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Churchill

by: Paul Johnson
en | Viking Adult

0670021059  9780670021055 

Churchill
By Paul Johnson




Product Description:

An acclaimed historian presents a revelatory look at the greatest statesman of the twentieth century

For eminent historian Paul Johnson, Winston Churchill remains an enigma in need of unraveling. Soldier, parliamentarian, Prime Minister, orator, painter, writer, husband, and leader-all of these facets combine to make Churchill one of the most complex and fascinating personalities in history.

In Churchill, Johnson applies a wide lens and an unconventional approach to illuminate the various phases of Churchill's career. From his adventures as a young cavalry officer in the service of the Empire to his role as an elder statesman prophesying the advent of the Cold War, Johnson shows how Churchill's immense adaptability combined with his natural pugnacity to make him a formidable leader for the better part of a century. Johnson's narration of Churchill's many triumphs and setbacks, rich with anecdote and quotation, illustrates the man's humor, resilience, courage, and eccentricity as no other biography before.

Winston Churchill's hold on contemporary readers has never slackened, and Paul Johnson's lively, concise biography will appeal to historians and general nonfiction readers alike.




Summary: The most inspiring biography I read this year -- and just 192 pages!
Rating: 5

"Of all the towering figures of the twentieth century, both good and evil, Winston Churchill was the most valuable to humanity, and also the most likable. It is a joy to write his life, and to read about it. None holds more lessons, especially for youth: How to use a difficult childhood. How to seize eagerly on all opportunities, physical, moral and intellectual. How to dare greatly, to reinforce success, and to put the inevitable failures behind you. And how, while pursuing vaulting ambition with energy and relish, to cultivate also friendship, generosity, compassion and decency."

That's the opening paragraph of Paul Johnson's "Churchill", and if you appreciate clarity, authority and verve in historical writing, you will understand why I gulped down the next 190 pages and now declare it the most exciting biography I read in 2009.

I've studied Churchill; we all have. But the breadth of the man gets lost in a handful of anecdotes and film clips. Paul Johnson delivers the big picture and the tiny detail. So masterful is his approach, so sharp is his observation, so exacting his sense of detail that it's not hard to agree with his assessment --- Churchill saved the world as we know it.

And not Churchill the God, but Churchill the extremely interesting man. Johnson piles on the detail. Yes, Churchill drank whiskey or brandy all day --- "heavily diluted with water or soda." Yes, he stayed in bed as much as possible, for as he told Johnson (who interviewed him at the tender age of 17), the secret of life is "conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down."

As a young politician, Churchill was asked what he stood for. "Opportunism, mostly," he quipped. In fact, he was a liberal, and very progressive. Raised by a nanny, he helped her when her services were no longer needed, sat at her deathbed, kept her grave maintained. In 1910, he was a leader in the fight for old-age pensions. He saw the merits in prison reform: "The treatment of crime and criminals is one of the unfailing tests of the civilization of any country." He helped end the incarceration of children. He wrote 8 million words. He was under fire 50 times. He saw the need to overhaul the Royal Navy. His mother had more affairs than she could count; after he married Clementine, "he never looked at another woman." He painted so well that professionals couldn't believe he was an amateur. He championed the creation of Israel. He drank Pol Roger champagne at meals and smoked a dozen cigars a day. He played polo until he was 53. He loved building walls of brick.

It's a dizzying life. Eloquence, energy, ambition --- this Churchill was a force of nature. It is Johnson's great achievement in these pages that he also establishes Churchill as a colossal failure, who made serious mistakes and paid for them with long years in the wilderness. This only makes even more dramatic his ascendancy; at 65, with German bombers overhead, he finally became prime minister. "I was conscious of a profound sense of relief," he wrote later. "At last I had authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.... I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams."

The key fact: If Britain lost the war, it would lose its civilization. So the nation simply couldn't lose. The war years are thus the most thrilling years of all, and we see how Churchill was everywhere. Giving great speeches that roused a people under siege. Working 16 hours a day and inspiring others to do the same. And strategizing all the time --- manipulating Roosevelt, preparing for the battle of Germany, forcing Hitler to deal with Greece and postpone his invasion of Russia until the winter, with disastrous results for the Nazis.

The lessons to be learned couldn't be clearer. Churchill was armed with facts, not ideology. He had the right priorities, and in the right order. He repeatedly interrupted his schedule for well-publicized acts of kindness. He was ruthless in pursuit of victory. He held no grudges. He was, in short, a leader on a level we can hardly imagine now --- a protean figure who really did save the world.

If you have an evening reserved for thrills, here they are.



Summary: Another "purr" about a great lion
Rating: 3

Conservative historian Paul Johnson wears his ideology proudly on his sleeve in this often obsequious portrait of Winston Churchill as the immaculate saviour of Western Civilization and all that is good.

It's a standard conservative history: Great Men (and women) control events for the masses who are naught but humble lambs being led to the slaughter by leaders good or bad. People matter little except as fodder; a nation's greatness depends upon great leaders. Like all myths, there's an element of truth to this; like all myths, there's an element of myth.

The Germans in World War I succinctly summed up the British as "lions led by donkeys." True enough. The "lion" part explains why the British went to war in September 1939, despite being led by donkeys; in May 1940, the donkeys called Churchill to office to give the lion's roar to Britain, America and the world. As with Franklin Roosevelt and his "we have nothing to fear but feat itself" reassurance, it was the perfect match of man and people.

Based on that premise, Johnson has done a brief but serviceable job in describing the essential quality of Churchill as "a happy warrior" -- much the same term that fits Roosevelt. The greatness of Churchill and Roosevelt was made possible by the spirit of the people they led.

But he was not brilliant. The Dardanelles fiasco sums up Churchill's limits. In World War II, the British showed how vulnerable battleships are to air-launched torpedoes at Taranto, the Japanese copied this for their attack on Pearl Harbour. But Churchill allowed HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse to sail without air cover; both were promptly sunk by the Japanese. His fixation on the Mediterranean led to the long and costly Italian campaign.

Without Churchill, World War II would have been a Russian/American alliance with Britain in a role similar to France -- noisy, vain but ineffectual. After the war, Harry Truman was as astute as Churchill in summing up the motives and dangers of communism.

In brief, Churchill was simply the right man in the right place with the right ideas at the right time. Johnson sums up this fortunate happenstance with skill and lucidity. Personally, even if had Churchill been absent, I don't believe Britain and America would have succumbed meekly to Hitler. Perhaps I have more faith in the basic qualities of people.

In summary, Johnson presents the usual portrait of Churchill as great in leadership and personal qualities. For anyone interested in the past century, it is a good place to start. Johnson never fails to delight; his words engage anyone's mind but his ideas are too conventional to offer fresh insight.