Customer Reviews

Winston Churchill (Great Lives)

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This is one of several volumes in the Penguin Lives Series, each of which written by a distinguished author in her or his own right. Each provides a concise but remarkably comprehensive biography of its subject in combination with a penetrating analysis of the significance of that subject's life and career. I think this is a brilliant concept. My only complaint (albeit a quibble) is that even an abbreviated index is not provided. Those who wish to learn more about the given subject are directed to other sources.

When preparing to review various volumes in this series, I have struggled with determining what would be of greatest interest and assistance to those who read my reviews. Finally I decided that a few brief excerpts and then some concluding comments of my own would be appropriate.

On Churchill's values: "His beliefs had very simple origins, in the piety and goodness of his beloved nanny, Mrs. Everest; in the code of schoolboy fair play; in the ethic of manliness learned at the Royal Military College (RMC) at Sandhurst and in his regiment; in the strictures of the Commandments, preached in the Old Testament language that was to be one of the strongest of influences on his own, in Harrow School chapel. From all of those sources Churchill derived an undoubted sense of sin; his horror of wrongdoing was to inform his political life, particularly as it brought him eventually to confront the crimes of the dictators." (page 11)

On Sir John ("Jackie") Fisher, as First Sea Lord, an early supporter of Churchill's career: "Fisher was that rare but valuable bird, a creative eccentric. Brave beyond question, a seadog to his fingertips, he had no truck with the settled order of things and was forever in search for a better way, a faster ship, a deadlier weapon....His nature was as passionate as Churchill's, his mind as quick; it was inevitable that the two should quarrel, but their differences were soon made up." (page 79)

On Churchill and England during their "darkest hours": "Churchill privately confessed to depression. The sinkings of British merchant shipping...particularly lowered his optimism....[and yet according to Edward R. Murrow] one of Churchill's greatest achievements as wartime prime minister was to have 'mobilized the English language and sent it into battle'...[as when addressing the House of Commons he insisted] 'We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will [in italics] finish the job!'" (Pages 142-143)

On what inspired Churchill to become a great war leader: "...he listened to himself....he listened to the version of British history he had constructed in his head as a subaltern in his hot, dreamy Indian afternoons; he listened to his own apotheosis in the biography of his ancestor [the first duke of Malborough]; he listened to his retelling of the First World War as an epic of of world crisis and eventual triumph; he listened to his recollections of his own youth and acquaintances then retold in his lives of Great Contemporaries (1937); his listened to his own version of American history as an equal epic to Britain's in the championship of liberty." (pages 190-191)

Of special interest to me was Keegan's brilliant analysis of the many paradoxes which define Churchill the man. For example: "Companionable, he had few friends. Quick to display emotion, he evoked little personal affection outside his immediate family. A devoted husband and father, he was, by the account of his favorite and deeply loving daughter, Mary...difficult at home, often impossible." Whether despite or because of his paradoxical nature, however, Churchill led his nation to eventual victory at a time when probably no one else could. Following his death in 1965 at the age of 90, his coffin was buried in a churchyard of the little Oxfordshire village of Bladon, near his birthplace at Blenheim Palace. However, Keegan suggests, "Churchill's real burial place is in the hearts of human beings."

As is also true of the other volumes in the "Penguin Lives" series, this one provides all of the essential historical and biographical information but its greatest strength lies in the extended commentary, in this instance by John Keegan, arguably the greatest of 20th century military historians. He includes a substantial list of "Sources"" for those who wish to learn more about Churchill. I hope these brief excerpts encourage those who read this review to read Keegan's biography. It is indeed a brilliant achievement.

This ought to be a terrific book. Winston Churchill led a fascinating life and shaped the history of a time with many lessons for our own. John Keegan is a wonderful military historian whose book "In the Face of Battle" I still assign to students. Moreover, there is a real need for a biography of Churchill with a military emphasis. I plunged into this book with enthusiasm after having waded through the parliamentary detail of Roy Jenkins's Churchill biography. But this is very ordinary. It provides a competent sketch of well-known information, and would not make a bad introduction for someone unfamiliar with the man or the time. That merits several stars. But it does not go beyond that; tracing the intricate interweaving of the political, moral, and military strands that enabled this leader to stand almost alone against tyranny and to hold his country with him remains a challenge to future biographers. Part of the problem may be that Keegan's greatest strength as a writer is his ability to recreate small moments of history in amazingly vivid detail. Perhaps a series of vignettes of crucial moments in Churchill's career would have suited Keegan's talents better.

John Keegan has a flair for bringing order from apparent chaos, for finding unifying themes through events separated vastly in time. Thus, he is a good choice to write this short biography of Churchill. One might legitimately ask, "How can you condense the life of Churchill into such a slim (200 pages) volume?" The answer is here for everyone to see.

Keegan gives a good flavour for the man, touching on his important speeches, his bullying of subordinates, his painting, his variable health. He leaves out what is not important in understanding the man: his membership in the bricklayers' guild is not mentioned, for example. Clearly, Keegan the military historian is mostly interested in Churchill's wartime leadership - in both World Wars. He also makes sure to point out some of Churchill's other policy issues - his support of the working man (Churchill is often, wrongly, believed to be anti-working class) is the most interesting because it's often lost in the detail of larger tomes.

It's ironic that Churchill himself was incapable of writing a history like this - his "biography" of Marlborough was several volumes long. Can the life of a man like Churchill be condensed into 200 pages? Probably not, but Keegan's attempt is very readable and enjoyable, and is recommended even to those that have read heftier biographies. The exercise of working within space constraints forces the writer to get to the core of the subject, and this is what Keegan does in this biography.

John Keegan is one of the most distinguished military historians of our day. He was an excellent choice to pen this biography of Winston Churchill. Like the other Penguin Lives books, this volume presents an excellent, brief introduction to the life of Britain's WWII Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Keegan begins by telling of his own "immunity" to the Churchillian legend and how that was transmuted into an admiration upon listening to an album of Churchill's war speeches.

Keegan describes Churchill's exploits as a young soldier, his writing life, his days as a Member of Parliament, and his years as Prime Minister. Brief, to the point, this is a very nice introduction to Churchill.

This is a great book for a layman. To those who have already read lengthier biographies of Churchill, this may be a nice review. Popular, not academic.

Well, I haven't read them all, but I have read quite a few, and I think John Keegan's brief life of Churchill is magnificent. Keegan's expertise on military history adds much to our understanding of Churchill. Through Keegan's lens, we see how Churchill's early experiences in Cuba, India, Sudan, and South Africa were truly formative, rather than mere adventures (and opportunities to earn money through journalism). Similarly, Keegan's explanation of the Gallipoli affair helped me understand for the first time why it brought Churchill such ignomy; conversely, my appreciation for Churchill rose even higher as Keegan clearly laid out how Churchill prepared the British fleet for war against the Kaiser. Keegan also shines light on a usually unremarked upon episode of Churchill's life: his months spent in the trenchs on the Western front during the Great War. I have read the (sadly uncompleted) Manchester and the Gilbert tomes, and I highly recommend this little volume as either an introduction to Churchill or as a tasty treat to those who already admire the great man. I ALSO RECOMMEND PURCHASING AN AUDIO CD OR CASSETTE OF CHURCHILL'S WARTIME SPEECHES (AVAILABLE HERE AT AMAZON).

I've long been interested in Winston Churchill, but the challenge of plowing through the many 2 volume or massive single volume biographies out there seemed a bit daunting. I wanted a simple overview of Churchill's life so I could determine which of his accomplishments I wanted to read more about. Well, this Penguin Lives book did just that. It is a brief cradle to grave bio, but don't let its length fool you. It is well written, well researched (if the bibliography is any indication), and a complex biography of a complex man. I've learned that I'm more interested in Churchill's political life rather than his military career and now I'm free to read one of the many books dedicated to the specific periods of Churchill's time in Parliament. Buy this book for a wonderful introduction to Churchill that will make you want to delve further into his life...or just buy it because its a quick, easy way to learn a bit of history and you'll be able to answer a few more Jeopardy questions.

Let me make clear at the outset that I am no historian. Indeed, I wouldn't even qualify as an amateur historian. I am just your average 30-something fairly ignorant reader living a period of love for more or less recent history. Given this premise, I found this little book quite perfect for what I was looking for.

This is a short, entertaining, and VERY well written biography of one of the greatest men in the 20th century. Because of the serious limits of my knowledge on the subject, I certainly cannot judge on the accuracy of the reports. However, to the best of my knowledge, the author is considered a reputable WWII historian. Indeed I liked this book so much that I also purchased his history of WWII. You can read this book in a day, and it will entertain you like a good novel, while also informing you as few novels would do.

I would not pay too much attention to those reviewers that complain about this book not delving into Churchill's shortcomings as a man or as a politician. This is a very small book, about 190 small-format pages. You can hardly expect a comprehensive treatise from such a book. Also, I suspect that emphasizing Churchill's shortcomings would be like emphasizing Hitler's moments of tenderness with his lovers or with some German children during the Nazi regime. I mean, they surely happened, but it's not what you want to spend pages on, if you have only limited space to devote to the topic, isn't it? Besides, even if the Churchill that emerges from this book is certainly a truly great man, he does not emerge as a perfect great man. To me that was enough, and I am glad I read this book.

I am grateful to the author, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a short, beautifully written biography of this man, to whom I certainly owe something...

Hundreds, if not thousands, of titles have been written about the Man of the (Twentieth) Century, and there would hardly seem to be a need for many more. But recently, Churchill has been the subject of two great little survey volumes about his amazing and important life -- John Lukacs' "Churchill: Visionary. Statesman. Historian." and this title by John Keegan.

Churchill's immense life seems to draw immensity from his biographers, for example, Roy Jenkins' thick one-volume biography, Manchester's planned trilogy (now apparently marooned forever at two volumes), and, of course, the official biography by Randolph Churchill and Martin Gilbert, which toppped off at eight biographic volumes and sixteen additional companion volumes. Doing Churchill justice in under 200 pages is much tougher, but Keegan, a skilled historian, pulls it off very well.

As Paul Johnson did in his excellent Penguin Life of Napoleon, Keegan focused on a few major themes of Churchill's life and weaves his narrative around them. One of his major emphases is on how the lessons Churchill learned in his early life prepared him for his later years by shaping (or mis-shaping) his thinking on critical ethical and strategic issues. Churchill's often-overlooked career as social reformer is given due attention here, while the discussion of the war years emphasizes Churchill's -- and Britain's -- increasing military weakness and strategic isolation amidst the rising tides of American and Soviet power.

Keegan argues that Churchill's greatest achievement was that his "words drowned out the drumbeat of totalitarianism" when Britain stood alone (p. 145).

If there was anything I found off-putting about his analysis, it was Keegan's frequent use of the word "libertarian" to describe Churchill's political world view. It perhaps becomes clearer in context what exactly he means by this -- essentially, support for individual freedom and opposition to totalitarianism. Yet as a libertarian myself, it was passing strange for me to see Churchill consistently described as "a true libertarian" (p. 96) ... "philosophically a libertarian" (p. 103) ... and having "an acute libertarian awareness" of communism's evil (p. 177). Indeed, Keegan also describes leaders of the Labour Party of the 1940s as "sincere libertarians," while at the same time describing their "doctrinaire economic views" in support of nationalization and central planning. All we can assume is that Keegan's definition of this term is different from how, say, the Cato Institute would use it, Murray Rothbard even moreso.

Apart from that minor semantic difference, though, I truly enjoyed this quick (I read it in about a day) yet comprehensive view of Churchill's life, impact, and legacy. By all means, read the longer bios if you wish. But if you're looking for a short summary that encapsulates why so many people in so many lands hold Winston Churchill in such high regard, this Penguin Life is a great place to start (and might be even better if read in concert with Lukacs' book).

As with the entire Penguin Lives series, this book was written by an expert who was given the challenge of sharing his knowledge in less than 200 pages. John Keegan succeeds brilliantly. As an expert on World War II, Keegan has written many wonderful and insightful books and this is no exception despite the literary constraints placed upon him. His clear and beautiful prose make the book a quick and enjoyable read, but he does not sacrifice information. I did not know a lot about Churchill before reading this book, but now I feel that I have a good understanding for his achievements and why he was so significant in his own time. It is a fabulous book for an amateur historian who does not want to spend dozens of hours wading through a biography several volumes long and simply wants to know significant events and some good analysis by a renowned historian. A wonderful, well written, and interesting book.

I've never been a big fan of Winston Churchill, but after reading esteemed historian John Keegan's succinct biography of the man, I must say that I like AND respect him just a little bit more. Keegan himself confesses that he never thought much of old Winston until he stumbled across an old recording of his speeches (in NYC of all places) and realized what a gifted and inspirational orator and leader he was. He led his beloved Britain through her darkest hours in modern history, to a victory that was anything but assured. The people seemed to genuinely love him, and his sentiment was seemingly mutual.

His years as Prime Minister during WW2 are the most well known, but Churchill led an amazingly full life, and his life of public service began way back in the late 19th century. Keegan describes how the young Winston, who did poorly in school, but had an undeniable intelligence, educated himself in politics, history and the English Classics. He was a romantic who was in love with his small island nation, and he dedicated his life to it. He was a brave soldier who served in numerous wars, including WW1, and while it would be fair to say he was a little too fond of war, he was no different from the average English officer of the time in this regard. In my eyes, his major fault was his hypocrisy. It just seems hard to reconcile his staunch imperialism with his constant talk about the virtues of freedom and liberty, and how Britain was the main proponent of such things. I would have liked for Keegan to address this point a bit more, but for such a short biography, I can let it slide.

I was intrigued to learn that Churchill and IRA founder Michael Collins were on friendly terms and greatly admired each other. In fact, Churchill apparently had a "gut sympathy for fighters" which is why he had more respect for the Irish and Boers of South Africa than he did for Ghandi and his passive movement in India.

Anyways, the book is extremely well written and entertaining, and I found it to be an overall excellent introduction to the life of one of the most important figures of the 20th century. 4.5 stars.