'A History of the English-Speaking Peoples' by Winston Spencer Churchill (Book Review)

Book Review

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples
by
Winston Spencer Churchill

(Four Volume original Set First Edition published
by
Cassell & Co Ltd London
1956 )

I rank this Work
alongside the parchments
of earlier centuries

I

A SUPERB RETURN to my library. When I reviewed this in February, we were still finding our way back into a world with which, because of my age, I am only too familiar. I had reconciled myself to leaving the European Union, even though I had voted to remain. This week I find I am relieved we are indeed able to have a naturally global outlook. Islanders look outward. Those within large continental land-masses tend to look inward unless their ambitions are shady or menacing.

So, AUKUS is a breath of fresh air. It is nothing about ruling the waves. It is about maintaining international peace, something that the English-speaking Peoples are good at.

II

I first read Churchill's Work in the 1960s-70s when it was serialised. But reading the original 1956 text in four Volumes now, fifty years on is a very different experience. 



We know much more now about many of the things the author writes of, but that is simply because of the advanced methods of research at our disposal. Indeed, this onward progress in historical development and analysis is referred to often by the author as he moves us through the era of Roman Britain - at its zenith, perhaps even an era of enlightenment - before Rome withdrew and Britannia plunged into the long dark night of century upon century that, at school, we labelled the Dark Ages.

Dark they were, indeed!

III

At a time when some might wish to rewrite history or remove parts of history, this four-volume set is now even more important.

We must examine every aspect of history. We must have the ability to shine that beam of light into the darkest corners of every room of history, however small, however large. What we must not do is whitewash or black-wash history.

There is much work to be done.

And it is with excitement that I read the author’s work penned, in fact, before the war and which came to an abrupt stop in 1939 when, on 3 September 1939 he returned to government as First Lord of the Admiralty, before being summoned to the Palace on 10 May 1940 and asked by the King to form a government of national unity.

What has surprised me perhaps more than anything, is the very clear evidence of what lay ahead as the clouds of war loomed, and the stark reality of what faced everyone, epitomised in the now famous wartime speeches, but whose roots we clearly find in Churchill’s pre-war manuscript.

As I have written elsewhere, he did indeed epitomise that expression, Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man.

I rank this Work alongside the parchments of earlier centuries.

Today ~ January 2023

When this was last reviewed in September 2021 I had not envisaged the War in Ukraine. We knew things were becoming increasingly difficult, and we hoped that diplomacy would win the day and that Russia would not do to Ukraine what Nazi Germany did to Russia in June 1941.

Throughout my teenage years and then on into adulthood, the expression Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man and Winston Churchill were synonymous.

Readers of the Ukraine Dispatches will know that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, is not only synonymous with the expression Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man, but that President Zelenskyy is doing exactly that which Winston Churchill did in “the dark and lamentable days” of 1940.

It is absolutely crucial therefore that President Zelenskyy be included in this review.

Yes, it is a review of Churchill’s encyclopedic work on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. My point though is this.

For those detractors who would argue that this is irrelevant, I would say this. President Zelenskyy speaks fluent English. Do you speak Ukrainian? No? Ah. I think perhaps my point is clear now. Come on. Let’s sit down and enjoy a pot of tea or coffee or something stronger if you prefer.

4 January 2023
All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874 - 1965)