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.
In the 1930s, well before Britain entered the War, Winston Churchill warned about the Nazi threat building in the east--even as many European leaders were urging caution and diplomacy. Arms and the Covenant is a collection of forty-one of Churchill's speeches from 1928 to 1938--speeches that would prove highly prescient, and ultimately successful in inspiring Britain's action as the first country to stand against Hitler.
The speeches range in tone from weighty solemnity to an almost lighthearted approach. Notable among these speeches is "The Disarmament Fable," in which Churchill presents the case for disarmament in the guise of negotiations among animals as to who should be allowed to keep their horns, and who should be permitted teeth and claws.
This volume presents a fascinating look at Churchill's tactics in convincing the British government and public of the rising danger building in the east--and at his versatility and skill as one of the best orators of the twentieth century.
In 1903, Winston Churchill was at the cusp of a brilliant political career--a newly elected Parliament member with a brash, aggressive style of oration and passionate political convictions. During this time, John Brodrick, the Secretary of State for War, proposed an expansion of Britain's peacetime military--a plan which Churchill strongly opposed.
Churchill attacked Brodrick's plan in six fiery speeches on the subject--speeches that generated strong support and left Brodrick politically isolated. Mr. Brodrick's Army is a compilation of all six of these speeches. With fewer than 20 first editions currently in existence, it is the rarest of Churchill's works--remarkable not only for its historical significance, but for its early display of the oratorical brilliance for which Churchill would become known.
Winston Churchill’s political career did not end with the conclusion of World War II. While his career would never reach the heights it did during the war, he held on to political influence for some time. And from 1945 to 1951, he was Leader of the Opposition—the minority party in the English government.
While some saw this new position as an unfortunate demotion for a once great political leader, in truth, he embraced it with his characteristic panache—clearly shown in this collection of fifty-two of his speeches and broadcasts delivered during this time, when Churchill worked to preserve Britain’s influence in the world even as its Imperial history was coming to a close. While not as powerful as he once was, Churchill’s oratory still rings—and his wit still shines.
