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.
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.
Renowned for his nonfiction accounts of the historical events of which he was both an eyewitness and shaper, Churchill was also an occasional writer of fiction. This is one of his fictional works—a short story in which the ghost of his father, Randolph, pays him a visit. Churchill reveals to his father all the goings-on in the world since his death in 1985, leaving out one crucial detail—his own important part in determining the unfolding of these events.
At once lyrical and nostalgic, The Dream is a fascinating foray into creative narration for Churchill—demonstrating a surprising weightiness of emotion and significance.
The Sinews of Peace is the lesser-known alternate title of the "Iron Curtain Speech" delivered at Westminster College in 1946—where Churchill championed the idea of a "fraternal association" between people of the English-speaking world to preserve the spirit of military and political cooperation forged during the war. President Truman had been present at that speech, and some believed Churchill was suggesting a formal alliance.
This collection contains the first and perhaps most significant of Churchill’s speeches delivered immediately after the war. Within them, it’s easy to see the common theme of European unity and cooperation Churchill is proposing—including a partnership between Germany and France. Europe did grow toward a more unified whole—a result perhaps influenced in no small amount by the words contained within these pages.
