SPRING 2006 • NUMBER 130 - Winston Churchill

Thanks and a Tip of the Hat to our Generous SupportersSeminar SupportThe William E. Benjamin II Fund of the CommunityFoundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties,Florida; a New York foundation; President Stephen JoelTrachtenberg and The George Washington University.Benefit DinnerSheperdson Abell, Ron Abramson, Ron Alexander, Bill& Moira Benjamin, Greg Berman, Michael Bishop,Stephen & Anne Black, Ambassador Robert & SylviaBlake, Peter Baumbausch, Paul & Carolyn Brubaker,Craig DeBarnardis, Representative Charlie Dent(Pennsylvania), Donald Ferencz, Bobby & Kate Giaimo,Roxanne Hale, Steven Hayward, Joanne Kemp, David S.Kerr, Thomas Lanctot, Richard & Barbara Langworth,Winston Jerome Lindsley, Bertil Lundqvist, Michael C.Maibach, Dr. John H. Mather, Christopher Matthews,Karin & Jack Mens, Dan Myers, Senator and Mrs. BobPackwood, Dr. Malcolm Page, Scott Park, Morris Sachs,David Sampson, Johannes Williams, Suzanne Sigman,Professor Chris Sterling, James & Lucille Thomas,Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, Herman Voelkner, WilliamA. Whiteside III, Sarah Williams, Cynthia Wojick,George Wills. ,InsidetheJournalsABSTRACT BY ROBERT A. COURTS“The Man Who Made His OwnHistory,” by Richard Holmes. BBCHistory Magazine, April 2005.Any biographer faces difficultiesin maintaining his objectivityaas he gets closer to his subject.This problem is even more intense inthe case of Churchill, who directed somuch of his energies and working lifeto ensuring that his own writings projectedhistory as he saw it. Moreover,WSC possessed such a powerful personalitythat some biographers findthemselves referring to “Winston” byhis first name—which shows how hardit is to distance oneself from the man.After researching Churchill’s longand varied life, it is clear that there isstill something new to say. This isespecially the case regarding his earlylife, where the military influence waspredominant; and in his and the politicalestablishment’s role in the treatmentof the fighting man after WorldWar I. The more that one delves intosuch a complicated and rich life, themore one realises that few things inthe picture of Churchill’s life wereclear and simple.Not only did Churchill turn hishistorical work into a self-portrait, buthe was in his very being a contradiction.He enjoyed wearing uniforms butwas not a militarist and was, as theveteran British left-wing MP TonyBenn has said, well to the left of TonyBlair’s New Labour; yet he spent mostof his political life in the ConservativeParty. Moreover, Churchill wieldedmore power than any Prime Ministerin history, yet saw himself as the servant,not the master, of Parliament.Part of the problem for the biographer,and one of the most strikingfacets of Churchill’s career, was that hewas as much a writer as a politician. Itis a surprising fact that students ofChurchill have been reluctant to granthim professional status in any fieldother than politics. This is remarkablefor a man who published some fiftybooks, 800 articles, numerous speeches,and who made far more moneythan all but a few “professional” writers.Part of this drive, it is true, wasowed to Churchill’s perennial need formoney, forced upon him by his “nothingbut the best” lifestyle; but thatdoes not detract from his de facto professionalstatus.Even with his “factory” of literaryassistants in his later years, Churchilldid not pretend to be a professional oracademic historian. “This is not history,”he was to say, “this is my case.”Moreover, he felt that history would bekind to him, for he was to write it.History was not, therefore, merely alabour of love and a much-neededsource of income, it was part ofChurchill’s campaign to adjust the historicalrecord so as to favour his ownreputation. Indeed, this was not somethingwhich began in his later yearswhen he had a reputation to protect,but in his early years, when he wasbuilding a reputation that did not yetexist, and seeking to bring himself tothe notice of a waiting public that heregarded as a blank canvas upon whichto project himself.And yet there was a further aim toChurchill’s writing: to rehabilitate hisancestors and to enhance his family’sreputation. Both his biographies of hisfather, Lord Randolph (a somewhathagiographic work) and of the FirstDuke of Marlborough, display a determinationto present history in the waymost favourable to his relatives.It is to be regretted that, as a professionalhistorian, Churchill wasinclined to try to “retouch the portrait,”which makes any biographer’sjob that much more challenging; but itis impossible to deny a powerful affectionfor that fusion of history andmyth which characterises a man whomay have been, far from a dry professional,a master story-teller. ,FINEST HOUR 130 / 33