Churchill.

• Author: Sempa, Francis P.
• Position: Book review

Churchill

Review by Francis P. Sempa, Contributing Editor

Paul Johnson, Churchill, New York: Viking, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-670-02105-5, 166 pp. $24.95

Winston Churchill played so large a role on the world stage for such a long time that it would seem futile to attempt to write a brief biography summarizing his life. His official biography, begun by his son Randolph and completed by Martin Gilbert, runs to eight huge volumes. Gilbert condensed that work into one volume for a popular audience, but even that runs to nearly a thousand pages. William Manchester's unfinished biography of Churchill, The Last Lion, is in two volumes, more than 1600 pages, and ends on the eve of Churchill's wartime premiership. Roy Jenkins' well-received one-volume biography of Churchill is more than a thousand pages. Churchill's own histories of the First and Second World Wars each run to six volumes. Is there any sense to writing a 166-page biography of this towering historical figure?

The answer is yes, if the author is Paul Johnson. Johnson may be the best, and is surely one of the most insightful, of our modern historians. His history of the 20th century, Modern Times, is an unmatched examination of the forces, trends, and people that shaped the post-World War I world. His The Birth of the Modern brilliantly explores the cultural, political, and geopolitical events of the immediate post-Napoleonic world. His History of the American People is a breathtaking popular history of America since its settlement in the early 17th century.

Johnson's Churchill combines economy of words with brilliant insights on every page. Moreover, Johnson manages in 166 pages to convey every important aspect of Churchill's life and career and still provide penetrating analysis and reflection. No words are wasted. No important aspect of Churchill's life goes unremarked. Johnson's book is a masterpiece of concision and synthesis.

The facts are well known. Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, at Blenheim Palace. He was the son of Randolph Churchill, a Member of Parliament and descendant of the Duke of Marlborough, and Jennie Jerome, the daughter of an American financier. Both parents had precious little time for Winston who, instead, was raised by Elizabeth Everest, his nurse.

Churchill was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst with a military career in mind. He developed a love of history which led him to devour Gibbon and Macaulay, and also fell in love with the English language. As Johnson...