In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

by David Reynolds

Book Overview

Winston Churchill fought the World War II twice over-first as Prime Minister during the war, and then later as the war's premier historian. From 1948-54, he published six volumes of memoirs. They secured his reputation and shaped our understanding of the conflict to this day. Drawing on the drafts of Churchill's manuscript as well as his correspondence from the period, David Reynolds masterfully reveals Churchill the author. Reynolds shows how the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465003303
• ISBN13: 9780465003303
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 672 Pages
• Weight: 1.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

I can't put this book down! History lovers and authors will to be hooked from the start.

This is a vivid behind-the-scenes look at WSC as he conducted WWII and the business of being an author. The introduction alone is superb and I'm just a few chapters in but the crisp and insightful writing continues. It reveals how a magnificent writer and orator can shape what we believe to the point of mythology. A new take on WWII and WSC emerges.

Winston Churchill as Historian

This is a brilliant book! It is extremely well researched and written and tells a powerful and interesting story. "In Command of History" is the history of a series of books - Winston Churchill's monumental and authoritative "The Second World War", his six-volume narrative of Great Britain in World War II. "In Command of History" is also many other things, including a book about World War II, the Cold War,and Churchill himself. Perhaps the underlying theme of this book is that histories and memoirs written by politicians are not to be totally trusted for their aim is not historical accuracy, but rather to enhance the own political and military reputations and to vindicate their leadership. Author David Reynolds writes about Churchill with an honesty and insight that is refreshing, covering every aspect of the British leader and his work. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this book was the ability of Churchill to use classified documents that would not be available to historians for many years to come. Equally interesting are the many documents that were available but not used because they would have cast the author in an unfavorable light. Certainly one of the most contentious issues that Reynold addresses is Churchill's resistance to Operation Overlord, the Allied Cross Channel invasion of the France. After the war the British leader expended a great deal of energy to show that he supported the invasion, but Reynolds research reveals this is not totally true. Also of interest to this reader was Churchill's decision to plan for an attack on Soviet Russia in 1945, "Operation Unthinkable." As might be expected "The Second World War" highlights Churchill and Great Britain's many important contributions to the Allied victory in Europe. Despite Churchill's many shortcomings, Reynolds makes it clear the British leader remains one of the greatest political figures of World War II and history. "In death, as in life," writes the author, "Winston Churchill continues to glow. He remains in command of history."

How Churchill Shaped History with his Pen

Winston Churchill liked to say that history would be kind to him, as he intended to write it. In Command of History tells the story of how he did this. David Reynolds, a Cambridge professor, has made a close examination of how Churchill wrote The Second World War. In doing so, he shows how Churchill used the books to place his own war-time actions in the best possible light and to further his future political agenda. Reynolds has thus produced a fascinating story of Churchill the writer, Churchill the politician and Churchill the statesman. It is an absorbing account that illuminates an undiscovered corner of the Great Man's career. Reynolds shows that Churchill tried, and largely succeeded, in framing how history would view World War II. Indeed, by calling his history "The Second World War," he confirmed the name we would give to the conflict (recall that what we now know as "World War I" was originally called "The Great War.") Churchill "wrote" his account mostly while he was the leader of the Conservative opposition in the post-war Labor government of Clement Atlee. Churchill structured his six volume work, written between 1946 and 1954, and released in seriatim, to emphasize the elements of the conflict that he deemed most significant and in which he played the central role. Thus, Volume 1, "The Gathering Storm," was written to drive home the lesson of the failure of appeasement. "The Finest Hour" emphasizes the bravery of the British people at their darkest hour, when they turned to Churchill as Prime Minister in May 1940. By contrast, there is astonishing little about what in retrospect was the main field of combat: The Eastern Front, pitting Russia against Germany. Reynolds shows that Churchill also had a distinct agenda: * He painted himself as the chief opponent of appeasement. Reynolds notes, however, that Churchill was hard on Hitler's Germany but softer on Mussolini's Italy (Anthony Eden saw through Mussolini and resigned from Chamberlain's Cabinet because of appeasement towards Italy, not Germany.) * In Britain's "Finest Hour," he sought to perpetuate the myth of a British government united against any peace with Hitler. He deliberate falsified his account of Cabinet meetings in which Foreign Minister Lord Halifax sought to open negotiations with Hitler, the story of which has only emerged over time (most notably in John Lukacs' Five Days in London: May 1940.) * He emphasized Britain's close cooperation with America, in part because when he was writing Britain needed America's financial and military support after the war. In doing so, he underplayed friction within the military high command, especially between Gen. Eisenhower and Field Marshall Montgomery. He blunted his opposition to Operation Overlord, the Normandy invasion, by selective editing of published documents and misleading innuendo. He feared bloodshed on the order of World War I and only reluctantly faced up to the need for a cross-channel invasio

Worth Reading

This is an intereting book, full of things I did not know about Churchill and his long history of WWII. I admire Churchill, and always will. Reynolds' book proves he was human. There are many aspects of the Churchill WWII history I had not realized. Among them are: 1) He did not write it all himself. Many sections were written by others. 2) He could have been accused of plagarism by Samuel Elliot Morrison. Sections dealing with the war in the Pacific came straight from Morrison, and Morrison was nice enough to ask for an attribution. He could have made things ugly. 3)Churchill used the books to burnish his image. Parts of letters and memos were deleated in writing the history. Churchill did not want the truth to emerge. 4) Churchill used the history to blame others for mistakes he made. This is not a real surprise, and part of it went back to earlier disagreements. 5) Lord Mountbatten was not the wonderful military leader the image makers created. In fact, he was behind the Dieppe fiasco, and his later leadership was of little relevance. But damn, he did look good in that white uniform, and those royal connections hardly hurt. 6) Churchill used the books to help him regain political office. Hardly against the law for a politician. I did not come away from Reynolds' book thinking more of Churchill. But I don't think less of him. He was human, and was faced with a task which would boggle the average mind. Few people could have achieved the things he did. He was remarkable. I still think of his leadership, and his ability to inspire the British to hang on, fight on, and "never surrender." When one considers his overall achievement, his petty faults, and personal foibles don't matter all that much. God knows FDR had them as well. All leaders have them. Churchill's are easy to understand. At any rate, Reynolds wrote a book which is worth the time and effort. There are some hidden gems of information (Churchill felt that when life ended, it would be like "black velvet," or sinking into non-existence). There are facts about the war that are new, and interesting. Its a good book, and serves a purpose for fans of Churchill, or those interested in the writing of a huge history.

Forget Bill Clinton read Churchill!

When former President Clinton released his autobiography some months ago this was seen as a political and literary event. All this pales in comparison to when Winston Churchill published his 6 volumes of history on the Second World War from 1949 to 1954. These works are the subject of David Reynolds highly interesting book `In Command of History'. Unlike Clinton, Churchill was hardly retired; he was leader of the opposition Tory party, giving significant speeches across Europe and North America, renewing his interest in painting and in 1950 he was also 75 years old. All Churchill's colleagues would remark on his boundless energy - particularly given the fact that he hardly took any regular exercise. Churchill was also a prolific author before World War II having written a history of the Great War, a volume on the Duke of Marlborough (his ancestor) and his `History of the English Speaking People's' had yet to be completed. As soon as Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940 speculation was rising about the future book to be published. Towards the end of the war various publisher's were `frothing at the bit' and Cassell in England and Houghton Mifflin in the U.S. won. As well, there were serialization rights in major English newspapers and in the U.S. The New York Times and the now defunct Life magazine negotiated these rights in the U.S. and in addition provided working vacations for Churchill and his entourage in lavish resorts in France, Switzerland and North Africa - for enhancement of the writing process. Both Henry Luce of Time/Life and Arthur Sulzberger of the New York Times were internationalists who had long admired Churchill. In his book Reynolds writes that Churchill was writing history within history. He was not writing about events of long ago in which the protagonists were long gone. The book is divided into 6 sections to correspond with the 6 volumes. It examines the era of the volume versus the time it was actually written in. In England Anthony Eden was titular head of the Conservative party while Churchill was off writing and speech-making. Also Eden had long been foreseen as replacing the aging Churchill as head of the Conservative Party. This is reflected in the writings of the `Second World War'. Churchill claims to have been extremely distraught when Eden resigned as foreign minister from the Chamberlain government - was this really the case or was Churchill trying to over-play the emphasis Eden had on him? He needed Eden at the time of writing (1948-49) to substitute as head of the Conservative Party for him. At the time of Eden's resignation in 1938 they were not considered to be allies. Another interesting fact Reynolds brings up is that the British parliament allowed Churchill to publish his own government war memo's (of which there were thousands). However, because of confidentiality, Churchill was not allowed to publish responses to these memo`s. It gives the impression throughout the 6 volumes of Churchill si

Winston Churchill the Writer On The Topic Of Winston Churchill The War Leader

Prime Minister Winston Churchill started his career as a twenty-something journalist covering the Boer War back at the turn of the century. As was his habit, he became the story when he was captured by and then escaped from the South African Boers -- his journalistic tale launched his political career. Mr. Churchill, an accomplished writer, repeated this pattern of either writing about himself or his ancestors constantly (mixed in with his histories of America/England) to support his family during a low paying political career. The need for cash to support his expensive life-style led to his multi-volume epic "The Second World War" and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Anyone familiar with either William Manchester's or Martin Giblert's extensive biographies of Mr. Churchill is aware of his idiosyncratic and unique production of research and writing. After entertaining guests in the evening, he would either write or dictate through the night while leaving research of original sources to his devoted staff. He was a great synthesizer of information and a gifted writer who knew how to turn a phrase (see his speeches during World War II). Mr. Reynolds covers the six year period when Mr. Churchill was out of political office and in his home office writing, essentially his wartime memoirs, while trying to cover the entire history of the War. Mr. Reynolds points out that the Prime Minister had a selective memory in favor of his own role -- in this regard he was no different from Mark Twain who told his audience the truth as he remembered it. With "The Second World War," Churchill was a second-tier historian and a first-rate storyteller. Mr Reynolds has extensively researched his own history of Mr. Churchill writing his history. "In Command of History" could had been trimmed down from its 600+ pages but when Churchill is front and center, it is a fascinating book for the reader.