Talk:Winston Churchill as historian

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Contents 1 Value of article 2 H.G. Wells and Winston Churchill 3 Bibliography? 4 Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples

[edit] Value of article

This appears to be original research? —Preceding unsigned comment added by CaughtLBW (talk • contribs) 21 February 2007

[edit] H.G. Wells and Winston Churchill

I do not understand why H.G. Wells' opinion of Churchill's writing is so important as to deserve to be mentioned on this page. The World Crisis is a masterpiece. Wells wrote (mediocre) science fiction books, he was not a historian (in fact his 'Outline of History' was shamelessly plagiarized, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outline_of_History), nor a respected politician, nor a history maker, not even a prominent writer. He was a Communist and a Utopian who understood little about the realities of waging a world war. I feel that it is ridiculous to allow Wikipedia to become a channel of communist and socialist propaganda, particularly with regard to a person of the stature of Sir Winston Churchill. Wells was a paperback writer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rmn1791 (talk • contribs) 24 May 2007

It is easy for a novelist to critise a leader of men whom faced the supreme challenge of the time. We are all bound by our backgrounds, our social origins. Winston faced fascism square in the face when most could not. What better could you want from a man?

This article is about Churchill as historian, and not his political positions and achievements. As such, Wells' criticism of Churchill may be worth noting, as is the criticism he has recieved from other notable authors and historians for this writings. --Nick Dowling 09:55, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bibliography?

Shouldn't we have a list of all the books Churchill wrote? And publication dates, of course. Wellesradio 17:35, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples

The present text of this article derides Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples in one location as having been "written primarily to raise money," and later (while admitting that the H.E.S.P. was among the writings that earned Churchill the Nobel Prize in Literature) further derogates it as being "very old-fashioned, seeing world history as a one-dimensional pageant of battles and speeches, kings and statesmen, in which the English occupy central stage," plus "[a]lthough Churchill's enormous prestige ensured that the books were respectfully received and sold well, they are now little read" — all asserted without citation.

How radical that a history titularly primarily about the English-speaking peoples would be found to be mostly about… you guessed it.

In any event (further sarcasm forthcoming), Churchill's H.E.S.P. is really universally regarded so poorly these days that noted American historian Henry Steele Commager produced in 1991 an abridged one-volume edition of Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples specifically so folks could better avoid encountering it. As Commager wrote in his Preface:

“Like almost everything Winston Churchill wrote […] A History of the English-Speaking Peoples was a very personal book. This history was a project long close to Churchill's heart and long in his mind, as well. He began work on it in the thirties, when he was out of office; he returned to it again after he had helped guide the English-speaking peoples to victory in the Second World War; it represented therefore almost two decades of thought and of writing.”

So much for it being primarily about “making money.” Commager continues:

“It is a grave responsibility to cut and trim and arrange a classic, which has, after all, its own proportions and its own symmetry. But if the four-volume A History of the English-Speaking Peoples is to be made available in a single volume, there is no alternative. Needless to say I have scrupulously respected the original text; everything here is as Churchill wrote it. But I have reduced the book to approximately half its original length. […] This book is not, after all, meant for scholars, who will go to the original [as Commager clearly thinks scholars might want to do –MEM], but for the large reading public which Churchill himself most wanted to reach and for young people, in school and out. […] And as this book is designed primarily for American readers, I have given proportionately larger space to the story of the expansion of England, to the Empire, the Commonwealth, and the United States, than Churchill gave in the four volumes of the History.”

I like the unabridged version better myself, but Commager's effort to make the work more accessible to folks generally speaks volumes, I think, about how he at least regarded Churchill's History.

As far as the earlier text of the article's asserted "one-dimensional pageant of battles and speeches, kings and statesmen" is concerned, I found Churchill's history — he being a parliamentarian while very clearly far from a devotee of the "divine right of kings" — to be quite valuable as an introduction to the development and evolution of Parliamentary government and its institutions, from its roots in the Medieval period and beyond through the modern epoch.

Thus, in my view, most of the disparaging commentary about the H.E.S.P. is biased garbage and should be junked.

Michael McNeil (talk) 05:18, 21 May 2008 (UTC)