The judgements
and opinions on the Former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill would
always be split, under most circumstances. Some would credit him for leading
the Allies to victory in the Second World War and others would criticise him
for his openly racist views, pro colonialist policies and his complete neglect
of the situation in India leading to the Bengal Famine. This a short biography
on Winston Churchill by Hourly History.
This book starts
with Churchill’s family background, who was born into a family of nobles with
an American mother. He then went on to serve in the army, had a mission in
Cuba, followed by India and South Africa and thus, had travelled well by the
time he ran for parliament at the age of 26. It then focuses on rise to 10
Downing Street, the Second World War and the legacy he left behind.
This book
brought out the personality of Winston Churchill well, the astute politician,
shrewd military tactician, who makes uncanny alliances for a larger cause (such
as his war time coalition government with Attlee) and at the same time, a sheer
opportunist wherein he conveniently shifted his party allegiance to Tories from
the Liberals. The book focused on most aspects that surrounded Churchill, the
time in parliament, his performance as a soldier in wars, his Premiership, and
finally, his decline and resurgence.
The aspect that
the book could have focused a little more on his literary prowess, both as a
writer and an eloquent speaker – it merely touched upon in the conclusion and
the legacy aspect of the biography.
On the whole, I
felt the book was fairly balanced bringing out both the positive and negative
aspects of Winston Churchill, letting the reader pass their verdict on figures
in history. I would award the book a rating of six on ten.
Rating
– 6/10
Have
a nice day,
Andy
Andy
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