(Drivebycuriosity) - I just finished reading a Churchill biography with 1077 pages: "Churchill: A Life" by Martin Gilbert (amazon). What did I learn? Everybody knows that Winston Churchill was one of the most important persons of the 20th century and an outstanding statesman. But he was much more, he also was a writer (who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953), painter, adventurer, innovator, warrior and much more.
Churchill was certainly privileged as the son of a Lord who was a high ranking politician and member of an aristocratic family with plenty of money and connections to the highest places. But he could have wasted it all, as many other privileged did. Instead he dealt well with his birth advantages and made even much more of his assets, as this biography shows.
Churchill had a lot contemporary admirers, but enemies, enviers & skeptics as well. One of his political colleagues - and skeptics -, UK Prime minister Stanley Baldwin, said "that when Winston was born lots of fairies
swooped down on his cradle with gifts - imagination, eloquence,
industry, ability - and then came a fairy who said ´No one person has a
right to so many gifts`, picked him up and gave him such a shake and
twist that with all these gifts he was denied judgement and wisdom. And
that is why while we delight to listen to him in this House we do not
take his advice". Churchill himself said once: "We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow-worm".
Churchill was a dare devil and took high risks in war & in peace times. In his youth he seemed to be hungry to proof himself in military action and joined the Spanish army in the war against Cuban rebels, he fought in India & in Afghanistan, in Sudan against Dervishes (a forerunner of ISIS) and in South Africa against the Boers (descendants of Dutch colonists). In World War I he joined the French army, commanded a battalion and spend days in the trenches under the shelling of the German artillery. From the Sudan war he wrote to his mother "Nothing, not even the certain
knowledge of approaching destruction, would make me turn back now, even
if I could with honor. But I shall come back afterwards the wiser and
the stronger for my gamble".
Even in peace time he took extreme risks. Before WW I he tried to acquire a flying license
even though flying was highly dangerous in these times and 2 of his flight instructors
got killed in the same planes he had used. Churchill`s reminds me of the Friedrich Nietzsche quote: "What doesn´t kill me, will make me stronger".
The Key To National Prosperity
His political position can be described as liberal-conservative. He started a career in the Conservative Party (Tories) following the traditions of his family and class but he criticized the party leaders for the brutality of the British army in the war against the South African opponents (Buers) and their negligence of the the extreme poverty in the country. He was also a proponent for social reforms including unemployment insurance and State-aided pensions for widows and orphans.
He fought against the protectionist leaders of the Conservative Party who wanted to protect British industry with higher tariffs. Instead Churchill "defended the economic merits of Free Trade and open competition in the commercial markets of the world". He said "protection would raise prices and cause growing international tension, not only economic but political". When a correspondent insisted that the taxation of imported goods was the key to national prosperity, Churchill replied, "I would look to improvements in scientific and technical education, to light taxation, to pacific policy and to a stable and orderly state of society as the best means of stimulating the commercial prosperity of our country".
For his political targets he was willing to sacrifice his early career, at least temporarily, and accepted to become isolated in the Conservative Party. He moved to the Liberal Party and accepted to sit on the opposition benches in the House of Commons from which he verbally attacked the British government setting him at odds with the Conservative world of his family and class.
Churchill`s individuality curbed his political career for many years. But in World War II he made a political comeback and became finally Prime Minister for the Tories (Conservative Party) because there was nobody who could match him and he was dearly needed as leader of the nation. He managed the British fight against Germany almost like a dictator but also with high personal commitment. He behaved almost
self-sacrificing and in spite of growing health problems he spend many days & hours at sea and in the air for his travels in order to organize Britain`s war efforts and to persuade US president Roosevelt to join the war as British ally. He had ambivalent feelings towards to his war ally Stalin. He needed the dictator
in the war against Germany but he also noticed Stalin´s despotism & terror and the growing danger to the West. US President Eisenhower noticed in the early 1950s "that there had not been any
change in the Soviet policy of destroying the capitalist free world by
all means, by force, by deceit or by lies" and "it was clear there had been no change since Lenin" (page 921) .
Renaissance Man
Churchill was not only a politician. He was a kind of renaissance man with lots of interests & talents, driven by curiosity. He traveled a lot and spend a good part of his life on trains, boats & planes which enhanced his intellectual horizon. And he was a visionary. Churchill believed in technological progress and promoted it. In 1912 he declared "now our machines (airplanes) are frail. One day they will be robust, and of value to our country". He impressed the pilots then that he wished "to learn their dangerous craft". He also saw early the importance of submarines for military purposes, he was closely involved in the inception of the tank and a pioneer in the evolution of anti-aircraft defense. "From his early years, Churchill had an uncanny understanding and vision of the future unfolding of events", wrote his biographer.
Churchill showed early strong literary ambitions and used many occasions to
develop his writing skills, spending a growing amount time for editing & refining his publications and became a gifted writer. Many newspapers & magazines published his letters & telegrams about his military experiences spiced with his & insights of the political situation which gave him an additional income. He culminated his comments into a novel & a lot of nonfiction books based
on his experiences from wars & political life, including a four-volume history History of the English-Speaking Peoples published in the 1950s. Maybe this continuous writing process sharpened his mind and helped to shape Churchill into an outstanding person. His publications were widely read and might have helped his career against all political headwinds.
Churchill also had a strong affinity for painting. In World War I he surprised his fellow soldiers by installing an easel and painting the shelled neighborhood. Later he often used spare time & breaks to work on his paintings and he created a lot impressionist landscapes. "Painting absorbed the mental energies which would otherwise brood on politics".
I not only learned a lot about an outstanding person, Churchill`s biography is also a valuable introduction into the global history in the first half of the 20th century. The book helps to understand how & why the global political landscape had changed in 5 decades.
"Churchill: A Life" is highly recommended!
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