July 3

The Great Courses: Churchill (2001)
By Rufus Fears

Any good book on Winston Churchill is worth reading.  Many of them are quite lengthy or multi-volumed, such as the late Theodore Manchester's The Last Lion, which reviews Churchill's entire life.   Others examine only his youth, such as Michael Shelton's Young Titan; some titles examine a specific time or relationship such as Kenneth Wiesbrode's Wartime Alliance: Churchill and the King.  Some are memoirs written by someone who knew him well, like Mary Churchill Soames' A Daughter's Tale.  (These are all titles written within the last 6 years; there are way more.)

Considered the most influential Briton of the 20th century; it's always good to examine the life and career of this brilliant man from time to time. Having recently seen the movie "Darkest Hour" chronicling the early days of Churchill's first term as Prime Minister, and his insistence (with almost no support) to stand up to Hitler, I listened to the late Prof Rufus Fears give a series of 12 lectures on the life of Winston Churchill.  Some of the takeaways from this lecture series are:

Churchill's love for his family - despite being raised by mostly absentee, uninvolved parents

Churchill's career as a writer:  From ~1926-1936 he was not serving in parliament, and turned to writing as a way to make a living.  He wrote mostly biographies (some very lengthy and all deeply researched) and works on war and politics.  He continued to write throughout the rest of his life, but was amazingly productive during this period, earning over $1M for his works (yes, that in dollars, not pounds). Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.

Churchill's career as a painter: He turned to painting as a way to relax and produced many works, primarily landscapes.  Although he did not sell any paintings in his lifetime, his paintings now often sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

He foresaw many world events that were ridiculed in his time:

-that the USSR would become an adversary following WW2 when that nation was an ally
-that the nations of Europe should band together (the EU0
-that the nations of Europe and the United States should develop an alliance (NATO)

Oh, for that prophetic voice today!





Favorite Churchill quotes: 

"If you're going through hell, keep going."

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."