Sir Winston S. Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."
Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published.
During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positions—including President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitler—and played an important part in the Allies’ eventual triumph.
One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works.
As a 22-year-old subaltern in the 4th Hussars stationed in Bangalore in 1897, Winston Churchill was an ambitious young soldier. Seeking military distinction, he talked his way onto the Malakand Field Force to battle restless frontier tribes after meeting the commander, Sir Bindon Blood, at a social engagement. There were no openings for junior officers--but Churchill convinced the commander to allow him to come along as a war correspondent. And thus a great career was born.
This book shows the determination and spirit that would later mature into the indomitable personality of Winston Churchill in his prime. While not as polished as his later work, it is still elegantly crafted--and shows a brash willingness to criticize military leaders, including Lord Kitchener himself. It is one of Churchill's more rare works; until a new edition was published in 1990, it had been out of print in English since 1916.
In 1931, Britain's Conservative Party proposed the India Bill--a piece of proposed legislation that made significant changes to the way India governed itself under British rule. Winston Churchill, with a distinguished history of military service and war correspondence in India behind him, took a position on this bill independent of the party line--and fought for it with characteristic conviction and oratory brilliance.
This book contains seven speeches and three important addresses on the subject, printed originally to generate popular support for Churchill's opinion. It should be noted that Churchill's opposition to Indian home rule is one of his more controversial political positions. Despite the strength of his oration, his attempt failed--and the India Bill was approved by Parliament in 1935. Documenting a rare loss for Churchill, these speeches provide an important insight into his mind and strategy as a political leader.
In this third volume of a six-volume series, Winston Churchill draws upon thousands of personal memoranda, war correspondence, and internal government memos to describe the full entry of the US into World War II--adding considerable strength to British military operations and morale. While America had contributed to the British war effort before, primarily through the "Lend-Lease" program providing material support to Britain and later to Russia, it was Churchill who finally persuaded an isolationist US Congress to fully join the cause. This account not only documents historical events with thrilling immediacy--it also gives intimate insight into Churchill's state of mind as a military leader. With the US on Britain's side, Churchill's certainty of success stayed with him throughout the war--and made him the indomitable leader history remembers.
