Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts (PDF)

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLEROne of The Wall Street Journal’s Ten Best Books of 2018One of The Economist’s Best Books of 2018One of The New York Times’s Notable Books of 2018“Unarguably the best single-volume biography of Churchill . . . A brilliant feat of storytelling, monumental in scope, yet put together with tenderness for a man who had always believed that he would be Britain’s savior.” —Wall Street JournalIn this landmark biography of Winston Churchill based on extensive new material, the true genius of the man, statesman and leader can finally be fully seen and understood–by the bestselling, award-winning author of Napoleon and The Last King of America.When we seek an example of great leaders with unalloyed courage, the person who comes to mind is Winston Churchill: the iconic, visionary war leader immune from the consensus of the day, who stood firmly for his beliefs when everyone doubted him. But how did young Winston become Churchill? What gave him the strength to take on the superior force of Nazi Germany when bombs rained on London and so many others had caved? In Churchill, Andrew Roberts gives readers the full and definitive Winston Churchill, from birth to lasting legacy, as personally revealing as it is compulsively readable.Roberts gained exclusive access to extensive new material: transcripts of War Cabinet meetings, diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs from Churchill’s contemporaries. The Royal Family permitted Roberts–in a first for a Churchill biographer–to read the detailed notes taken by King George VI in his diary after his weekly meetings with Churchill during World War II. This treasure trove of access allows Roberts to understand the man in revelatory new ways, and to identify the hidden forces fueling Churchill’s legendary drive.We think of Churchill as a hero who saved civilization from the evils of Nazism and warned of the grave crimes of Soviet communism, but Roberts’s masterwork reveals that he has as much to teach us about the challenges leaders face today–and the fundamental values of courage, tenacity, leadership and moral conviction.

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⭐At the point that Andrew Roberts sat down to write a new biography of Winston Churchill, there were a total of 1009 biographies of the man in print, examining every aspect of his life from a multitude of viewpoints. Works include the encyclopedic three-volume

⭐by William Manchester and Paul Reid, and Roy Jenkins’ single-volume

⭐, which concentrates on Churchill’s political career. Such books may seem to many readers to say just about everything about Churchill there is to be said from the abundant documentation available for his life. What could a new biography possibly add to the story?As the author demonstrates in this magnificent and weighty book (1152 pages, 982 of main text), a great deal. Earlier Churchill biographers laboured under the constraint that many of Churchill’s papers from World War II and the postwar era remained under the seal of official secrecy. These included the extensive notes taken by King George VI during his weekly meetings with the Prime Minister during the war and recorded in his personal diary. The classified documents were made public only fifty years after the end of the war, and the King’s wartime diaries were made available to the author by special permission granted by the King’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.The royal diaries are an invaluable source on Churchill’s candid thinking as the war progressed. As a firm believer in constitutional monarchy, Churchill withheld nothing in his discussions with the King. Even the deepest secrets, such as the breaking of the German codes, the information obtained from decrypted messages, and atomic secrets, which were shared with only a few of the most senior and trusted government officials, were discussed in detail with the King. Further, while Churchill was constantly on stage trying to hold the Grand Alliance together, encourage Britons to stay in the fight, and advance his geopolitical goals which were often at variance with even the Americans, with the King he was brutally honest about Britain’s situation and what he was trying to accomplish. Oddly, perhaps the best insight into Churchill’s mind as the war progressed comes not from his own

⭐of the war, but rather the pen of the King, writing only to himself. In addition, sources such as verbatim notes of the war cabinet, diaries of the Soviet ambassador to the U.K. during the 1930s through the war, and other recently-disclosed sources resulted in, as the author describes it, there being something new on almost every page.The biography is written in an entirely conventional manner: the author eschews fancy stylistic tricks in favour of an almost purely chronological recounting of Churchill’s life, flipping back and forth from personal life, British politics, the world stage and Churchill’s part in the events of both the Great War and World War II, and his career as an author and shaper of opinion.Winston Churchill was an English aristocrat, but not a member of the nobility. A direct descendant of John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough. As only the first son inherits the title, although Randolph bore the honorific “Lord”, he was a commoner and his children, including first-born Winston, received no title. Lord Randolph was elected to the House of Commons in 1874, the year of Winston’s birth, and would serve until his death in 1895, having been Chancellor of the Exchequer, Leader of the House of Commons, and Secretary of State for India. His death, aged just forty-five (rumoured at the time to be from syphilis, but now attributed to a brain tumour, as his other symptoms were inconsistent with syphilis), along with the premature deaths of three aunts and uncles at early ages, convinced the young Winston his own life might be short and that if he wanted to accomplish great things, he had no time to waste.In terms of his subsequent career, his father’s early death might have been an unappreciated turning point in Winston Churchill’s life. Had his father retired from the House of Commons prior to his death, he would almost certainly have been granted a peerage in return for his long service. When he subsequently died, Winston, as eldest son, would have inherited the title and hence not been entitled to serve in the House of Commons. It is thus likely that had his father not died while still an MP, the son would never have had the political career he did nor have become prime minister in 1940.Young, from a distinguished family, wealthy (by the standards of the average Briton, but not compared to the landed aristocracy or titans of industry and finance), ambitious, and seeking novelty and adventures to the point of recklessness, the young Churchill believed he was meant to accomplish great things in however many years Providence might grant him on Earth. In 1891, at the age of just 16, he confided to a friend,“I can see vast changes coming over a now peaceful world, great upheavals, terrible struggles; wars such as one cannot imagine; and I tell you London will be in danger — London will be attacked and I shall be very prominent in the defence of London. … This country will be subjected, somehow, to a tremendous invasion, by what means I do not know, but I tell you I shall be in command of the defences of London and I shall save London and England from disaster. … I repeat — London will be in danger and in the high position I shall occupy, it will fall to me to save the capital and save the Empire. ”He was, thus, from an early age, not one likely to be daunted by the challenges he assumed when, almost five decades later at an age (66) when many of his contemporaries retired, he faced a situation uncannily similar to that he imagined in boyhood.Churchill’s formal education ended at age 20 with his graduation from the military academy at Sandhurst and commissioning as a second lieutenant in the cavalry. A voracious reader, he educated himself in history, science, politics, philosophy, literature, and the classics, while ever expanding his mastery of the English language, both written and spoken. Seeking action, and finding no war in which he could participate as a British officer, he managed to persuade a London newspaper to hire him as a war correspondent and set off to cover an insurrection in Cuba against its Spanish rulers. His dispatches were well received, earning five guineas per article, and he continued to file dispatches as a war correspondent even while on active duty with British forces. By 1901, he was the highest-paid war correspondent in the world, having earned the equivalent of £1 million today from his columns, books, and lectures.He subsequently saw action in India and the Sudan, participating in the last great cavalry charge of the British army in the Battle of Omdurman, which he described along with the rest of the Mahdist War in his book,

⭐. In October 1899, funded by the Morning Post, he set out for South Africa to cover the Second Boer War. Covering the conflict, he was taken prisoner and held in a camp until, in December 1899, he escaped and crossed 300 miles of enemy territory to reach Portuguese East Africa. He later returned to South Africa as a cavalry lieutenant, participating in the Siege of Ladysmith and capture of Pretoria, continuing to file dispatches with the Morning Post which were later collected into a book.Upon his return to Britain, Churchill found that his wartime exploits and writing had made him a celebrity. Eleven Conservative associations approached him to run for Parliament, and he chose to run in Oldham, narrowly winning. His victory was part of a massive landslide by the Unionist coalition, which won 402 seats versus 268 for the opposition. As the author notes,“Before the new MP had even taken his seat, he had fought in four wars, published five books,… written 215 newspaper and magazine articles, participated in the greatest cavalry charge in half a century and made a spectacular escape from prison. ”This was not a man likely to disappear into the mass of back-benchers and not rock the boat.Churchill’s views on specific issues over his long career defy those who seek to put him in one ideological box or another, either to cite him in favour of their views or vilify him as an enemy of all that is (now considered) right and proper. For example, Churchill was often denounced as a bloodthirsty warmonger, but in 1901, in just his second speech in the House of Commons, he rose to oppose a bill proposed by the Secretary of War, a member of his own party, which would have expanded the army by 50%. He argued,“A European war cannot be anything but a cruel, heart-rending struggle which, if we are ever to enjoy the bitter fruits of victory, must demand, perhaps for several years, the whole manhood of the nation, the entire suspension of peaceful industries, and the concentrating to one end of every vital energy in the community. … A European war can only end in the ruin of the vanquished and the scarcely less fatal commercial dislocation and exhaustion of the conquerors. Democracy is more vindictive than Cabinets. The wars of peoples will be more terrible than those of kings. ”Bear in mind, this was a full thirteen years before the outbreak of the Great War, which many politicians and military men expected to be short, decisive, and affordable in blood and treasure.Churchill, the resolute opponent of Bolshevism, who coined the term “Cold War”, was the same person who said, after Stalin’s annexation of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia in 1939, “In essence, the Soviet’s Government’s latest actions in the Baltic correspond to British interests, for they diminish Hitler’s potential Lebensraum. If the Baltic countries have to lose their independence, it is better for them to be brought into the Soviet state system than the German one.”Churchill, the champion of free trade and free markets, was also the one who said, in March 1943,“You must rank me and my colleagues as strong partisans of national compulsory insurance for all classes for all purposes from the cradle to the grave. … [Everyone must work] whether they come from the ancient aristocracy, or the ordinary type of pub-crawler. … We must establish on broad and solid foundations a National Health Service. ”And yet, just two years later, contesting the first parliamentary elections after victory in Europe, he argued,“No Socialist Government conducting the entire life and industry of the country could afford to allow free, sharp, or violently worded expressions of public discontent. They would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first instance. And this would nip opinion in the bud; it would stop criticism as it reared its head, and it would gather all the power to the supreme party and the party leaders, rising like stately pinnacles above their vast bureaucracies of Civil servants, no longer servants and no longer civil. ”Among all of the apparent contradictions and twists and turns of policy and politics there were three great invariant principles guiding Churchill’s every action. He believed that the British Empire was the greatest force for civilisation, peace, and prosperity in the world. He opposed tyranny in all of its manifestations and believed it must not be allowed to consolidate its power. And he believed in the wisdom of the people expressed through the democratic institutions of parliamentary government within a constitutional monarchy, even when the people rejected him and the policies he advocated.Today, there is an almost reflexive cringe among bien pensants at any intimation that colonialism might have been a good thing, both for the colonial power and its colonies. In a paragraph drafted with such dry irony it might go right past some readers, and reminiscent of the “What have the Romans done for us?” scene in Life of Brian, the author notes,“Today, of course, we know imperialism and colonialism to be evil and exploitative concepts, but Churchill’s first-hand experience of the British Raj did not strike him that way. He admired the way the British had brought internal peace for the first time in Indian history, as well as railways, vast irrigation projects, mass education, newspapers, the possibilities for extensive international trade, standardized units of exchange, bridges, roads, aqueducts, docks, universities, an uncorrupt legal system, medical advances, anti-famine coordination, the English language as the first national lingua franca, telegraphic communication and military protection from the Russian, French, Afghan, Afridi and other outside threats, while also abolishing suttee (the practice of burning widows on funeral pyres), thugee (the ritualized murder of travellers) and other abuses. For Churchill this was not the sinister and paternalist oppression we now know it to have been. ”This is a splendid in-depth treatment of the life, times, and contemporaries of Winston Churchill, drawing upon a multitude of sources, some never before available to any biographer. The author does not attempt to persuade you of any particular view of Churchill’s career. Here you see his many blunders (some tragic and costly) as well as the triumphs and prescient insights which made him a voice in the wilderness when so many others were stumbling blindly toward calamity. The very magnitude of Churchill’s work and accomplishments would intimidate many would-be biographers: as a writer and orator he published thirty-seven books totalling 6.1 million words (more than Shakespeare and Dickens put together) and won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1953, plus another five million words of public speeches. Even professional historians might balk at taking on a figure who, as a historian alone, had, at the time of his death, sold more history books than any historian who ever lived.Andrew Roberts steps up to this challenge and delivers a work which makes a major contribution to understanding Churchill and will almost certainly become the starting point for those wishing to explore the life of this complicated figure whose life and works are deeply intertwined with the history of the twentieth century and whose legacy shaped the world in which we live today. This is far from a dry historical narrative: Churchill was a master of verbal repartee and story-telling, and there are a multitude of examples, many of which will have you laughing out loud at his wit and wisdom.

⭐A good biography should include photos, maps, footnotes (to verify citations), bibliography, and detailed index. On those criteria, this is a superlative biography, with all of those in abundance. The author, training and residing (mostly) in England, has adapted some Anglicisms for this American audience, but be prepared to navigate from time to time the intricacies of elections to the House of Commons, which are not.Although one volume, this paperback edition is massive, with almost 1000 pages of text alone, plus an additional nearly 40 pages of footnotes (not to mention a ‘select bibliography’ and detailed index). For such a man, who published 37 volumes of prose, mostly history, of over 6 million words (pp 972-3), in addition to his life-long commitment to politics, this hefty work of small print is barely enough to encompass the minimum needed to paint his greatness, without omitting his exasperating deficiencies – this is, to reemphasize, a biography, and not a whitewash. The author’s task, of reading all this and much more (including, especially, his letters to his wife Clementine, Soviet Ambassador Maisky’s musings, Brooke’s frustrations in his diary entries) and then organizing the thousands of notes taken to form a comprehensible logical tale, cannot ever be fully appreciated by us passive consumers, by us laymen.Mr. Roberts has composed a captivating tale, told in accessible, ever sensible and pleasing prose, putting it into that rare class of great biographies with John Lewis Gaddis’ “Kennan” and George Packer’s “Our Man” (on Richard Holbrooke). This is especially true of the first half, 1874-1940, “The Preparation”, introducing WSC (Winston Spencer Churchill) to “The Trial”, his guiding of the UK through WW2, from 1940 and down to his death in 1965. This first part lays the groundwork in masterly fashion for the reader to understand how WSC had trained himself for this display of incomparable leadership after May 1940. Roberts interweaves, throughout, the leitmotif of WSC’s father, Randolph, showing convincingly, without the all-too-common modern psychobabble, how that absent father, dying too early, held sway over WSC his entire life (see, especially, WSC’s touching work “The Dream” described on pp 904-6). How odd it is to realize that without this demanding, psychologically distant father, WSC would have been a different, a lesser man. What parental lessons can be taken from this? WSC’s description of Soviet foreign policy seems apt: ‘A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.’ (p. 472)While Roberts details the opportunities lost to avoid WW2 – in particular, the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, where Hitler had given orders for retreat on the first sign of resistance from France (p. 397), to von Kleist’s assessment that Germany could not have withstood more than three months if the Sudetenland had not capitulated in 1938 (p. 430) – Neville Chamberlain’s key role with “peace in our time” is painted in much more sympathetic and subtle colors. Roberts shows, in addition, that Hitler’s intrigues for ‘peace’ do not end after September 3, 1939 and the declarations of war from England and France. In fact, he gives a convincing counter-factual scheme for Halifax, in Churchill’s absence, suing for peace (p. 978) – it was only Churchill’s intransigent stubbornness that insured England’s opposition to one of history’s most perfect embodiments of undistilled evil.All of this, and more (including delicious helpings of WSC’s unequalled wit) distinguishes this book. What does not:a) The Versailles Treaty was not nearly as ‘harsh’ as he paints it (p 273). Its provisions could have been met, with good-will from Weimer Germany, but the ‘stab-in-the-back’ legend was much more damaging, making that good will politically difficult. Moreover, Clemenceau did not agree to ameliorating them, those provisions, because he couldn’t: he was barely able to get them accepted by the French Chamber of Deputies, which wanted them to be much harsher.b) The author recognizes the moral problem of “Bomber” Harris and the indiscriminate leveling of German cities, but seems to confuse ‘strategic’ and ‘tactical’ bombing (p 781). Moreover, his ‘select bibliography’ does not include A.C. Grayling’s “Among the Dead Cities”, a required primer on this subject. (A window in the apse of Westminster Abbey is still dedicated to Harris, his crews, and his atrocities.)c) Roberts reports of course the abomination of the death camps, but does not delineate, with any finality, when Churchill first became aware of them, implying it was July 1944 (p. 829). He notes that the Americans (the only ones who could, as it required daylight precision) refused to agree to bombing the rail lines into Auschwitz, but does not explain why that decision was made. This would have made the book even longer, but not by much. He could have added, for example, the inaccuracy of the storied Norden bombsight, with after-war surveys showing 50% of bombs missing their target by more than 1000 ft; or the average time needed during the war to repair rail lines: 2 days; or the terrible death toll of bombing raids, where it was an exceptional crewmember who survived more than 20 flights; or the overwhelming need to end the war, which such raids would not have aided and quite possibly even delayed.d) The author’s Hoover Institute credentials, ie his conservative leanings, are evident in Churchill himself as a subject, to be sure (see, eg WSC’s support of what we call ‘right-to-work’ legislation, p. 324), but Roberts is often critical of Churchill’s most outrageous racial comments. Thus, fortunately, that conservatism does not leak out very often, but when it does, it is jarring, as in his comment that Reagan was ‘instrumental’ in destroying the Soviet Union (p 855) which is just absurd (the key was Gorbachev, and any post, any even inanimate object, in the White House could have served as that ‘instrument’). And, to assert that overthrowing Mossadegh in 1953 despite its producing the Iran Revolution of 1979 was worthwhile (p 941) is distressing, to say the least, as it throws a disturbing light on his previously nearly impeccable faculty of judgment.The above four qualifications notwithstanding, if you are interested in WSC, buy this book. You will not regret it.

⭐A heavily detailed account (982 pages of text) of Churchill’s life that I found enlightening and at times frustrating. Roberts is especially good at giving selections from Churchill’s speeches to the Commons and to the public and tying the speeches into the historical moments that Churchill faced. In the same vein he is also excellent at showing Churchill’s incredible ability to use the English language creatively throughout his life. Examples of Churchill’s humor are present throughout the book and never failed to give me both insight into the man and at the same time moments of levity. Roberts ties the major events of 20th century history extremely well into Churchill’s life. But Roberts also spends a good deal of space, especially after Churchill becomes prime minister, detailing data such as who had which position in the government ministries and there are places throughout the book in which some creative editing, not only about names, would have helped. It is obvious that a number of the individuals Roberts mentions (and their effect on policy and on Churchill himself) are critical to the story. Still, especially for those readers unfamiliar with English political history in the 20th century, the details at times can be tedious to go through. This is a monumental work of research both about Churchill and the country. It covers everything a reader would want to know about one of most important people in recent Western history. But there are times (quite a few) when the details overwhelm the flow of the narrative.

⭐I have in my library nearly 100 books on or about Churchill – and I have to say this has to be one of the very best, single volume editions I’ve ever read. The attention to detail and the writing and narrative styles are truly fantastic. Having read a lot of books about this incredible man – I can honestly say that this is up there with the best.The pictures, presentation & literary skill makes this book a pure reading treat! This, surely, has to be the ‘go to’ one stop book on Churchill. This is, quite simply, a huge literary achievement! Credit to the author: this is a remarkable book.

⭐After his superlative biography of Napoleon, it may have been difficult to contemplate Andrew Roberts producing a finer work but in Churchill: Walking with Destiny, his latest book, he has succeeded. The clue is in the title. The first part of the book exams Churchill’s experiences of life as a front line soldier and senior politician before the momentous events of May 1940 which the author is at pains to explain provided Winston with the hard won knowledge that formed his views on how to run the government of a democracy in the age of total war.The eternal difficulty in writing a new biography of such a (seemingly) well known figure is to provide fresh insights and information. Andrew Roberts has unearthed new sources such as the diary of King George VI which provide fascinating commentary from those who dealt closely with the greatest Briton and their personal views of him.The second part of the book presents the author with a conundrum: how much to leave out? How can he provide details on every aspect of Churchill’s running of the war, every campaign, every idea both good and bad, every argument with those around him in a manageable single volume? The answer is he does not. Instead he provides clear and succinct passages on all the major events without becoming bogged down in too much extraneous detail while peppering the narrative with often amusing anecdotes about Winston’s personal behaviour and relationships with those around him.Andrew Roberts does not shy from the usual Churchill controverises e.g. Tonypandy, gassing the Kurds, India etc. Indeed it can appear that he spends too much time expunging so many of the ridiculous myths that have inexplicably become part of the contemporary narrative on Winston Churchill. But he is right to. It is the role of the serious historian to get to the heart of the matter, report the facts and let the reader judge for themselves.This is a wonderful book. The prose is highly readable, sparkles with insight and the book is filled with anecdotal gems. Any writer who can make Edwardian tariff reform both interesting and stimulating deserves all the credit that comes. A truly fine biography and quite probably the best single volume on Churchill you are likely ever to read.

⭐This is how a biography should be written. Detailed but gripping; appreciative of the subject but clear about failings as well as genius. What a read: impossible to put down!

⭐Andrew Roberts’ biography of the man who tens of millions worldwide regarded in 1945 as “probably the greatest man alive” is a highly literate page-turner full of fresh perspectives. While not eschewing controversies which dogged Churchill’s reputation throughout his career (most of them exaggerated and stoked by jealous political rivals), Roberts presents the facts & detailed evidence in each case, allowing the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. Among hundreds of previously-published biographies of Churchill, this might justifiably claim to be the best-ever, certainly in a single volume.Roberts’ narrative structure is that of traditional classic biography with a chronological timeline. Alongside the public parliamentary battles and legion of detractors Churchill created by ‘crossing the floor’ not once but twice before 1922 (to more effectively champion his centrist/liberal positions in support of home rule for Ireland, women’s suffrage, the introduction of the welfare state and House of Lords reform), mistakes in the conduct of the First World War are not glossed over but recounted in forensic detail which never fails to engage. Subsequent years ‘in the wilderness’ prior to his celebrated leadership through WW2 are matched by deep insights into Churchill’s personal life, chronic financial difficulties and highly supportive marriage.The reader is reminded again and again of Churchill’s great resilience, legendary capacity for work and formidable oratory skill: in the 40 years prior to becoming PM in 1940, Churchill had given more than 1,000 public speeches in Parliament, at formal meetings or out ‘on the stump.’ One factor of which I was previously unaware was the great number of personal injuries Churchill suffered, particularly in his early 20s, including a four-times dislocated shoulder and many broken bones.Fearless – some might say foolhardy – in the presence of physical danger, Churchill was often under enemy fire right up to 1916 when as a serving MP with already a long record of active military service he nevertheless volunteered for the western front following the failure of the Dardanelles venture. He once observed: “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result” and he was, indeed, shot at without result on numerous occasions. Churchill’s legendary impish wit and clever insight shines through even in situations of the gravest adversity.Roberts’ book is a fine lesson in how biography ought to be written and is highly recommended, especially to readers interested in this remarkable and important figure of the 20th century and not intimidated by the book’s >1,000 pages’ length. It’s an impressive achievement.

⭐Described by the critics as the best single-volume about Churchill ever written this wonderful book is not to be missed.Andrew Roberts writes with clarity and charm about the great man; his amazing resilience, courage and wit, as well as his almost superhuman capacity for work, and of course his incomparable powers of oratory. More than that, there are details and quotes and stories that most of us didn’t know before. The book is tremendously enjoyable and a huge achievement.

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