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Gilbert tells the intensely human story of Winston Churchill's profound connection to America, a relationship that resulted in an Anglo-American alliance that has stood at the center of international relations for more than a century. Churchill, whose mother, the daughter of a leading American entrepreneur, was born in Brooklyn in 1854, spent much of his seventy adult years in close contact with the United States. In two world wars, his was the main British voice urging the closest possible cooperation with the U.S. Churchill first visited in 1895, when he was twenty-one. During three subsequent visits before the Second World War, he traveled widely and formed a clear understanding of both the physical and moral strength of Americans. Gilbert explores how Churchill's rapport with this country resulted in no less than the liberation of Europe and the preservation of European democracy and freedom.--From publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
There is, almost certainly, no greater authority on Churchill's life than Martin Gilbert, who was named Churchill's official biographer in 1968. Compared to his 8-volume official biography, the present book is something of an appendix, I suppose, but I found it charmingly written and very skillful in its argument that Churchill--because of his American roots, his grasp of the American psyche and political system, and mainly his stubborn optimism that the USA and Britain could and should be friends--is perhaps THE "Prime Mover" of US-GB relations from World War II up to present day.
I suppose, in some ways, the book could be said (not totally unexpectedly) to favor Churchill; when tensions are described, more often Roosevelt of Truman or Eisenhower are identified as the point of origin. By and large, though, the descriptions of those difficulties never struck me as completely unfair or irreparably biased. Gilbert does a great job of letting the reader see events through Churchill's eyes, wonderfully helped by the generous quotations from Churchill's telegrams, speeches, letters, and notes.
This the first book I've read focused on Winston Churchill and I suppose the best compliment I can give it is that it has left me wanting to read more about this remarkable British prime minister, whose decisive leadership shaped world history in ways that we have probably not yet fully fathomed.