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 rarest of his post-war speech compilations, The Unwritten Alliance was the last of Churchill’s books published during his lifetime. Most of these speeches took place during the end of his second Premiership—when the illustrious politician and statesman was in his eighties.
Churchill had experienced several strokes by this time, and his health was failing.However, these speeches show that his mind was still clear—and he was still a master of speechcraft. This collection contains his addresses at banquets, award ceremonies, and to the Primrose League—where he had given his first political speech many decades before, in 1897. These speeches demonstrate Churchill’s mental vigor even in his declining years, filled as much with awards and accolades as with continued personal challenge.
The second volume of Winston Churchill's six-volume definitive historical and autobiographical account of World War II, Their Finest Hour picks up where The Gathering Storm left off--with the fall of France to Hitler's forces and Britain's stand as the lone defender against the Nazi war machine. Britain was virtually alone in its definitive stand against Hitler for eight months. Through internal memoranda, personal correspondence, and other contemporary documents, Churchill reveals hidden aspects of the war--such as how much Britain really knew about Germany's plans for invasion and Hitler's attack on Russia; secret negotiations with Spain, the conflicts within the French resistance movement; and an intelligence leak that led to failure in West Africa. As both a witness and a shaper of history during this volatile time, readers can ask for no better guide than Winston Churchill.
This volume contains the last of Churchill's great speeches from World War II, delivered during the final eight months of the global conflict-and the final period of his time in office. The victory expressed in this volume is mixed. These speeches detail Churchill's public reactions to the forming of the United Nations, the death of Roosevelt, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, and, lastly, the election that defeats him.Perhaps most notable is the "Gestapo" speech of 1945, in which Churchill made a controversial comparison between a Socialist government and the Gestapo-an extremely charged word at that time-that many believe cost him his job as Prime Minister.
