![]() Churchill’s decision to combine the two roles was an early indication of how he intended to control the war machine. This is not just the Prime Minister but the Minister of Defence in action. Some neck.” Churchill in Ottawa, December 30, 1941 Destruction of the French fleet at Oran “‘In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.’ Some chicken. In short, we have here a revealing explanation of how the conjuror performed some of his tricks. But Packwood is not a bureaucratic spoilsport who wants to take the thrill out of the story by submerging us in administrative minutiae: instead he fully appreciates the way in which Churchill’s mastery of words was deployed (in Edward Murrow’s phrase) to mobilise the English language and send it into battle. This focuses our attention less on the memorable rhetoric in which Churchill conveyed his general objectives than on the prosaic detail of arguments in committees, on the executive orders on policy options, and on the brute facts on the ground that marked the conduct of war operations. No sycophant, the author poses searching questions about Churchill’s leadership in the Second World War, in particular about his decision-making. Packwood’s scholarship is impeccable in documenting the story that he tells, rooting his conclusions in the impressive range of sources that he cites, often (but not always) from the Churchill Archives Centre. ![]() Allen Packwood at the Library of Parliament, Ottawa, 2012 ![]() To put this more prosaically, he is the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, where the great man’s own papers have long formed the core of a vast collection of documents that brings scholars from all over the world - not least from Canada - in quest of the original sources for so much of what we need to know in placing Churchill’s own career in its full historical context. Even for connoisseurs, then, the real test is whether the new offering proves refreshing, because it is the real thing, with the right provenance, fresh on the palate and with a satisfying after-taste.Īllen Packwood has served us all well in this respect, not least because - to extend the metaphor - he is not just some sommelier assuring us that this is an amusing little wine but because he has the authority of being the cellarman who knows where the best vintages have been put down for posterity. Yet if we wonder whether it is worth opening another one today, it almost as though Churchill himself might have decided not to open a new bottle of champagne because he had opened one yesterday. How Churchill Waged War: The Most Challenging Decisions of the Second World WarĮach new book about Winston Churchill inevitably faces the question of whether it is really necessary, since there have already been so many.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |