No comments about Lloyd George: The Young Lloyd George.

3 comments about Winston Churchill (Sutton Pocket Biographies).

1. Considering that this is a very short and factual biography of a very famous Prime Minister of Great Britain - from the time when it was still great - it is hard to not write enthusiastically about it. But unfortunately there is always the attitude of the author to contend with. An overly enthusiastic biographer glosses over the less glamorous parts, and the events which show the man in a lesser light; but the underwhelmed biographer (probably writing out of hack necessity to earn an honest commissioned crust), simply plods dutifully through. This author seems to me to fall into neither of these categories, but nearer the latter than the former.
   
   The nearest attitude analogy I can come to is that of the `hostile witness' in court, who, having been legally required to give evidence, has his own reasons for not wishing to co-operate. But once sworn in, he is compelled to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth (there are penalties for perjury), but not necessarily the whole truth that a willing witness would tell. The counsel for the defence or prosecution always points out the unwillingness of the hostile witness, making everyone aware of the potential bias that this may introduce. And so it is, as counsel for the defence of the Great Man, I am constrained to point out that this author is very much less than fulsome in his praise of our Winston. There are harsher ways of asserting this point, but the greatness of the greatest of our war leaders comes through anyway, and I would not dissuade anyone from at least starting with this book as quick overview of some of the main facts. I myself suspect that the author is a Socialist [ugh], and as such is simply unable to warm to the certainly-not-Socialist Winston [hurrah]. Also, I have so far greatly enjoyed several of this Sutton biographical series, and find them to be value for money quick-readers, and through pure natural variance would not expect each and every one of these baby bios to satisfy equally. One slightly sour grape in a bunch is no bad average.
   
   CONTENTS
   List of Plates - 15 standard shots, black-and-white, good quality
   Chronology - born 1874 at Blenheim Palace, became PM 1940, died 1965
   1. Youth and Adventure - born into the aristocracy, went to Harrow public school, joined the army with some difficulty as a cavalry officer, saw action in Cuba as journalist, left army for politics around 1900
   2. Member of Parliament - marries, gains experience in political home affairs
   3. Admiralty 1911-15 - becomes First Lord of the Admiralty, improves conditions for the naval ratings, naval arms race with Germany, expands defence expenditure, First World War started by Germany, Winston dismissed from Admiralty
   4. Recovery and Relapse 1915-39 - returns to active service in the army on the Western Front, return to politics 1916, becomes Minister of Munitions 1917 where he is very successful, loses seat in Parliament, stands unsuccessfully as an `Independent Anti-Socialist' [hurrah, but never let yourself be negatively defined, tactical and strategic error] in 1924, gets back in next year and is made Chancellor of the Exchequer much to everyones' surprise (including his), his criticisms of Herr Hitler the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis) go largely unheeded, his reputation declines, WWII breaks out as he predicted
   5. War 1939-45 - Churchill back at the top as First Lord of the Admiralty again, British government in disarray with vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, on 9 May 1940 Winston Churchill is made Prime Minister of Great Britain at age 65, against spectacular progress by Hitler Churchill persuades the nation to stand and fight, RAF wins the air Battle of Britain, Hitler attacks USSR, Japanese attack Pearl Harbour, USA enter war, Britain becomes de facto ally of communist Russia and USA, Germans surrender 8 May 1945, Churchill tired and ill after strains of war, immediate general election called, Conservatives and also Churchill defeated
   6. Coda 1945-65 - Churchill makes the famous `Iron Curtain' speech at Fulton, Missouri, speech not well received but history proved his judgment right again, Churchill becomes Prime Minister again in 1951, refuses to join the European Coal and Steel Community (ancestor of the EU), and surely history will prove him right again on this one, retires 1955 a living legend
   Notes
   Bibliography - very short considering the Great Man's many admirers, so do not trust to this list for a full sample



2. I don't like for a biography to lie, but I think it should portray the subject in a favorable or atleast interesting light. This biography is frustrating because it makes Churchill, who I thought was a very inspiring figure, into a rich spoiled man who stumbles into situations which brought him fame. If he was really as uninspired and unfocused as this biography portrays him then he has a false public reputation.



3. This is a brief, accurate, excellent summary of the life of Churchill. It's about 100 pages long; you can read it in an evening and still have time to catch the late news. The first duty of a biographer, said Lytton Strachey, is a "becoming brevity" (he was reacting to the huge, ponderous biographies of the Victorian era), and this work fills the bill. I had always wanted to learn more about Churchill, the greatest figure of the 20th century, but I put it off because I didn't have the time or desire to wade through a massive tome. Now, finally, I know how how he arrived at the Prime Ministership at exactly the right time. I know about his incredibly broad training for the leadership position. I know some new things about the Second World War. And so on. This book is part of the "Pocket Biographies" series published by Sutton located in England. I'm sold on the concept; I'm going to buy more in the collection - Lincoln is next and then Beethoven - i.e., people I want to know more about but not necessarily every single time they had toast for breakfast. One of the offbeat things I like about this volume is the quality of paper used for the cover - it's that creamy thick stuff that a lot of smart publishers are using these days.

No comments about A Harmony of Interests: Explorations in the Mind of Sir Winston Churchill.

4 comments about Churchill's Generals.

1. This book is an interesting and exceptionally well-done introduction to the British perspective of World War II. Each of the seventeen chapter is a biography of a key British general during this conflict. Some are well-known (Montgomery), while others have largely been forgotten (Sir Henry Wilson). Five generals end up having to share two chapters. Each and every one, though, gets a good biography. There are differences in focus, emphasis, and interpretation, which is to be expected, but none of these entries is weak. This fact in and of itself makes this book unique among in its genre.
   
   The authors come from a number of backgrounds: academia, journalism, and the military, including a general and a field marshal. One of the contributors is Australian, another is American and the rest are British. The reader is getting a good cross sampling of the British perspective.
   
   The main theme that emerges from these essays is the importance of interpersonal relationships with both Churchill but also other generals. The chapters also do a good job of introducing the reader to issues in the literature without getting bogged down in the details. Each chapter concludes with a chronology of the general's life and career.
   
   A reader unfamiliar with British military culture will stumble on some issues: the acronyms are completely different: GOC and KCB to give only two examples. (General Officer Commanding and Knight Commander of the Bath---a knighthood that gives the individual the title of "Sir.") The practice of keeping generals on half-pay is another practice that is often referenced but never explained. (A general without an assignment received only half his pay. If he did not receive an assignment after two years, he was retired.)
   
   Nonetheless, this book is easy to read and is recommended without reservation.



2. This is another of the biography collections covering World War II generals that was done in the early 90s by a British publisher. In this book we get an introductory essay by editor John Keegan that puts the rest of the book in context, describing how Churchill dealt with generals, what he thought of them, and how he related to them, briefly. After that, we have a series of short (each about 20-30 pages) biographies of various commanders from the British Army in World War II. The editor chose to restrict himself to officers from Britain itself, so no Guy Simonds or Bernard Freyburg. He chose commanders who had some influence on the outcome of the war, or who were somehow outstanding or memorable, so no Miles Dempsey. Instead, the editor chose those soldiers who stood out in some way, or were somehow instrumental in the victory in a fashion that can't be ignored.
   
   Within this, as is usually the case in such a volume, the individual biographies are somewhat uneven. Some are written as if you know everything already about World War II, and others are written in a very elementary style, as if you know nothing. Some are also more editorial or review of the individual's character and actions (the essay on Montgomery is the most obvious one in this category) while other seek merely to inform you about the person involved. There are two combination biographies, one covering the "Desert Generals" (Cunningham, Ritchie, and Leese) and another covering two generals who were more involved in diplomacy during the war, Adrian Carton de Wiart and Edward Spears. These tend to do little more than recount the facts of these men's careers: there's no space for anything else.
   
   I think the general researcher who's looking for a reference work covering this topic will find this book useful, if only in a limited fashion. Since the coverage is rather limited, you're going to be disappointed if a particular soldier isn't covered here and he's the one you're trying to research. On the other hand, if you are looking for information on someone who *is* here, then you're going to get more data here than you would from the Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography, for instance. So it depends on whom you're researching.



3. Churchill's Generals proves to be just that, basic introduction to the British generals who fought under Winston Churchill during the Second World War. Its an interesting collection of soldiers, some which every students of military history knows while others were folks no one never heard off until they read this book. These biographical essays proves to be a mixed bunch. Some are better then others. Some essays proves to be quite insightful and able to give an personal understanding of their subject. Others seem to be written by a clerk copying off some dossier file.
   
   The book is a companion to its sister volumes, Hitler's Generals and Stalin's Generals. I would put this book above Stalin's Generals but its definitely inferior to Hitler's Generals. I haven't seen titles for Roosevelt's Generals or Hirohito's Generals so I guess we are stuck with these three books.
   
   Overall, a pretty basic introduction essays. It should be enough to arouse your curiousity and hopefully you will read more on the subject. Some of the British generals like Slim really do need greater attention.



4. This collection of essays, edited by Keegan, provides a good introduction to most of the generals who made it to the top of the British Army in WW2. The essays are of varying standard and some require a knowledge of the subject and their place in the world. Each article has a bibliography and a career time line. Keegan provides an introduction as to each generals place in the scheme of things and his relationship with Curchill. Generally a good book with some outstanding essays.

No comments about Dizzy: A Life of Benjamin Disraeli (Penguin Classic Biography).

No comments about The Life and Times of David Lloyd George.

1 comments about Disraeli (Profiles in Power).

1. Of the great political figures of Victorian Britain, few have attracted the attention of Benjamin Disraeli. A converted Jew from a family of merchants and the son of a noted literary scholar, he rose in an aristocratic age to become Prime Minister of Great Britain. While numerous biographies have been written about him, most concentrate on his ostentatious personality, the style that characterized the man. Ian Machin's brief study, a volume in the "Profiles in Power" series, focuses instead on the political side of Disraeli's life, examining the positions and tactics he adopted over the course of his long career in public life.
   
   Machin's book offers a good introduction to Disraeli and his politics, examining both his rise through the Tory ranks and his attitudes towards the prevailing issues in mid-Victorian politics.. His contention is that the quest for power is the dominant theme running through Disraeli's career. To achieve it, Disraeli adopted an opportunistic approach in advocating policies or principles, trimming his sails to catch the prevailing political wind. This is most readily apparent in his economic policy, where Disraeli's advocacy of protectionism (which led to the destruction of Sir Robert Peel's government in 1846) was abandoned six years later in an attempt to improve his party's odds of winning seats in Parliament. Even after the Conservatives finally took office with a majority government in 1874, Machin notes, Disraeli possessed no legislative agenda beyond pursuing reform measures that would appeal to the public in an increasingly democratic age.
   
   Though some might object to Machin's interpretation of Disraeli's career, this should not overshadow the overall qualities of the book. Balanced and insightful, it does a remarkable job of surveying Disraeli's life and career in such a short number of pages. For readers seeking to learn about this larger-than-life political figure, this is an excellent place to start.

1 comments about Gladstone: 1875-1898.

1. As the dominant Liberal politician of the nineteenth century, William Gladstone is one of the most important figures in the history of Victorian Britain. His diaries constitute an essential source of information about his life and times, and their publication under the editorship of Colin Matthew, was one of the great historical publishing projects of recent times. This book, a follow-up to Matthew's Gladstone, 1809-1874, collects the introductory essays from the volumes of these diaries; together, they provide considerable insight into the later life and career of the most remarkable politician of Victorian England.
   
   In 1875 Gladstone was a fit 65 years old. Though he had announced his retirement the year before, this meant retirement from politics (which he always saw as a second-order activity), as he devoted himself to a number of theological and ecclesiastical debates. He remained an elemental force in politics, however, and his anger with the massacre of Bulgarian Christians by their Ottoman rulers precipitated his return to the political arena. The result was the famous Midlothian campaign, which Matthew defines as one of the great set-pieces in the history of Victorian Britain.
   
   Matthew argues that Gladstone's return to politics was defined by his earlier retirement. The Midlothian Campaign set the stage for his political activity after 1875, which took the form of "campaigns" inspired by unusual crises and special causes. As a result he discovered the politically abnormal issues and orchestrated politics around them - in effect, as Matthew puts it, giving politics a millenarian tone. Gladstone's campaign for the seat was also notable, though, for the introduction of a new type of political communication - the stump speech. This was a product of the changes that Victorian Britain was undergoing, a result of the expansion of the electorate and the emergence of the popular press - for, as Matthew notes, Gladstone's audience wasn't the listeners but the readers of the newspapers which carried his speeches.
   
   Gladstone's success was reflected in the returns from the general election of 1880, which not only saw him triumphant in Midlothian but the return of the Liberals to government as well. Matthew's account of Gladstone's second administration comprises a quarter of the book, and focuses on the main areas of the prime minister's concern. The first was in foreign affairs, where Gladstone was most committed to restoring right conduct after the excesses of "Beaconsfieldism." Here Matthew sees the prime minister as prescient in his concern about imperial "overstretch," recognizing the importance of the economy in defining Britain's strength and worrying about the burden the empire was placing upon it. Yet the occupation of Egypt in 1882 was a measure far more expansionistic than anything undertaken by Disraeli's government, though Matthew notes that Gladstone considered this intervention much more justified than those of the previous administration. Domestically, Gladstone's government was more successful, particularly with parliamentary reform, which Matthew considers the great legislative triumph of the administration.
   
   Yet it was Ireland that ultimately occupied most of Gladstone's attention, becoming the issue that would dominate the remainder of his political career. Upon returning to office in 1880, his government faced rising tension in Ireland over the issue of land, tension embodied in the rise of the Land League. In response, Gladstone wanted to readjust social and financial relationships without an expensive scheme of land purchase. This meant maintaining the predominantly Protestant landowning class, which he believed was the key to keeping order when in fact the opposite was increasingly the case. By preserving the landowners, land agitation grew, which led to more coercion, which in turn led to the demise of Liberalism in Ireland and the growth of the Home Rule movement.
   
   Faced with this problem, the prime minister eventually embraced Home Rule as the solution. Here Matthew charts Gladstone's intellectual construction of his approach towards Home Rule, noting that his conversion to the issue was by gradual evolution rather than sudden change. The key to this process was recognition of the new pluralism in the region and containing it within parliamentary absolutism - a process rooted in the assumption that the Home Rulers were willing to operate within the constitutional sphere. Yet while Gladstone courted the Home Rulers, his assumption that the Liberals would rally behind the measure - which was in line with his traditional "big bill" approach towards handling his party in the House of Commons - proved disastrously incorrect, splitting the party and setting the stage for the Conservative victory in the election of 1886. Though acknowledging the rejection of Gladstone's proposal, Matthew argues that it provided the framework for discussing constitutional revision of the United Kingdom for the century that followed.
   
   While an elderly figure after his defeat in 1885-6, Gladstone retained much of his vigor. Unlike the aftermath of the Liberal defeat in 1874, Gladstone was committed to winning another election in order to form another government which would successfully pass Home Rule. Apart from some initial approaches to Parnell (an overture that was thwarted by the sensational O'Shea divorce case), however, Matthew argues that Gladstone did little to formulate a party consensus on the particulars of a new Home Rule Bill prior to taking office once more as Prime Minister after the weak Liberal victory in the 1892 election. The legislation which emerged was more limited than its predecessor, and though passed by the Commons it was defeated in the Lords, thus frustrating Gladstone's last great legislative measure. With his age increasingly beginning to tell, Gladstone retired in 1894, dying four years later.
   
   Few books can equal this volume in its perceptiveness about Gladstone's later years. A winner of the prestigious Wolfson History Prize when it was first published, it is nessesary and rewarding reading for anybody seeking to understand the life and career of one of the most important figures in modern British history.

No comments about His Finest Hours: The War Speeches of Winston Churchill.

No comments about The Churchillians.