| Churchill - A Biography
(2001)
|
| Front Cover |
Book Details |
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| Genre |
Biography; Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965; Great Britain - Politics and government - 20th century; Prime ministers - Great Britain - Biography |
| Publication Date |
11/15/2001 |
| Format |
Hardcover (9.6
x
6.4
mm)
|
| Publisher |
Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Language |
English |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
|
| Description |
A brilliant new life of Britain's greatest modern prime minister.
Winston Churchill is an icon of modern history, but even though he was at the forefront of the political scene for almost sixty years, he might be remembered only as a minor player in the drama of British government had it not been for World War II. In this magesterial book, Roy Jenkin's unparalleled command of the political history of Britain and his own high-level experience combine in a narrative account of Churchill's astounding career that is unmatched in its shrewd insights, its unforgettable anecdotes, the clarity of its overarching themes, and the author's nuanced appreciation of his extraordinary subject.From a very young age, Churchill believed he was destined to play a great role in the life of his nation, and he determined to prepare himself. Jenkins shows in fascinating detail how Churchill educated himself for greatness, how he worked out his livelihood (writing) as well as his professional life (politics), how he situated himself at every major site or moment in British imperial and governmental life. His parliamentary career was like no other - with its changes of allegiance (from the Conservative to the Liberal and back to the Conservative Party), its troughs and humiliations, its triumphs and peaks - and for decades almost no one besides his wife discerned the greatness to come. Jenkins effortlessly evokes the spirit of Westminster through all these decades, especially the crisis years of the late 1930s and the terrifying 1940s, when at last it was clear how vital Churchill was to the very survival of England. He evaluates Churchill's other accomplishments, his writings, with equal authority.Exceptional in its breadth of knowledge and distinguished in its stylish wit and penetrating intelligence, this is one of the finest political biographies of our time. |
| Personal Details |
| Acquire Date |
6/10/2010 |
| Condition |
Very Good/Good |
| Rating |
0 |
| Links |
Library of Congress
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| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
DA566.9.C5 .J46 2001 |
| Dewey |
941.084092 |
| ISBN |
9780374123543 |
| Edition |
[1st ed.] |
| Cover Price |
$40.00 |
| No. of Pages |
1023 |
| First Edition |
Yes |
| Rare |
No |
|
| Notes/Review |
Weighing in at a thousand pages, this tome sat on my bookshelf for several years before I mustered the strength to pick it up.
Churchill was a fascinating character, superhuman in some ways and all too human in others. Jenkins has written biographies of Attlee, Balfour, Asquith, Baldwin, and Gladstone, so he has the chops to take on this subject. And I'll admit that I haven't consulted a dictionary so often since reading Buckley's Blackford Oakes books.
This is the only Churchill biography I've read (or intend to read) so I can't compare it to others, but I found it enjoyable, readable, and thoroughly researched. I typically expect that any author who expends so much effort on a subject will tend to cast him in a favorable light. No doubt each author's journey with a subject is unique, but I find this tendency nearly universal. Here, Jenkins even confesses it at the end: "I now put Churchill ... as the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street."
When reading non-fiction, a sign that I found the work interesting and fulfilling is how many future reads I glean from the bibliography. For this book, it isn't so much the bibliography but the books that Churchill wrote. I already have his The Second World War (which I attempted to read straight through quite a long time ago, and now just read individual passages from). I find myself interested in reading his massive work on World War I, The World Crisis.
I've put a lot of time into reading the biographies of US Presidents (aiming to read them all, at least up to Reagan) and somewhat less time in reading about Russian tsars and Soviet rulers. I've been considering taking on some sort of rigorous program reading British Prime Ministers, but this will probably be much more limited. Reading about Churchill didn't really fan those flames of desire and may have quenched them somewhat. This is not a fault of Jenkins. I did gain some basic understanding of how UK government operates but I don't find myself any more curious about their history than I was before I started. |
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