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.
The first volume of Winston Churchill's six-volume memoirs as a statesman and leader during World War II, The Gathering Storm begins with his thoughts on World War I--and how its ending laid the foundations for the next global conflict. As a military and political leader during both wars, Churchill was well placed to give readers a behind-the-scenes tour of history as it was being created, by a man who had a definitive part in shaping it. The volume continues with contemporary letters and memoranda from the British government documenting the country's terrifying descent into war. As Prime Minister during World War II, Churchill possessed a unique understanding of these documents' connection to historical events--and guides the reader through them with vivid narrative skill.
Once the war was over, the story didn't end-not for Churchill, and not for the West. Volume 4 of Churchill's five-volume series The World Crisis documents the fallout of World War I-including the Irish Treaty, the peace conferences between Greece and Turkey; and news articles from noted contemporaries.The period immediately after World War I was extremely chaotic-and it takes a genius of narrative description and organization to accurately and accessibly describe it for us. Churchill manages to accomplish this with evident skill, depicting the international disorganization and anarchy present immediately after the war-with the unique perspective of both a historian and a political insider.
The fifth in Winston Churchill's six-volume account of World War II picks up at the dawn of a more optimistic time for the Allied forces. After considerable struggle, the balance has finally shifted toward the Allies--and in Closing the Ring, Winston Churchill documents the drive toward victory. With the visionary perspective of one who has both documented and shaped history, Churchill tells us of the destruction of the once-formidable armies of the Third Reich, the bombings of Berlin, and the panic that descended among Hitler's inner circle. Churchill's writing is masterful and highly readable--providing a compelling narrative account of the Allies' end game. But victory was bittersweet for Churchill, who saw the greatness of the British Empire fading even as the war was won. This definitive work provides an intimate look at both this volatile period in history and in Churchill himself--both as a wartime leader and as an individual.
