What kind of a People do they think we are? - Winston Churchill

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for time as well, for losing it could both annul the pastand threaten the future.The fourth sentence pivots on the pronoun "it" tointroduce those to whom the message is sent: "us." "We"are those being summoned, those from whom action isdemanded, upon whom all depends. Some form of thefirst person plural occurs no fewer than eleven times. Theforce of "their finest hour" is strengthened by the twist inperspective it represents, for "they" are of course "us." Theshift from first to third person is a shift from what "we"must do to how others will judge us, which is the only reward"we" are offered by Churchill: to be honoured in historyby future generations, not just by immediate descendants,but by "men" as a whole—the judgement the worldwill make of the British. It is deliberate myth-making, as ifHomer were addressing the Greek army before Troy andpromising that their deeds, if worthy, will always be recountedand marvelled at. Churchill promises his countrymenthe opportunity of future epic fame as the onesure gain into which to transform what is otherwise forthem simply the avoidance of loss.In defining the threat, Churchill states who isthreatened and so names "us"—"Britain," "British" and"our Empire"—and repeats and amplifies it in the finalsentence: "the British Empire and its Commonwealth."What is threatened is not just another European countryakin to those already lost, but a global Empire. This concretizesthe assertion that the outcome of the battle wouldaffect "the whole world," but also reminds the audiencethat Britain could call upon resources no other Europeancountry could muster in opposing its foe.This was not idle: Canadian troops were already inBritain, and within Fighter Command, fully 10% of thepilots were from Commonwealth countries. A further10% were from the occupied countries of Europe, and theUnited States. Against the sacrifice he is demanding of"us" are ranged three areas of civilisation: "France," "allEurope" and "the United States." The first is lost, the secondsubjugated but with the possibility of becoming free,the third threatened. These three, together with "theBritish Empire and its Commonwealth," constitute"Christian civilisation," which is threatened by and antitheticalto "a new Dark Age." Thus, places embody moralprinciples and the fates of all hinge on the central place inthe text: "this island"—the 73rd and 74th words out of180, roughly in the middle.The movement of the first section is expansive,going from concrete to abstract; the second section movesback again to the concrete, and the third moves steadilyoutwards until it embraces global space and past and futuretime. For the duration of an "hour," the one whichthe British are summoned upon to make their finest, "thisisland" is placed in the centre of human history.In this way Churchill builds the whole passage onthree contrasts of extent. The first is the contrast in the extentof time between the past of the Dark Ages and thepossibly "protracted" future, as opposed to the "hour" inwhich "we" are called upon to do our duty. The second isthe contrast in space between "all Europe" and "theUnited States" on the one hand and "this island" on theother. The third is the contrast between the number ofpeople affected in "the whole world" and "us." This underlyingthought was to resurface in a different and morepointed form on August 20th, when the air fighting wasat its height, when "we" became embodied in "the few."There is a further contrast built in to sections 3a and3b. The phrase "move forward into broad, sunlit uplands"implies free, upward movement into light. "Sink into theabyss of a new Dark Age" implies involuntary, downwardmovement into darkness. The term "sunlit uplands" isprobably an echo of a phrase from H.G. Wells's The Discoveryof the Future, in which Wells refers to "the uplandsof the future." Churchill read Wells avidly, and thethought of describing fighter pilots as "the few" may alsohave been triggered by a passage in Wells's novel The Warin the Air, where Wells observed that in air warfare thebalance of military efficiency was shifting back "from themany to the few." Churchill kept a store of phrases in hisencyclopedic memory like fragments of tunes in the mindof a composer, and at some point they would emerge infull form. 19Whilst the structure of these 180 words is complexand multivalent, the language is remarkablysimple. Three-quarters of the words aremonosyllables. Only twelve are polysyllables and of thesehalf are used to express the length of the "continuity ofour institutions," the length of the new Dark Age "mademore sinister and perhaps more protracted by the lights ofperverted science," and the duration of "the British Empireand its Commonwealth."The "lights of perverted science" is one of those expressionswhich suggests more than it says. It conjures upthe image of a Bosch painting of Hell, with a vile experimentbeing conducted on some victim in a dark corner. Itwas prescient indeed, but in 1940, Mengele and his likehad not yet been unleashed on the concentration camps.The phrase was stored in Churchill's mental sketchbookand resurfaced in a radio broadcast given on 24 August1941 about his meeting with President Roosevelt, whichmakes his meaning more clear. Hitler, he commented,"has weapons and machinery for grinding down and19. In commenting on the speech, Colville noted in his diary that hewas amused Churchill brought in Marvell's lines: "He nothing commondid or mean, Upon that memorable scene," "because he has beenrepeating it [sic] consistently and often for the last fortnight. Last Saturdayhe came out with it several times in the course of the eveningand could not resist quoting it to the American Ambassador on thetelephone while demanding assistance from the U.S." (op. cit., 192).FINEST HOUR 112/30
holding down conquered countries which are the product,the sadly perverted product, of modern science." 20The third section of the June 18th speech is moreconsciously rhetorical and abstract than the firsttwo. It can in fact be read as a reversal of a formalGreek funeral oration, an epitaphios, from which the word"epitaph" derives. The most famous was that given by Pericleson the burial of the dead after the battle ofMarathon. 21 An epitaphios contained two main sections:the praise of the dead (epainesis) and advice for the livingiparainesis). In the epainesis, the dead were praised byclaiming that they were worthy of their ancestors (progonoi),that their shared ancestry came from the earth ofAthens {autochthones), that they were trained to heroismipaideia), and that the city's norms were heroic {politeia).The valour of the fathers {arete) is matched by the sons. Inthe subsequent parainesis, the living are admonished to becomforted that the dead have won honour and to provethemselves worthy of the fallen {paramythetikon and protreptikori).Churchill has produced an inverted epitaphios bycalling on the living to be heroes for their descendants. Heanticipates the future epitaphios of those currently living inwhich it will be said that "this was their finest hour." By"bracing themselves to their duties," the fathers of futuresons are to be worthy of the norms of the past (progonoi)in which withstanding tyranny was simply a duty {paideiaand politeia) and by their bearing {arete) defend the presentand so link the past and future of the people of "thisisland" {autochthones) in such a way that descendants willbe comforted that "we" have won honour {paramythetikon)and will then seek to be worthy of "us" {protreptikon).This inversion is to be expected, as Churchill wasspeaking before the battle, not after it as Pericles was. Incouching his appeal to the audience as an appeal to duty,Churchill suggests that what is needed is not heroism orindeed anything out of the ordinary, but simply what peoplewould expect of others and themselves. Such a call hadbeen made before as battle approached. Nelson raised thesignal "England expects that every man will do his duty"as he sailed towards his enemy off Cape Trafalgar. Theecho is faint, but it is still there. 22So it is that Churchill has pre-created historical memory.He turns the battle into memory before it hasbegun, lifting it into almost cosmic significance. Hisobject was not truth but persuasion. Fighting die batde wasa choice and some members of the government were morethan ready to choose otherwise. Although formallyChurchill presents us with a choice, die systematic rigour ofhis argument effectively precludes all but one option: tofight-Churchill is most definite where he knows least. Hecould not possibly know whether Hitler actually knewthat "he will have to break us in this island or lose thewar." Where he could have been certain, he hedges. Hedid know that the Battle of Britain was about to begin. Hesays so. He conjures up the horrors of Nazism, of whichhe was utterly convinced, with a temporising "perhapsmore protracted," as if peering through a glass, darkly.Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this text isits uncanny accuracy. It is a rhetorical tour de force, but itis not "mere" rhetoric, for its substance is as telling as itsstyle. Churchill himself commented after the war:All these often-quoted words were made good in thehour of victory. But now they were only words....Hitler'sneed to finish the war in the West was obvious. He wasin a position to offer the most tempting terms. To thosewho like myself had studied his moves it did not seemimpossible that he would consent to leave Britain andher Empire and Fleet intact and make a peace whichwould secure him a free hand in the East of whichRibbentrop had talked to me in 1937 and which washis hearts desire....Can one wonder that astute calculatorsin many countries, ignorant as they mostly were ofthe problems of overseas invasion, of the quality of ourAir Force, and who dwelt under the overwhelming impressionof German might and terror, were not convinced?...Rhetoricwas no guarantee. Another administrationmight come into being....Doubts could be sweptaway only by deeds. The deeds were to cornedThe insight into the political and strategic situationof the time shown by this famous Churchill speech is extraordinarilypenetrating. Form and content have becomea distinction without a difference. It is an achievement ofthe highest order. M>20. The Unrelenting Struggle: War Speeches by the Right Hon. WinstonS. Churchill C.H., M.P., compiled by Charles Eade (Cassell & Co.Ltd. 1942), 234.21. In the following analysis I am once more indebted to Garry Wills.The Gettysburg Address forms a literal epitaphios. For a fuller accountof its elements as summarised below, see Lincoln at Gettysburg, 58-62.Wills also provides a translation of Pericles s epitaphios in Appendix III.Greek orators also made generous use of contrastive pairs and polarities,as all orators have done throughout the ages.22. Nelson's signal, like Churchill's speech, did not enjoy universal approvalat the time. Once again, it was the most sophisticated who wereleast impressed. Whilst the hoisting of his complex set of flags on HMSVictory prompted great cheers from the common seamen, Nelson's second-in-command,Collingwood, was irritated enough to remark,"What is Nelson signalling about? We all know what we have to do!"See Tom Pocock, Nelson (Pimlico 1994), 325.23. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. II, Their Finest Hour,Chartwell Edition (London: Educational Publishing Co. 1956), 174-75.FINEST HOUR 112/31
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What kind of a People do they think we are? - Winston Churchill

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