Churchill: A Life

September 22, 2014 A review of the book “Churchill: A Life” by Martin Gilbert by Anthony T. Riggio I bought this book from Amazon in the Kindle format. I did not know the heft and size of this book but I love history and biographies of great people who have positively impacted on Man’s accomplishments. Winston Churchill was a figure of immense importance to the history of the West. His life covered the most important time periods of the 19th and 20th century. He was born of privileged parents and his education was pretty much formulated for him by his Randolph who was a member of British parliament. His father was a sometimes irritant to the majority in parliament but was highly principled in his beliefs. Randolph sent Winston to Harrows school as opposed to Eaton, where the most privileged attended. There was a belief that he did not have the academic power, thus the lesser of the principle schools most influential people sent their boys. As a consequence of this thinking, Winston’s father sent him to the military school, similar to West Point, rather than the classical school of choice, Oxford. Winston was an average student and had an aversion to exams thus his grades fluctuated from fair to good. You learn very quickly that he was a prodigious writer from his correspondences to friends and family, especially, his mother who he was devoted to even though the reality even though she was somewhat distant to him always travelling and never in attendance of his immediate needs. His father was also preoccupied by the demands of government. During the Boer war, he was an officer and saw combat. His penchant for both innovation and independent thought was manifest during this period and would accent his career in politics and leadership. He began his writing career in earnest and commenced work on a biography of his father as well as a number of multi-volume works and auto biographies. As his political career progressed he was not always full of successes; there were failure too from which he learned and developed in his statesmanship. Churchill was a budding political force prior to the Great War (WWI) and his leadership in the Admiralty led to both successes and some perceived failures. Many of his decisions were hampered by Army, Navy and Parliamentary conflicting ideas. He recognized the great evil Hitler posed as he was coming into power in Germany and tried to herald these thoughts to a Great Britain weary of war and desirous of peace. In some cases that desire was detrimental to later deficiencies when World War II commenced. Throughout this period he developed a very close relationship with Franklin Delano Roosevelt before and after he became the Prime Minister of England. This association with the United States was the principle reason why England survived the early onslaught of the Germans during the 30’s and early 40’s. Churchill’s forward visions of the War and its aftermath were of great benefit to England and the free world allies. He saw the Soviet Union as the world next threat and provided statesman guidance to both FDR and Truman. Wayne Gilbert’s biography is probably not the most voluminous work on Churchill, but excellent starting point to understand Winston Churchill. The world is also the beneficiary of his (Churchill’s) prodigious auto biography and multi volume works on both WWI and WWII. I thought Gilbert’s work was well written and gave the readers great insight into the history of Europe during these times. I believe “Churchill, A Life” by Martin gilbert is an excellent primer for future studies on Churchill. I purchased this book on Kindle and was initially intimidated by the fact that my Kindle said, at the beginning of the book that there were 40 hours left until completion of the book. I checked the hard bound page count at 1047 pages. Certainly not light reading but I found the work both captivating and compelling and difficult to put down over the eight or nine days of reading. Even though this book was originally published in 1991, my maturity level was not at that point until recent times. I gave this book five (5) stars and would highly recommend it to those who love history.

Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century, and probably one of the greatest men in history, lived a long, rich and controversial life. Martin Gilbert is his official biographer. "Churchill: A Life" is based upon Gilbert's much larger multi-volume biography, but it is not an abridgment. Gilbert tells Churchill's story in an elegant and straightforward manner. He moves the reader smoothly from Churchill's troubled childhood, through his brief military career and into his long career as a Member of Parliament. Churchill's rapid rise from House of Commons "back-bencher," to cabinet minister was phenomenal. So were his numerous falls from power, caused mainly by his uncanny ability to alienate nearly all his political colleagues. After eight years in the "political wilderness," Churchill reached the pinnacle of British political power, becoming Prime Minister in May 1940, just as Nazi Germany launched its attack on the Low Countries and France. Gilbert's treatment of Churchill's wartime and post-war premierships is fascinating, as is his narrative of Churchill's later years. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although I felt I didn't get to know Churchill as well as I did after reading William Manchester's two-volume Churchill biography, "The Last Lion." Gilbert's prose is much more scholarly sounding, and lacks some of Manchester's flair for dramatic storytelling, and his incisive commentary. Still, "Churchill: A Life" is a fascinating, if not especially penetrating, study of this colossus of British history. Highly recommended! Review updated June 15, 2015.

As a high school student, I have seen through Martin Gilbert's book, the astonishing and unique life of Mr. Winston Churchill. Although the book was rather long, I enjoyed that the author used precise details and added quotations from letters to, about, and from Mr. Churchill. Many have said that such a character as Mr. Churchill would surely be a tedious subject to study because of his political life, however, through Martin Gilbert’s research on Mr. Churchill and how he made the reader feel as though they were apart of Mr. Churchill’s life. I did find myself rather weary of the length of the book; however, when reading the book, I was captivated by the stories and events that made up Mr. Churchill’s days. My favorite parts of the book included his early life as a troublesome child, and the life that he lived devoted to his wife Clementine. As the book was clearly written in chronological order, it made looking up information in the book easy. In the sense of a student outlook, I would say that this book would be perfect for students who need to have extensive knowledge of Mr. Churchill and I would recommend this book as a good read for the intellectual reader that enjoys history and factual information.

No one short of Winston himself is more of an established authority on Winston Churchill than noted British author and historian Sir Martin Gilbert, who renders an intelligent, eminently readable, and carefully culled one-volume overview of his imposing eight volume history of Churchill that took over 25 years to finish. Unlike some of the other recent covers of Churchill, this carefully composed, organized and articulated work covers the entire story of Churchill's incredible life from childhood, supplying a steady stream of memorable anecdotes and constant good humor that punctuates the text and makes the usual drab early years much more entertaining and enjoyable. He takes great pains to describe Churchill's daredevil antics early in life, a man more foolhardy than fool, a man with piercing intellect and a sardonic wit. According to Gilbert, young Winston was always good company, with an endless store of stories he spun with great relish and amazing recall. He had an early sense about the possibilities of technology, and could fly a British bi-plane even before the onset of WWI. He seemed to recognize the potential of such new weaponry to revolutionize warfare, and often took pains to tell anyone who would listen how much more dynamic such things as tanks and artillery could make the modern battlefield. Of course, the events surrounding World War Two provided Churchill with the opportunity of a lifetime; the author argues he was exactly the right man to pull Britain out of its desperate doldrums and to jump fearlessly into the fray. For while he was no military genius, he was a singular statesman and leader, and he used his stirring orations to electrify the English populace and prepare them for the war of endurance he knew he struggle with Germany would certainly become. He threaded the delicate high wire of political negotiations with the Americans, and forged an unusually strong and open friendship with Franklin Roosevelt that was a dynamic factor in the Allied partnership. As Gilbert writes so memorably, he summoned forth the mysterious stuff of greatness to assume leadership of Britain when it was most isolated, threatened, and weak. In such circumstances, his own bulldog-like resolve and legendary stubbornness made those who oppose him rue the day. No one in modern history was so singularly responsible for the rescue of the world from the clutches of evil incarnate (as personified by Hitler and Nazi Germany) than did Winston Churchill. This is a masterful biography written in a magisterial fashion by the single greatest authority on Churchill. I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

I have to rate this book up there with one of the best I have read, in spite of the fact that there was a point in the book, about a fourth of the way through, when I wondered if I would finish it. I struggled a bit, reading about Churchill as a boy, and also his early political life. He was an odd child, and not having a great understanding of the British Parlimentary system, it dragged on some. That being said, in the end, I would not remove any of that from the book if I were editing it, which I clearly don't have the qualifications to do. Without them, it would be hard to fully understand the life of this unique and magnificent man. I don't believe there is a more significant character in the 20th century than Winston Spencer Churchill and without an understanding of this man, it is impossible to understand World War II and why the allies won the war. Martin Gilbert does such a wonderful job of weaving the narrative of, not only Churchill's life, but the multitude of events in the 20th century that he played a role, that even though I knew the outcome, I couldn't put the book down. In the end, I came away with not just a deeper admiration for WSC, but a greater understanding of the history of his era. Churchill is one of the heroes of history, and Gilbert does an admirable job of proving that point. Highly recommended.

Churchill is a larger-than-life personality and is still familiar more than 40 years after his death because of his commanding role in guiding Britain through a dark chapter in history. It is hard to imagine how the world would look today without his steady and skillful mastery of world events and politics and diplomacy. Gilbert's biography is thorough and wide-ranging in scope. The pace dragged a bit up until World War I with lots of details of Churchill's travels and politics. However, I found the narrative during the war years to be riveting. The many letters and telegrams and speeches that were quoted enriched the text. As other reviewers have noted, some of Churchill's failings and weaknesses were glossed over, and I wonder whether Gilbert's earlier many-volumed Churchill biography gave a more balanced view of the man's life. Nevertheless, I was amazed and enthralled with the magnanimous nature and accomplishments of this historic figure. I was very moved during the final chapter as Churchill slipped away at the age of 90, and the worldwide public mourning of this magnanimous man who left an indelible mark on the history of the world. His post-war successory at Prime Minister, Attlee, described him as "the greatest Englishman of our time - I think the greatest citizen of the world of our time."

Winston Churchill was born in 1874. He died in 1965. To look at this another way, he began his life at a time when most of the world lived more or less exactly as it had for the last 10,000 years. He died at a time when the internet was being built, satellites were being place in orbit, and nuclear weapons threatened world-wide devastation. This alone would make his biography an interesting read. Winston Churchill was a man of letters. He wrote newspaper articles, books, letters, and gave speeches around the world based on his writings. This alone would make his biography an interesting read. Winston Churchill was a man of action. He had served in three wars in three different theaters of action by the time he was thirty. Later, he became a Col in World War I. This alone would make his biography an interesting read. Winston Churchill was a leader of the United Kingdom during two wars, World War II and the Korean War. He was the visionary who foresaw the weakness of the current United Nations (though he hoped for better), the development of NATO, the Cold War after the end of World War II, and the many of the features of the modern warfare such as airplanes, tanks, and modern amphibious warfare. This alone would make his biography an interesting read. Together these facts mean that a biography of Winston Churchill is an essential read for anyone who wishes to understand the first half of the 21st century. Martin Gilbert is the official biographer of Winston Churchill and you won't read about sexual scandals, alcoholism, or hidden vices. While at times Martin Gilbert seems to be more like a proud parent or doting uncle then a critical historian, he does capture the significant facts of Churchill's life. Indeed, there are many tidbits of Churchill's life that I was unaware of. While there were times when he was out of the cabinet, he never really was out of power - he continued to serve in Parliament until his health failed. He switched parties not once but twice. He was far more liberal then most of the conservatives (U S conservatives, not U K) who quote him probably imagine. He served only a few months in World War I as an infantryman, I was under the impression that he had served far longer. There are other reviewers who mention that they were inspired by Churchill's success despite his poor academic performance as a young man. To be completely honest, while his determination and energy meant that he became extremely successful; his lineage got his foot in the door and kept him in the door until he became a great writer. In short, this book provides excellent insight into some of the most important events of the early 20th Century. It should be required reading for all students of World War II.

This book is very well written by Martin Gilbert, and is the official biography. It reveals the life of Churchill and shows many aspects of him that many do not know of. For example: Churchill was the man that Hitler feared most in Britain, even before Churchill became Prime Minister. Hitler considered the Allies as 'little worms', but he regarded Lord Admiralty Churchill was in the same league as Roosevelt. It was because Prime Minister Chamberlain and others in the cabinet were fearful of Nazi Germany and Churchill was the only one that dared to speak out for Czechoslovakia when Chamberlain wanted to give the Czec land to Hitler in exchange for Peace. Churchill had been warning about the rise of Hitler since the mid 1930s, but nobody listened to him in the government. Churchill proposed military plans to stop the Nazis before he became PM, but the government delayed it until it was too late. And when France wanted to seek armistice with Hitler, Churchill shed tears when the French leaders told him their plans to give in. Also you will read dramatic details about how Churchill rose to become PM. Someone told him "We must have a new Prime Minister, and it must be you", and just from listening to his speeches in 1939 - 1940, many politicians predicted that within one year, Churchill would become Prime Minister. Many also do not know that Churchill lobbied for President Eisenhower to go together to Russia for negotiations to stop the cold war when Stalin died. But Eisenhower refused. Churchill also had plans to free East Europe and Poland from Russia's control, but were not supported by those around him. So to those Polish who said that Churchill abandoned them, he never did. In fact he made Stalin promised many times to hold free elections in Poland, which Stalin agreed, but Stalin lied. Churchill will go down in history as one of the greatest leaders of all time. He personifies the quality of courage, resoluteness, defiance, hard work, compassion, fight for what you believe in, fight to the finish and most importantly, to never give in even when faced with defeat all around him.