All Things Churchill

Edited by Allen Packwood, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre and Fellow of Cambridge College, Cambridge, this fascinating and wide-ranging study presents the work of eighteen historians and their views on the controversial life and career of Winston Churchill. Each chapter, written by a different author, focuses closely on a very specific element of Churchill’s life, together addressing a broad variety of issues from his background, childhood, education and upbringing to his final fall from power and last years. Included are chapters devoted to his early military career, his experiences in the First World War, and the influence these had on his views about appeasement, on bombing campaigns, and on his activities as a war leader in World War II. Included are an examination of Churchill’s dealings with allies –notably with U.S. president Roosevelt and the “special relationship” between America and Britain - and with an international cast of characters and nations. Churchill’s views on India, and on Empire more broadly, are also discussed in detail and his views on race, on Ireland, on oratory and writing as are his less well-known opinions on social policy, art, and economics. Each of these chapters is deeply researched and based on well-established work informed and brought up-to-date by much of the most recent scholarly output. Each chapter is copiously footnoted and has a useful section on further reading.

What is frequently glossed over, and what to this reader is most unusual, is the chapter on the influence of Churchill’s wife Clementine. While is it often noted in passing, Clemmie had an enormous influence on her husband. Here that influence is spelled out in detail with specific examples and telling illustrations. This makes a very welcome addition to the usual “great man” treatment of Churchill and many of his peers.

If you thought you already knew a great deal about Winston Churchill, Allen Packwood and his colleagues are sure to surprise you with their depth of research and with information and perspectives you may never have considered before. This volume will reward even the most knowledgeable reader.

---///---

Our Reviewer: Prof Williams, former visiting professor at Annapolis, and Executive Director Emerita of The New York Military Affairs Symposium, is the author of several books on naval history and technology, including Secret Weapon: U.S. High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Battle of the Atlantic, Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea, The Measure of a Man: My Father, the Marine Corps, and Saipan, and most recently Painting War: George Plante's Combat Art in World War II. Prof Williams’ previous reviews include The Trident Deception, Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr., Churchill, Master and Commander, Admiral Hyman Rickover, Allied Air Operations, 1939-1940, Nimitz at War, Global Military Transformations, Great Naval Battles of the Pacific War, Fighting in the Dark: Naval Combat at Night, 1904-1939, Leyte Gulf: A New History of the World's Largest Sea Battle, Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II, and Delivering Destruction

---///---

Note: The Cambridge Companion to Winston Churchill is also available in hard cover & e-editions.

StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium

www.nymas.org