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Geoffrey Best

Geoffrey Francis Andrew Best

Churchill and War Paperback – November 15, 2006

by Geoffrey Best (Author)

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Winston Churchill saved Britain and Europe by his incomparable leadership in the Second World War. His involvement in war, hoever, stretched over a far longer period and was one of the main themes of his long life. Cavalryman at Omdurman, infantry colonel in the trenches of World War I, First Lord of the Admiralty, as well as a wartime Prime Minister, he also wrote copiously about war as war correspondent, journalist and historian. Personally brave, he was both excited and repelled by war, and was a powerful strategic thinker. Geoffrey Best shows the importance of war in Churchill's career as a whole, from his early days as a hussar in India to his attempts to control the threat of the nuclear bomb. His leadership in the Second World War, which is fully covered, owed much to what he had learnt from earlier wars. Churchill and War, which is not afraid to tackle the question of his strategic bombing of Germany, is a rounded portrait of Churchill the warrior.

Print length

360 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date

November 15, 2006
Dimensions

6.36 x 1.14 x 9.07 inches
ISBN-10

185285541X
ISBN-13

978-1852855413
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

'...profound scholarship...a superb stylist...never less than a pleasure to read.' (Simon Heffer Literary Review)

"Students and general readers, particularly those interested in World War II, will not be disappointed by this book."History, Winter 2006 (Kevin Matthews)

"... engaging..."History, Winter 2006 (Kevin Matthews)

"Geoffrey Best, author of a 2001 Biography of Churchill, here puts the focus on the man as soldier, military thinker, and strategist...A book of great value for anyone interested in grand strategy and the World Wars as well as the role of national leadership in wartime." —NYMAS Review, 2008

'...profound scholarship...a superb stylist...never less than a pleasure to read.' (Sanford Lakoff Literary Review)

"Students and general readers, particularly those interested in World War II, will not be disappointed by this book."History, Winter 2006 (Sanford Lakoff)

"... engaging..."History, Winter 2006 (Sanford Lakoff)

“Geoffrey Best, author of a 2001 Biography of Churchill, here puts the focus on the man as soldier, military thinker, and strategist...A book of great value for anyone interested in grand strategy and the World Wars as well as the role of national leadership in wartime.” –NYMAS Review, 2008

About the Author

Geoffrey Best began his academic life in Cambridge, as undergraduate and research student at Trinity College and then as a History Fellow of Trinity Hall. He went on to teach history at the Universities of Edinburgh and Sussex and, after six years as Academic Visitor at the L S E, ended up teaching International Relations at St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He has held visiting posts at the Universities of Harvard and Chicago and at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre, Washington DC. His previous publications include Humanity in Warfare, Honour among Men and Nations, War and Society in Revolutionary Europe and the prize-winning pair, War and Law since 1945 and Churchill: a Study in Greatness He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Academic (November 15, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 185285541X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1852855413
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.34 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.36 x 1.14 x 9.07 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,617,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #46,137 in Great Britain History (Books)
- #51,765 in World War II History (Books)

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Winning

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 2, 2006

Verified Purchase

A book for all those interested in the martial side of the great British statesman. Especially interesting to me were thoughts on WW II air raids on Dresden and the overalll tactics and morality of Bomber Command. Also, many will find Professor Best's discussion of Winston Churchill's involvement with the development of the atomic bomb and his early 1950s statements on maintaining international peace, given this new war device, especially informative.

British historian Geoffrey Best writes from deep knowledge, and in a pleasing style. Readers interested in a broader treatment of Sir Winston's life would profit from reading his 2001 biography, "Churchill: a Study in Greatness."

5 people found this helpful

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The Muse of War for Making Peace

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 8, 2007

Geoffrey Best masterfully highlights the role that war played in Winston Churchill's long life while putting to rest some myths and misconceptions on this subject. As Best puts it diplomatically at the beginning, Churchill was not a saint. Churchill was at times rough and at others smooth. Churchill's roughness was embodied in his egotism, ruthlessness, and lack of consideration. Churchill's smoothness was found in his decency, patriotism, humanity, and courage. The secret behind Churchill's greatness lied in breaking rules.

Churchill was a man in a hurry, on the lookout for both fame and notice. Churchill was always wondering how he looked like if he did this or that. Churchill was looking for his "finest hours" for decades. Churchill repeatedly showed recklessness on the battlefield while believing that nothing serious could ever happen to him during his military adventures.

Churchill's books, articles, and speeches were at the service of his military and political ambitions while making a living out of them. Churchill valued most his writings about war. War was the most exciting activity to man in Churchill's view. History taught him that war was ruling the destinies of nations.

Churchill was never one to be idle. Churchill's great transformation began when he took to serious company and books. Churchill did not find any relish in club-lounging, party-going, dancing, and womanizing. Although Churchill was not indifferent to female charm, he was not at ease with women. Churchill was lucky to find in Clementine Hozier a gifted woman who could accommodate his sometimes difficult character.

Churchill was a very hard working man and showed an unusual talent for mastering detail. Churchill had an elephantine memory on which he could rely to use facts and data for further purposes. Although Churchill had an unusual gift with words, he was not by nature an effective public speaker.

Churchill had a deep interest in military strategy within which the large allied armies operated during the two world wars. Strategizing was to him the closest thing to commanding great armies in the field. Churchill's interest in generalship was at the very heart of his fascination with war, including the technologies used for waging war. Like other war leaders, Churchill found the neutrality of non-belligerents irksome.

Churchill remained a democrat at times of war by not suppressing critics who annoyed him. Despite his excitement about war, Churchill considered magnanimous peacemaking important once war was over. However, Churchill had no intention to condone the atrocities committed by the Nazis against non-combatants during WWII.

The older Churchill was, the more he became aware of the heavy price tag attached to war for those who did not have his luck. For all his humanity, Churchill knew very well that war was a dreadfully demanding endeavor that overturned peacetime norms and hardened man's heart. Churchill had no illusion about the increasingly lethal evolution of war during his lifetime. Unsurprisingly, Churchill promoted a peace agenda after WWII with the advent of the balance of nuclear terror.

To summarize, Best helps his audience better comprehend what role war played in the existence of a man who left an indelible footprint behind him.

One person found this helpful

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Gilberto Villahermosa

A Life Filled With War

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 7, 2006

This is a brillant book; well researched, extremely well written and a great read!

Author Geoffrey Best shows the important role war played in the life of Winston Churchill, beginning with his birth at Blenheim (built for John Churchill, first Duke of Malborough and commemorating the 1704 battle, which secured England's rising position in the world) and focusing mainly on the British leader's seminal role in the Second World War. "War was central to Churchill's life," writes Best, "He was a soldier before he was a politician."

Best addresses various aspects of Churchill as a war leader, including his influence on the Grand Alliance and the strategic insight and war direction he provided to Great Britian and the Allies. While he helped to determine the outcome of the war by ensuring America's participation, Churchill's strategic vision was, at times, faulty. Certainly his resistence to Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy and the European Continent, in favor of a greater Allied commitment in Italy and the Balkans, shows him at his strategic worse.

Following the Second World War, however, the British leader became less conservative and more flexible and worked fervently to avert another world war. The use of atomic weapons in another war became anathema to him. "The fact was that Churchill had lost his taste for war," records Best. "He had studied was for sixty years and lived it for fifteen of then and it had been getting worse all the time. He had never cherised illusions about it."

This book dispels a great many myths about Winston Churchill and his attitudes toward war. Informative and insightful, it will alter our perceptions of a great statesman, whose life, from beginning to end, was filled with war.

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Churchill and War Paperback – November 15, 2006

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Geoffrey Best

Geoffrey Francis Andrew Best

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