Churchill: A Study in Failure, 1900-1939

by Robert Rhodes James

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000BO1KMC
• ISBN13: 8601405404022
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: The World Publishing Publishing Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.88 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Look at the "Unknown Churchill"

In late July 1945, during the Big Three conference in Potsdam, outside observers (which in this instance would include participant J. Stalin, who had a minimal understanding of the vagaries of electoral politics as practiced by his wartime allies) were astonished to see Winston Churchill replaced by the Labor Party's Clement Atlee. After all, in many European and American minds Churchill was esteemed as the personification of the spirit of resistance to the menacing early victories of Hitler's armies and was thought be the indispensable diplomatic link between the Anglo-American and the Russian sides of the alliance. To this way of thinking the man who had shepherded his nation through the war might be thought to be the man who should lead it during the difficult post-war negotiations. But not so in Britain, where, a scant two months after VE day, there was a strong expectation that he would lose the Premiership, based on an even stronger desire of war-weary Britons for long-deferred changes in social and economic life that were unlikely to be introduced or advocated by a Conservative like Churchill. And, in the broader context of what his countrymen (including his fellow politicians) knew of Churchill's career before the Second World War, this reversal of fortune in 1945 was not surprising. It is this "unknown Churchill" (unknown to the outside world) who is the subject of R.R. James's biography - the Churchill who rose and fell through a succession of middling and high offices and who was often the contentious odd man out in each of the parties he belonged to (Conservative, Liberal, and Conservative in that order). While touching unavoidably on Churchill's personality and fixed ideas (ebullient, erratic, self-centered, grandiose at times, broadly tolerant socially and culturally while skeptical of many democratic political trends, a booster of British Imperialism once and forever), James writes primarily of Churchill's political life, pointing out that the man conceived himself as a lifelong professional politician, a calling of which he was proud. Churchill's other achievements - soldier-adventurer, author (as journalist, novelist, and historian), amateur painter and mason - were products of his need to support himself in a certain style or were undertaken as avocations that allowed him to relax or let off steam. His colleagues knew that The Great Statesman of 1940-45 was a final efflorescence of the always diligent and often "rogue" politician of 1900-1939. During the last ten years of this period, while a Parliamentarian capable of organizing a small but dedicated group of co-believers and dissenters, he was often an isolated voice crying in the wilderness, ignored by Baldwin's, then Chamberlain's factions within the Conservative Party. This was true for many areas of domestic and foreign policy, and not just for his warnings about the increasing danger of Hitler. (Like many European conservatives, Churchill had earlier made

Before the glory, he was just a reckless blowhard...

An excellent analysis of Churchill's life, based on the premise that if his career had ended in 1939, it would have been a litany of failure, failure, failure. James's book starts with a thumbnail sketch of Churchill's father (another spectacular failure), then traces Winston's march through the first half of the 20th century. He bolted from one parliamentary caucus to another, making enemies in all corners; he sent thousands to their deaths at the Dardanelles fiasco; eventually, he was outcast and ignored through most of the 1930's. James writes in fine style, though it is sometimes a little too aloof, preventing a closer relationship between the reader and Churchill. However, the book is an excellent overall look at the Churchill most people don't focus on (ie. his first FORTY YEARS in parliament). Worth getting if you can find it.