Sir Winston S. Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."
Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published.
During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positions—including President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitler—and played an important part in the Allies’ eventual triumph.
One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works.
In 1931, Britain's Conservative Party proposed the India Bill--a piece of proposed legislation that made significant changes to the way India governed itself under British rule. Winston Churchill, with a distinguished history of military service and war correspondence in India behind him, took a position on this bill independent of the party line--and fought for it with characteristic conviction and oratory brilliance.
This book contains seven speeches and three important addresses on the subject, printed originally to generate popular support for Churchill's opinion. It should be noted that Churchill's opposition to Indian home rule is one of his more controversial political positions. Despite the strength of his oration, his attempt failed--and the India Bill was approved by Parliament in 1935. Documenting a rare loss for Churchill, these speeches provide an important insight into his mind and strategy as a political leader.
Only a handful of times during World War II was the situation so dire that the House of Commons had to meet secretly-to keep its counsel from reaching the enemy. Five separate times during the war, between 1940 and 1942, Winston Churchill addressed the secret assembly. Those speeches are reproduced in this collection.Here, Churchill delivers his immediate reactions to the fall of France, the discovery of a vast enemy armada in the English Channel, and the fall of Singapore, which may have been the most heartbreaking and costly military failure of Churchill's career. Readers can glean a startling intimate insight into Churchill's thinking by noting the words and phrases he chose to omit as well as those he included. Originally published in 1945, Churchill's words provide fascinating context to some of World War II's most significant events-and still carry great weight and meaning today.
The first volume of Winston Churchill's six-volume memoirs as a statesman and leader during World War II, The Gathering Storm begins with his thoughts on World War I--and how its ending laid the foundations for the next global conflict. As a military and political leader during both wars, Churchill was well placed to give readers a behind-the-scenes tour of history as it was being created, by a man who had a definitive part in shaping it. The volume continues with contemporary letters and memoranda from the British government documenting the country's terrifying descent into war. As Prime Minister during World War II, Churchill possessed a unique understanding of these documents' connection to historical events--and guides the reader through them with vivid narrative skill.
