The Churchill Factor: How One Man Changed History

Until now, I was not aware of Boris Johnson, only because of my not keeping up with British politics, but he is a fascinating person, and has written an excellent book on Churchill, and while he is an ardent devotee of the great man, his book is very interesting.The central theme of the book appears early and is cast in a dingy room in the House of Commons, where Prime Minister Churchill met with delegates from the Commons to discuss over a period of several days, what Britain was going to do in regards to peace feelers sent by the Italians. Britain stood alone; France was done as were the nations of coastal Europe, Poland was sliced apart; Stalin and Hitler were pals, America was isolationists and Britain itself had pellucid memories of the last war that bled them white.It was Churchill, and his determination that kept England in the war. After point/counterpoint with Lord Halifax and a dying Neville Chamberlain, WSC adjourned the afternoon meeting until 7 p.m. and convened the entire cabinet and made a speech to them, which was likely the most important of his life. He essentially said that he would not parley, would not give up the fleet, would not turn Britain into a puppet state, and his peroration proclaimed: "And I am convinced that every one of you would rise up and tear me down from my place if I were for one moment to contemplate parley or surrender. If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground." It just doesn't get any more dramatic than that, but he made the point and they united in the effort, and eventually won. The author makes the valid point that this was the only man at that time that stepped forward to save England, and, he argues, civilization itself. He goes on with details that you will enjoy.Johnson makes many other points about the greatness of Churchill, and one of the most impressive is the long list of social reforms that WSC advocated or initiated and pushed through beginning in 1908 that helped low paid workers (many of the women) in sweat shops and he tried to enforce minimum wages in these sectors. He also developed the scheme for unemployment insurance. He was heavily involved in the Great Budget War of 1909-10; a naked attempt at redistribution of wealth, wanting a 20% tax on the gain in land value when sold.Johnson also points out that during the turn of the 20th century, Britain suffered with a huge number of people in grinding poverty. We now tend to think of people in poverty in a struggle to get by, but at that time, they were in a struggle to live and they lived in pitiful circumstances, often ten to a room without toilets, running water, malnutrition, inadequate heat and no hope. Although from the upper crust at that time, Churchill wanted to improve the lot of these people and understood that Britain could never become a great nation if her masses were destitute.He provides a concise and clear history of the many military and journalist exploits of the young Churchill and it is fascinating reading. WSC was certainly without fear and took several lives with his own hand and was nonplussed for it. He fought on several continents and was the highest paid wartime journalist of the time, simply because he could write what the people were willing to pay to read.From 1905-1922 he was in some office, in later years he was Prime Minister guiding England through the second war. He wrote more words than Dickens and Shakespeare together and made a fortune selling books.And now with all the revisionists and many of the people dying out who were there when he was in office, perhaps his star fades a bit, but not for me and few other millions across the globe. Yes, the book is a tribute to this great man and a wonderful read. Even if your knowledge of Churchill is limited, the author is excellent at telling this amazing story of a once in a millennium man.I enjoyed it very much. Bugger on Boris.

Well written account of an extraordinary person's life and well researched. Very readable.Having said that, one of my criticisms (which is perhaps as much a criticism of Churchill as it is of the author) is the comparative lack of recognition of the role of the Empire countries in the war effort. They did not come in because of a Pearl Harbour - type situation. They came for Mother England - at their own great cost - and without the benefit of a Lend Lease type of arrangement to bolster them after the war was over. And, in the case of Australia, Churchill actively opposed the return of its forces when that country was under serious peril from the Japanese threat to the north.The other criticism I would make is that, while we learn a lot about Churchill as a military leader, we learn comparatively little about him as a family man - particularly as a father. Having an icon as a father may not have been as satisfying for his children as being the father of a nation was to him. Boris clearly admires Churchill immensely for his gifts but I think he could have been more cognizant of his human flaws.

Churchill – Who Saved the Western WorldBoris Johnson’s “The Churchill Factor” proves beyond reasonable doubt that Winston Churchill (1874-1965), more than any other man, literally saved the 20th Century from becoming the blackest hole ever created by a human being – the savage beast, Hitler: a vast wasteland, prostituted and rapined by a robber-barron of unparalled proportions, a wanton torturer and murderer of six million Jews and untold numbers of homsexuals and non-Ayrians (such as Asians and blacks). In addition to this monumental saving of the Western World from tyranny, Churchill was a superb writer, gaining fame as journalist and authoring 43 books in 72 volumes, and he served as Prime Minister of Great Britain twice (1940-1954 and 1951-9155) and held countless other major titles in government. After fighting in a half dozen colonial wars and being wounded four times, he was elected to Parliament in 1900 and served thereafter, almost continuously, until he retired in 1955. It would require pages to list Churchill’s achievements and honors, for which you must read the well-written Churchill Factor.Said by many to be the 20th Century’s greatest orator, he is sometimes compared to the crowd-fomenting Hitler; Hitler made you believe that he/Hitler could do anything; Churchill made you believe that YOU could do anything. Churchill’s laconic, profound and unforgettable speeces on many topics should engraved in marble in every legislature on the planet. For example, consider a few snipets of his wisdom: Communism repressed liberty, replaced individual discretion with State control, curtailed or quashed democracy, and was, therefore, tyrannous. Those who saw behind the Iron Curtain before it fell in 1989, heard its evil whispers, read the ludicrous propaganda of a failed system that couldn’t supply basic needs, and observed that it controlled the population by dening the elementary freedom to travel, while imprisoning or exiling to Siberia or murdering those who raised their voices in opposition. Nazis preach war and instill in their children a frightening bloodlust. Capitalism, for all of its imperfections, was able to satisfy the wants of most human beings. Democracy, he dubbed “the worst form of government, until you compare it with the alternatives”. Duringn war, “A nation should show resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnimity; in peace, goodwill. No one said (or wrote) more with less words than the eloquently sagacious Sir Winston.As to saving the Western World from The Third Reich, the facts leave little doubt about it. In the 1930’s, Britain’s then leaders and citizens favored “peace”, more or less at any price. Even then Ambassador Joseph Kennedy (Jack Kennedy’s father) publically supported a British peace treaty with Hitler, as did most Americans at that time. Had Churchill not been there, at the helm, Britain would have capitulated and agreed to a treaty that would have placed Britain under puppet-control of Hitler, a de facto enslavement of Great Britain. Churchill realized that had Hitler not needed to fight Great Britain, he could have thrown all his forces and might against the Russians, leading to a virtually certain conquest of Russia, and all of Europe would have then been Hitler’s. As one, solid trading block, all of Europe would have posed many economic issues for the U.S. as well. Hitler’s airforce was more advanced than any other; his unmanned rockets were far ahead of their of time and nearly descimated England; and his scientists were close to creating an atomic bomb. All of this power in the hands of megalomaniac, a Satanic imposer of genocide and “racial cleansing”. Without Churchill, the world as we know it would be a very different place, perhaps in a form of New Dark Ages. To this day, you, I and everyone in the Western World owe their greatest homage to Winston Churchill.As must all leaders, he had many detractors, and his views often seemed dichotymous. He was accused of “holding all views on all questions” and of “having no convictions”. He changed political parties when it seemed wise; he was a capitalist and free-trader, but he founded Britain’s welfare state and reformed the prisons, and fought for women’s rights. He wasn’t “a Christian”, as he couldn’t believe the Bible’s stories/myths, but he lived a Christian ethic better than most of religion’s clergy. He enjoyed a long and happy marriage to Clementine, a bright beauty who defended him with the ferocity of savage. In the end, he earned the adulation of the masses and the devotion of those closest to him, a rare feat for such icons. Winston Churchill’s feats continue to boggle the mind: a skilled horseman, oil painter, author, and by consensus history’s greatest politician and statesman. In the 20th Century, no one came close to rivaling this giant, and, in fact, all of recorded history may well not offer his peer. We stand in awe of such achievements, and we owe Boris Johnson our profound thanks for compiling Churchill’s feats in such a delightfully written biography, giving us the key facts about this titan, while revealing the human side of this great man and the love of his life, his wife, Clementine. The book rings with truth, while enabling the reader to feel and breathe the ethos of WWI and WWII. It is a history, too, and well worth reading. As a biography, it deserves five stars. BookAWeekMan (leeglovett.com)

Letto il libro in lingua originale . Johnson non sarà un politico ma come scrittore ed accademico è straordinario.

…about one of those people defining human greatness for the 20. Ctry. Unfortunately that didn’t rub off on its author who is a great journalist but a myopic political blunderer… Churchill wouldn’t have liked the philistrious EU we have to live with by now but he wouldn’t have succumbed to the obvious manipulation from the forces of the new fascism to further weaken the nations of Europe…

This book covers all aspects of Churchill his amazing contributions to history and fiascos. It provides in depth context to show the true idealism fuelled by an amazing energy. All humans have faults and some inbred prejudices and make mistakes but very few have contributed as much to the betterment of the world. Churchill believed that what was good in Britain was benefit to all .

Very well written book.It tells a reader as much about Churchill as about the author Boris Johnson.The book is full of very interesting ,not very well known ,facts not just from the life of the great English politician , but also about the history of England

en creux, cette biographie rend criant le manque d'hommes politiques de sa trempe aujourd'hui. Mais nos peuples anesthésiés par 70 ans de paix, d'opulence économique et de moralisation extreme pourraient-il supporter un tel leader ?