Winston Churchill

by John Keegan

Book Overview

When today's world leaders need inspiration and strength in times of crisis, they often turn to Winston Churchill, quoting him and citing his heroic example. The son of a member of Parliament, Churchill, a poor academic student, wanted to be a soldier early in life. But after he escaped from a South African prison camp, his national fame catapulted him into a life of politics. In this Penguin Life, the eminent historian John Keegan charts Churchill's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670030791
• ISBN13: 9780670030798
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A truly nice little biography of a great man

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...

Exceptional Biography by an Exceptional Scholar

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.

An Excellent Little Biography

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.

"Where lies the right?"

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 a