Churchill’s Greatness

“Of all the towering figures of the twentieth century, both good and evil, Winston Churchill was the most valuable to humanity, and also the most likeable.”

With that as his wonderful opening line, Paul Johnson, the famous historian and author of Modern Times, sets out to do the impossible: craft a readable, honest, interesting, quick-paced, intelligent, and edifying account of arguably the most important man in the last hundred years. Amazingly, Johnson accomplishes all that in Churchill and does it under 200 pages.

Sir Winston

Winston Churchill was a tremendous man. Full of passion, eloquence, ambition, bravado, clear thinking, pig-headedness, the British soldier, author and statesmen was blessed with a fearless disregard for danger, good humor, and indefatigable zeal. Churchill spent fifty-five years as a member of Parliament, thirty-one years as a (political) minister, and almost nine as prime minister. He was present or fought in fifteen battles. He was a prominent figure in World War I and a dominant figure in World War II. He published 10 million words and painted over 500 canvases. He reconstructed his stately home at Chartwell and belonged to several professional orders and societies. Thirteen countries gave him medals and dozens of universities awarded him honorary degrees. The number of champagne bottles consumed may have been close to 20,000.

The Wit and the Words

Churchill was as witty as he was hardworking. “We are all glow worms,” he once replied to the daughter of the chancellor of exchequer, “but I really think I am a glow worm.”

After losing a hard-fought campaign and winding up in the hospital with abdominal discomfort Churchill quipped, “In the twinkling of an eye, I found myself without an office, without a seat, without a party and without an appendix.”

Once while receiving numerous injections, which he loathed, a portly Churchill told the nurse, “You can use my fingers or the lobe of my ear, and of course I have an almost infinite expanse of arse.”

About soft-spoken Clement Attlee, Churchill’s opposition in the Labour Party, he remarked: “Yes, he is a modest man. But then he has so much to be modest about.”

The list of witticisms goes on and on.

But of course, Churchill’s most powerful words were not in the service of humor. It’s no exaggeration to say his speeches during the Second World War were as important as any military arsenal at rallying the British people and arousing the allies. Read them for yourself, or better, listen to them online if you can. The rhetoric still soars.

Lessons Learned

What makes this book so brilliant is Johnson’s ability to draw lessons for us from Churchill. In particular, Johnson highlights five lessons:

1. “The first lesson is: always aim high. As a child Churchill received no positive encouragement from his father and little from his mother. He was aware of his failure at school. But he still aimed high.”

2. “Lesson number two is: there is no substitute for hard work…Mistakes he constantly made, but there was never anything shoddy or idle about his work.”

3. “Third, and in its way most important, Churchill never allowed mistakes, disaster–personal or national–accidents, illnesses, unpopularity, and criticism to get him down.”

Good advice I’d say. The last two point are even better. Don’t skip them.

4. “Fourth, Churchill wasted an extraordinarily small amount of his time and emotional energy on the meannesses of life: recrimination, shifting the blame onto others, malice, revenge seeking, dirty tricks, spreading rumors, harboring grudges, waging vendettas…There is nothing more draining and exhausting than hatred. And malice is bad for the judgment.”

5. “Finally, the absence of hatred left plenty of room for joy in Churchill’s life…He liked to share his joy, and give joy. It must never forgotten that Churchill was happy with people.”

This is a terrific book. If you’re not interested in Churchill (and how could you not be?) at least read the Epilogue. There’s more wisdom in the last six pages than you’ll find in 600 pages from most other books. Read it.