![]() Not being a professional does allow Churchill to emphasize historical moments that might not seem as important in other histories. The man was walking, talking, and thinking History itself. That said, I would give Sir Winston his honorary doctorate. I'm not complaining, but I did get the sense that Churchill probably was following the story-telling arc of other historians. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it probably explains why Churchill didn't bother much with notes (there are hardly any). (Actually, that Shakespearean detail is not in Churchill's account of the battle.) In his introduction, Churchill cautions that his history is not to be viewed as the effort of a professional historian, but is more a"personal view" on historical matters he finds significant. This is the first volume of a four volume history of the English-Speaking, and it covers the misty and mysterious beginnings of "Britannia" (about 55 years before Christ), up through Richard III looking for his horse at the battle of Bosworth. The sentences roll on, and the pages, tiny print and all, also roll on by. It's really this aspect of both authors that I find so enjoyable, that they're philosophers as well as historians, and are as interested in and have as much to say about the human nature driving great events as they do about the events themselves.Ĭhurchill could really write. ![]() In those moments you have absolutely no trouble picturing him delivering the speeches he's so famous for thundering in front parliament or great armies, and swaying world events. ![]() Like Gibbon, Churchill's prose, while always engaging and expansive becomes, when he reaches a subject or a moment that he's particularly passionate about, epic, powerful, and moving. I can also see how Churchill received a Nobel Prize in literature. I have to say that, so far (this the first volume) I can definitely see a similarity between the two works, both in terms of the history itself and the writing style. I originally picked this book up because I read that Churchill was inspired by Gibbon, whose Decline and Fall is one of the most amazing works I've ever read. The first volume - The Birth of Britain - tells the story of the formation of the British state, from the arrival of Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire through the invasions of the Vikings and the Normans, the signing of the Magna Carta and establishment of the mother of parliaments to the War of the Roses. Begun during Churchill's 'wilderness years' when he was out of government, first published in 1956 after his leadership through the darkest days of World War II had cemented his place in history and completed when Churchill was in his 80s, it remains to this day a compelling and vivid history. Churchill's most magnificent literary works. Spanning four volumes and many centuries of history, from Caesar's invasion of Britain to the start of World War I, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples stands as one of Winston S. "This history will endure not only because Sir Winston has written it, but also because of its own inherent virtues - its narrative power, its fine judgment of war and politics, of soldiers and statesmen, and even more because it reflects a tradition of what Englishmen in the hey-day of their empire thought and felt about their country's past." The Daily Telegraph
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