I suppose we all have our historical heroes; mine is Winston Churchill.
I bring this up because in addition to leading England in WW2 when it stood alone for over a year (and afterward to the war's conclusion), he was a brilliant author and historian. Though he went to Sandhurst (The UK's equivalent to West Point) and never formally studied writing, his writing style is compelling, not flowery, and doesn't seem old-fashioned in its pace and attention to detail.
Though I've read quite a few Churchill bios, and read his series of books on WW2, I'd never read his comprehensive volumes on WW1 (there are several in a series). I decided I needed to do that. So I'm in the middle of it. Best read I've had in years!
Churchill's first in this series, The World Crisis 1911-1914, written during the 1920s, takes the reader into the inner sanctums of the British, German and French military and the politics. In it are his memoranda to the cabinet, other actual records that he knows and explains how things came about, and so on. Churchill also knew the German players, was invited to view German military exercises before the war, was friendly with the French and German ambassadors, etc.
In other words, this isn't history by some later dude digging up the old records and reading old interviews and newspapers, as interesting as those histories can be.
This is a book by one of the major players.
Churchill was a cabinet minister in both the run-up to that catastrophe, as Home Secretary in the British cabinet, and later as the head of the Admiralty; in addition, he fought as an officer in the land war after 1915. This, after serving his country in the Boer War, and in Afghanistan 20 years before. If nothing else, Churchill was brave, and a patriot.
I've read a lot of WWI history, and it always seems to generalize the missteps that led to the war, the stuff that made the papers, etc.; Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August is a great example, a Pulitzer Prize winner about the war's run-up in very general terms, but with very few of the sharp details about what the parties on the inside were thinking.
Well, of course - she was an historian, not an insider. She wrote a fascinating book that's a wonderful and highly recommended read, but she was a child at the time, though her father was the ambassador to Turkey in the early days of WW1.
By contrast, Churchill was there. And it's fascinating.
During WW2 Churchill was asked how he thought history will remember him. He said very well, "since I intend to write it." The man had wit.
I was a kid when Churchill died in 1965. I knew he'd been important but I was too young to understand why. I remember watching the funeral procession on TV, and thinking, "What exactly was this guy?"
I guess the more I read him, the more I know and like.
I bring this up because in addition to leading England in WW2 when it stood alone for over a year (and afterward to the war's conclusion), he was a brilliant author and historian. Though he went to Sandhurst (The UK's equivalent to West Point) and never formally studied writing, his writing style is compelling, not flowery, and doesn't seem old-fashioned in its pace and attention to detail.
Though I've read quite a few Churchill bios, and read his series of books on WW2, I'd never read his comprehensive volumes on WW1 (there are several in a series). I decided I needed to do that. So I'm in the middle of it. Best read I've had in years!
Churchill's first in this series, The World Crisis 1911-1914, written during the 1920s, takes the reader into the inner sanctums of the British, German and French military and the politics. In it are his memoranda to the cabinet, other actual records that he knows and explains how things came about, and so on. Churchill also knew the German players, was invited to view German military exercises before the war, was friendly with the French and German ambassadors, etc.
In other words, this isn't history by some later dude digging up the old records and reading old interviews and newspapers, as interesting as those histories can be.
This is a book by one of the major players.
Churchill was a cabinet minister in both the run-up to that catastrophe, as Home Secretary in the British cabinet, and later as the head of the Admiralty; in addition, he fought as an officer in the land war after 1915. This, after serving his country in the Boer War, and in Afghanistan 20 years before. If nothing else, Churchill was brave, and a patriot.
I've read a lot of WWI history, and it always seems to generalize the missteps that led to the war, the stuff that made the papers, etc.; Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August is a great example, a Pulitzer Prize winner about the war's run-up in very general terms, but with very few of the sharp details about what the parties on the inside were thinking.
Well, of course - she was an historian, not an insider. She wrote a fascinating book that's a wonderful and highly recommended read, but she was a child at the time, though her father was the ambassador to Turkey in the early days of WW1.
By contrast, Churchill was there. And it's fascinating.
During WW2 Churchill was asked how he thought history will remember him. He said very well, "since I intend to write it." The man had wit.
I was a kid when Churchill died in 1965. I knew he'd been important but I was too young to understand why. I remember watching the funeral procession on TV, and thinking, "What exactly was this guy?"
I guess the more I read him, the more I know and like.
