I just finished working my way through a hefty set of volumes: Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
I read the Steele Commager one-volume abridgement a few years ago; I thought it was OK, but very much biased towards stuff of interest to a US audience. Also, I hadn't really grasped just how much got omitted when it was cut down from four volumes to one.
I also read Andrew Roberts' attempt at continuing the Churchill narrative beyond 1900. I'm afraid I can't recommend this very much. Roberts puzzles me: he is supposedly a doyen of modern right-of-centre history and he did some fantastic original source work for his Masters and Commanders - finding the unpublished (and supposedly destroyed) verbatim War Cabinet minutes from WW2.
However, it is evident from Masters and Commanders that whenever he gets into the military and technical detail of the subject, he commits enormous howlers. I have declined to buy his A Storm of War because all the reviews I've seen say that book is even worse. And there are all sorts of problems in his English-Speaking Peoples: a weak and contorted attempt at explaining the underlying thesis, apparently random choice of topics, repetition - sometimes the thing feels like it was written on a number of plane or train journeys, and no-one's bothered to edit it together.
That said, on reading it I did learn a few things abou
t Australian, Canadian and New Zealand history which I didn't know. However I'm left wondering if the context of this stuff is remotely accurate!
But now I've got round to reading the whole of WSC's opus in full. Found it in a local charity bookshop. (Sadly, my set isn't quite in the condition of the one pictured, and isn't signed. Otherwise it would be worth a substantial sum.)
Now I am fully aware that as a historian, Winnie comes with a few health warnings. Factual accuracy is not always guaranteed, especially when he's dealing with his own actions, his father (Lord Randolph Churchill) or his hero-ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.
But the old boy could certainly write. Orotund phrases combined with sharp insight - it's a winning combination.
One thing shone out clearly for me: the fact that this United Kingdom of ours has been down, out and on its uppers quite a few times in the past 300 years, and it has always bounced back.
So there's no reason not to expect that we will do so again. In fact on the basic demographic trends, the UK is forecast to become the most populous EU Member State in the not-too-distant future (unless, of course, Turkey is ever let in). That also means a much more healthy age structure and a better foundation for a growing economy.
It's always been worthwhile being British, and despite everything, it looks like it always will be.
I read the Steele Commager one-volume abridgement a few years ago; I thought it was OK, but very much biased towards stuff of interest to a US audience. Also, I hadn't really grasped just how much got omitted when it was cut down from four volumes to one.I also read Andrew Roberts' attempt at continuing the Churchill narrative beyond 1900. I'm afraid I can't recommend this very much. Roberts puzzles me: he is supposedly a doyen of modern right-of-centre history and he did some fantastic original source work for his Masters and Commanders - finding the unpublished (and supposedly destroyed) verbatim War Cabinet minutes from WW2.
However, it is evident from Masters and Commanders that whenever he gets into the military and technical detail of the subject, he commits enormous howlers. I have declined to buy his A Storm of War because all the reviews I've seen say that book is even worse. And there are all sorts of problems in his English-Speaking Peoples: a weak and contorted attempt at explaining the underlying thesis, apparently random choice of topics, repetition - sometimes the thing feels like it was written on a number of plane or train journeys, and no-one's bothered to edit it together.
That said, on reading it I did learn a few things abou
t Australian, Canadian and New Zealand history which I didn't know. However I'm left wondering if the context of this stuff is remotely accurate!But now I've got round to reading the whole of WSC's opus in full. Found it in a local charity bookshop. (Sadly, my set isn't quite in the condition of the one pictured, and isn't signed. Otherwise it would be worth a substantial sum.)
Now I am fully aware that as a historian, Winnie comes with a few health warnings. Factual accuracy is not always guaranteed, especially when he's dealing with his own actions, his father (Lord Randolph Churchill) or his hero-ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.
But the old boy could certainly write. Orotund phrases combined with sharp insight - it's a winning combination.
One thing shone out clearly for me: the fact that this United Kingdom of ours has been down, out and on its uppers quite a few times in the past 300 years, and it has always bounced back.
So there's no reason not to expect that we will do so again. In fact on the basic demographic trends, the UK is forecast to become the most populous EU Member State in the not-too-distant future (unless, of course, Turkey is ever let in). That also means a much more healthy age structure and a better foundation for a growing economy.It's always been worthwhile being British, and despite everything, it looks like it always will be.
6 comments:
Winnie is a good writer & was a good speech maker - maybe it was all the booze, who knows, but I certainly wouldn't rate him as a historian. I assume you are not, you just want to see what he says.
You do realise your penultimate paragraph sounds like you have been in favour of immigration? Do you not get shot for that if you are a Tory?
Strangely enough, I got my set in a charity shop in Corstorphine.
The dustjackets are pristine apart from sun bleaching on the spine; I may have been the first person to have read them...
I also *had* an ex-library copy of the first edition of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".
Do you think I can find it?
HEHAWW WV is "mutfiest"
On WSC as a historian - I've always liked Baldwin's quip about his WWI history:
"Winston has written an enormous book about himself and called it "The World Crisis"."
Obby
"I certainly wouldn't rate him as a historian."
Well, yes and no.
He did have the advantage of actually being there and privy to the most secret stuff that was happening; of course as an ongoing politician he could hardly be entirely objective.
I recommend David Reynolds' "In Command of History" - it's a book about a book, the inside story of WSC's "Second World War". All the stuff about who actually wrote what, changes between drafts, how it played into 1950s politics. Great stuff.
CTL
"The dustjackets are pristine apart from sun bleaching on the spine; I may have been the first person to have read them..."
Your set is clearly in better condition than mine. (Er, matron.)
I have dustjackets but they're a bit more knackered than that. Still, a spot of librafilm and a stanley knife makes them all shiny and nice.
I may be able to trump you with my set of WSC's "Second World War" - also from the Oxfam shop in Stockaree, original cost £60.
Each volume is a first edition. (Vol I referring to the French Army as being the "poop of France". This misprint led to massive Churchillian thunder against his publishers and printers.)
Books are fine except for an "ex libris - William Stephen" sticker in each one, dustjackets are VG.
Worth not that much, but a bit more than I paid.
"Orotund"
I'm crying laughing.
(hoots of laughter)
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