Winston Churchill (review)

Nearly forty years after his death, Winston Churchill continues to be one of the most written about and fascinating biographical subjects of modern times. In particular, since 9/11 Churchill has been cited repeatedly as a model statesman who stood up to the most deadly challenge in British history after Hitler's armies invaded the West in May 1940.

Winston Churchill is a recent addition to the "Historic Lives" series published by the British Library. The author, a Reader in History at the University of Leicester, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, has written extensively about British politics.

Ball succinctly and effectively chronicles Churchill's life in six short chapters: his early life and impressive military experiences; his election to Parliament in 1900 shortly before his twenty-sixth birthday; his controversial role during World War I; his decade in the political wilderness; followed by his dramatic rise to become the wartime prime minister; and the final, difficult years of ill-health before his death on 24 January 1965, ironically, the same day his father had died seventy years earlier.

Ball's description of Churchill's role as First Lord of the Admiralty at the time of the disastrous British landings at Gallipoli during World War I, which cast "a shadow on his reputation up to 1940," is especially well summarized, as is his conclusion that World War II, particularly the precarious period between 1940 and 1942 when Britain's future remained in doubt, was Churchill's "finest hour," however "much else" in his career "was bronze or even lead, but this was golden, and upon this alone rests his position as the most significant British figure of the twentieth century" (pp. 54 and 137).

The book's only flaw is that its United Kingdom publisher, the British Library Publishing Division, committed a careless gaffe in the flap copy of the book by citing Churchill's birth date as 1875, instead of 1874. Not only was this inaccuracy never detected in the U.K. edition, but it was also carried over into the U.S. edition. Had the book's original editorial staff done a better job of checking the text they would have noted that the first chapter is titled "Making a Mark, 1874-1904," and that his date of birth is also listed in the text and in a chronology at the end of the book. It is an unfortunate truism of modern publishing that editing has become a lost art, and no better example exists than this failure to catch such a preventable error. As a result, the incorrect date of Churchill's birth has also been cited by Amazon.com (both U.S.A. and U.K.).

That aside, the book is lavishly produced, with superb photographs (some in color), paintings, cartoons, and examples of Churchill's writing. Given the limitations on its length to conform to the series, the author has done a remarkable job of condensing Churchill's spectacular life into a well-written, concise portrait of one of history's most remarkable men. Although it may not appeal to readers interested in a fuller portrait of Churchill, the book is nevertheless a useful addition to the vast Churchill literature.