Churchill's Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill

by Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Overview

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

A major reassessment of Winston Churchill that examines his lasting influence in politics and culture.

Churchill is generally considered one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century, if not the greatest of all, revered for his opposition to appeasement, his defiance in the face of German bombing of England, his political prowess, his deft aphorisms, and his memorable speeches. He became the savior of his country, as prime minister during the most perilous period in British history, World War II, and is now perhaps even more beloved in America than in England.

And yet Churchill was also very often in the wrong: he brazenly contradicted his own previous political stances, was a disastrous military strategist, and inspired dislike and distrust through much of his life. Before 1939 he doubted the efficacy of tank and submarine warfare, opposed the bombing of cities only to reverse his position, shamelessly exploited the researchers and ghostwriters who wrote much of the journalism and the books published so lucratively under his name, and had an inordinate fondness for alcohol that once found him drinking whisky before breakfast. When he was appointed to the cabinet for the first time in 1908, a perceptive journalist called him “the most interesting problem of personal speculation in English politics.” More than a hundred years later, he remains a source of adulation, as well as misunderstanding.

This revelatory new book takes on Churchill in his entirety, separating the man from the myth that he so carefully cultivated, and scrutinizing his legacy on both sides of the Atlantic. In effervescent prose, shot through with sly wit, Geoffrey Wheatcroft illuminates key moments and controversies in Churchill’s career—from the tragedy of Gallipoli, to his shocking imperialist and racist attitudes, dealings with Ireland, support for Zionism, and complicated engagement with European integration.

Charting the evolution and appropriation of Churchill’s reputation through to the present day, Churchill’s Shadow colorfully renders the nuance and complexity of this giant of modern politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324002772
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/26/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	640
Sales rank:	778,090
File size:	41 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Geoffrey Wheatcroft is an English journalist and the author of several books. As well as British newspapers, he writes frequently for The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He lives in Bath, England.

Table of Contents

Prologue: 'This little place' House of Commons 1963 1

1 'Jolly little wars' Malakand 1897 21

2 'The transatlantic type of demagogue' Blenheim 1908 43

3 'A tragic figure of failure & folly' Gallipoli 1915 65

4 'Peppery, pugnacious, proud' Cairo 1921 89

5 'Our own Mussolini' Fleet Street 1926 111

6 'The English-speaking races' New Haven 1929 127

7 'A higher-grade race' Palestine 1937 147

8 'A bitter cup' Munich 1938 171

9 'United and with clean hearts' Downing Street 1940 197

10 'Unpleasant surprises' Placentia Bay 1941 221

11 'The Liquidation of the British Empire' Mansion House 1942 247

12 'Are we beasts?' Hamburg 1943 269

13 'Our Allies will win it' Champs-Élysées 1944 293

14 'Some sort of Gestapo' Whitehall 1945 319

15 'A special relationship' Fulton 1946 341

16 'It is not history, it is my case' Windsor 1953 365

17 'Great sovereign state' British Embassy 1963 393

18 'It was a triumph' St Paul's 1965 415

19 'Great as Churchill' Luxembourg 1979 441

20 'Blair's finest hour' Fifth Avenue 2001 465

21 'Churchill was the first neocon' Bagram 2007 491

Epilogue: 'Another scale of values' Bladon 2021 511

Thanks 537

Some Churchill Books 541

Notes 549

Picture Credits 595

Index 599

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/23/2021

Journalist Wheatcroft (The Strange Death of Tory England) delivers a fresh take on Winston Churchill’s life and legacy in this invigorating biography. Claiming that Churchill was both “the saviour of his country” and “far too often in the wrong,” Wheatcroft succeeds in separating the myth (much of it created by Churchill himself in his histories and memoirs of WWII) from the reality. The most damaging and durable myths, according to Wheatcroft, include a misreading of prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement with Nazi Germany that has been used to justify disastrous wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq, and a misleading British national pride that “sustain the country with beguiling illusions of greatness, of standing unique and alone, while preventing the British from coming to terms with their true place in the world.” Wheatcroft doesn’t shy away from Churchill’s racism and imperialism, which “were already retrograde by the standards of his age,” or his support for the merciless bombing offensive against German cities and civilians that culminated in the destruction of Dresden, while expressing sincere admiration for his eloquence and ability to inspire strength and action. The result is an exhilarating reassessment that will appeal to Churchill buffs and newcomers alike. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Few have argued the case as powerfully as Wheatcroft.…[He] is a skilled prosecutor with a rapier pen.…Wheatcroft’s could be the best single-volume indictment of Churchill yet written."

Peter Baker

"Trenchant…Even readers sick of Churchill will find much to enjoy, partly because Wheatcroft is such a fluent and entertaining writer, but also because he has so many interesting and provocative things to say."

Sunday Times (UK) - Dominic Sandbrook

"Hagiographers beware; Wheatcroft has skewered the cult of Churchill hero worship. This book reminds us that while Churchill was Britain’s savior in 1940, his views on race and empire, and his military debacles from the Dardanelles to Dieppe, make it unwise to revere him like a saint."

Samir Puri

"Provocative, clear-sighted, richly textured, and wonderfully readable, this is the indispensable book on Churchill for the post–Brexit 2020s: of unmissable and sometimes uncomfortable relevance to both British exceptionalists and those who fail to understand the seductive allure of that exceptionalism."

David Kynaston

"A provocative reevaluation of an iconic figure."

starred review Booklist

"A clear-eyed, incisive, and superbly balanced account of Churchill, the man and the myth. Wheatcroft shows how a deeply flawed character, with outdated views on empire and race even by the standards of his own time, but a ‘Rossini of rhetoric,’ caught a wave of history in 1940 and became the darling of the British and American Right. Much to think about in the twenty-first century."

Robert Gildea

08/13/2021

British journalist and author Wheatcroft (The Controversy of Zion) focuses on certain issues and events in the trajectory of the admired, sometimes-misunderstood Winston Churchill (1874-1965), sketching his lasting influence in politics and culture in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Wheatcroft maintains that Churchill, thinking stereotypically and strategically, wrongly backed Edward VIII during the abdication crisis and poorly judged men, such as his press lord associates. From the beginning of his career, Churchill was unpredictable; a gambler (on the stock market as well as in war); stunningly flamboyant (appealing to many, distasteful to a few); and an author of his own myth. Wheatcroft provides some analysis of his own, namely that Lend-Lease much favored the Americans over the British and that the 1945 election loss happily helped Churchill avoid the challenges of postwar reconstruction. Largely relying on the works of historians such as Martin Gilbert, Roy Jenkins, and Andrew Roberts (whose 2018 book he regarded as too laudatory), Wheatcroft reconsiders Churchill's extensive writings and additionally seeks to correct popular cultural portrayals of Churchill on television and film. VERDICT Fans of history will find much value in this readable work; historians may be challenged by some of its interpretations.—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC

Library Journal

Winston Churchill led a life that would be hard to believe in a fictional account. Churchill’s lineage—he was descended from John Churchill, the bane of Louis XIV—all but assured that he would be a character of legend—a politician and a warrior, or so it seems. His career in politics, which covered a span of more than a half-century, is enough to demand notice. Jonathan Keeble’s stentorian British accent is the perfect vehicle to bring this long work to the listener. Wheatcroft is unafraid to show Churchill in all his follies as well as his feats. Keeble’s deep voice and excellent enunciation, combined with his exquisite pacing, make this a splendid listening experience. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Winston Churchill led a life that would be hard to believe in a fictional account. Churchill’s lineage—he was descended from John Churchill, the bane of Louis XIV—all but assured that he would be a character of legend—a politician and a warrior, or so it seems. His career in politics, which covered a span of more than a half-century, is enough to demand notice. Jonathan Keeble’s stentorian British accent is the perfect vehicle to bring this long work to the listener. Wheatcroft is unafraid to show Churchill in all his follies as well as his feats. Keeble’s deep voice and excellent enunciation, combined with his exquisite pacing, make this a splendid listening experience. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

★ 2021-08-19
An authoritative examination of how Winston Churchill’s ongoing geopolitical impact refracts and supersedes his actual biography.

Former Spectator literary editor Wheatcroft brings superior scholarship, controlled, intermittently witty prose, and warts-and-all admiration to the acknowledged surfeit of writing about Churchill. With an evenhanded perspective, he explores how textuality and reputation simultaneously distort and amplify Churchill’s impact. “I’ve tried to write as what Keynes called ‘the historian of Opinion’, seeing Churchill through the eyes of his contemporaries,” he writes, providing a sinewy account of Churchill’s strange, singular life, with its political fluctuations, admirable and shameful qualities, and repeated seasons of rise and fall. “Churchill’s life until the age of sixty-five,” the author writes about his “apotheosis” in 1940, “had certainly been a dramatic roller-coaster ride of highs and lows…until that ultimate and complete triumph.” Wheatcroft adds materially to this well-known narrative by exploring “the darker side of his character and career, too often brushed over, and the long shadow which he has cast since his death.” The author vividly depicts every dramatic stage of Churchill’s experience, from a privileged upbringing propelling him from colonial adventurism to journalism and politics, through the disaster of Gallipoli during World War I, to his “wilderness years” of lucrative book deals and behind-the-scenes maneuvering, to his “walking with destiny” as Britain’s savior against Hitler. The author achieves a strong balance between crisp, dramatic historical storytelling and the words and views of both Churchill’s many contemporaries—not least the scoundrels comprising his inner circle—and the scholars and writers who have addressed his enigma ever since. His posthumous legend became ever more diffuse—e.g., after 9/11, when George W. Bush and Tony Blair adopted the Churchillian mantle in inaccurate and grotesque ways: “the Iraq War had gone horribly, and predictably, wrong but Blair was impenitent.”

A lively and rigorous deep dive into the ambiguous, still-relevant geopolitical odyssey that Churchill represents.

Kirkus Reviews