Churchill: A Study in Greatness

"Churchill had a remarkably full life, but his world historical achievement was to keep Britain fighting after the fall of France in June 1940. Thereafter, there was an offer from a representative of Mussolini to mediate between Britain and Nazi Germany: Hitler would allow the preservation of the British Empire in exchange for Britain dropping out of the war and giving Germany a free hand in Europe. And influential figures in Britain, including in Churchill’s cabinet, notably Lord Halifax, were inclined to accept that offer. Things looked hopeless for Britain militarily so there were logical reasons to accept it, but Churchill was adamantly opposed to it. Through some deft political maneuvering in the cabinet and his eloquence and determination, he kept Britain fighting until first the Soviet Union and then the United States joined the fight. Great Britain could not have won the war by itself, but it could have lost it, and it would have lost it, if not for Churchill. There are many good biographies of Churchill. The definitive one is Sir Martin Gilbert’s multi-volume work, which he has also condensed to a single volume . Of the recent ones, the one by Andrew Roberts is excellent. And if you want to read a negative view of Churchill, Geoffrey Wheatcroft’s recent book, Churchill’s Shadow , can give you one. I like Best because it’s shorter than the others. It’s well written. It covers the main issues and, as you can tell from its title, it addresses the issue of most interest to me in writing The Titans of the Twentieth Century , and that is Churchill’s greatness. Churchill was a remarkable character. He was a great man, I would say, for two reasons. One, as I said, is his achievement in preventing a Nazi victory on the European stage in World War Two, thereby sparing Europe a prolonged period of unparalleled barbarism. The other is his personal qualities. While historical achievements may fade, personal qualities are eternal. He embodied characteristics that are valuable in any circumstance, in any era, including resilience. Churchill suffered many setbacks during his long career, but he always bounced back. He suffered political defeats of various kinds, and yet he never gave up. He was available when Great Britain needed him as other men having suffered the same setbacks probably would not have been. The other characteristic, the most important one that Churchill embodies, is courage. Churchill himself thought it the supreme virtue. He was physically brave. For example, in World War One, when he was not reappointed to the cabinet after Lloyd George became prime minister, he went to France and was in the trenches for a few months, exposing himself to real danger. He wanted to be part of the fight. He was in his 40s then and had no reason other than courage—combined with a sense of honor and duty—to do that. He also had moral courage. He stood by his beliefs, even when they were unpopular. Now sometimes, in retrospect, that was not an admirable quality, as in the case of his attitude toward the British Empire in India. Churchill was adamantly opposed to any concessions during the 1930s, even though they were being made by a Conservative government. That was one of the reasons that he was kept out of the cabinet until World War Two. But the most important courageous stance he took was against Nazi Germany and Hitler, in the face of all the reasons to give up. He kept to his conviction, and he managed to convince the British people. That had extraordinary—and extraordinarily beneficial—global consequences."