↑ https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3005838/churchills-real-darkest-hour-new-evidence-confirms-british
2. ↑ . H. L. Le May, "Churchill, Jeanette (Lady Randolph Churchill) (1854–1921)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004; online
3. ↑ Jenkins, Churchill, p. 8
4. ↑ Jenkins, Churchill, p. 148
5. ↑ Winwood Reade Martyrdom of Man (1872)
6. ↑ online at
7. ↑ online at [1].
8. ↑ Over 30,000 Sudanese were killed, compared with 28 British soldiers.
9. ↑ online at
10. ↑ Churchill met Theodore Roosevelt; they resembled each other in many ways but never became friends.
11. ↑ Jenkins, Churchill 157-66; Bruce K. Murray, "The Politics of the 'People's Budget'" The Historical Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Sep., 1973), pp. 555-570 in JSTOR
12. ↑ Jenkins, Churchill, 154-56
13. ↑ Jenkins, Churchill, ch 8
14. ↑ Lend Lease was free and did not have to be repaid, although transport ships were to be returned after the war, and some were.
15. ↑ http://www.churchill.navy.mil/site pages/history.aspx
16. ↑ https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/myth-churchill-alcohol/
17. ↑ James, Churchill a study in failure p34-35
18. ↑ See Reynolds (2001) and Reynolds (2005)
19. ↑ quoted in David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace (2001) p. 54
20. ↑ Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: The gathering storm, p. 80
21. ↑ Jerry Bergman (2011). Slaughter of the Dissidents. Leafcutter Press, xi. ISBN 9780981873404. 
22. ↑ Winston Churchill on Islam, Snopes.com
23. ↑ https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/winston_churchill_105424
24. ↑ https://rehabadviser.com/blog/life-expectancy-of-alcoholics/
25. ↑ https://allthatsinteresting.com/winston-churchill-drinking
26. ↑ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/winston-churchills-thoughts-on-evolution/

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