Abstract
On 1 October 1900, Winston Spencer Churchill (1874–1965) was elected as the Conservative and Unionist MP for Oldham.1 Barely three months later, he undertook a lucrative lecture tour of America in order to ‘pursue profit not pleasure’.2 Introducing Churchill to an audience in New York, Mark Twain commented that Churchill was more than competent to talk to the audience about the Boer War, as he had both fought and written through it.3 At the age of 26, and due to his increasingly successful careers as a war correspondent and sometime soldier, Churchill was already being internationally acknowledged as a man who would write about a battle he had experienced first-hand. The precedent had been set: fighting and then writing about his role in that fight was to become Churchill’s literary modus operandi.4
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
As MPs were unpaid, it was necessary for Churchill to create a financial nest egg. His lecture tour began in Britain, in the October. The British leg of the tour netted £3,781 for Churchill (Randolph S. Churchill (ed.), Winston S. Churchill: Companion Volume I: Part 2, 1896–1900 (London: Heinemann, 1967), pp. 1218–19), and he departed for America on 1 December 1900. See Churchill to Bourke Cockran, 25 November 1900 in Churchill (ed.), Companion Volume I: 2, p. 1219.
The lecture took place at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York on 14 Decemberember 1900. See Churchill (ed.), Companion Volume I: 2, pp. 1221–3;Todd Ronnei, ‘Churchill in Minnesota’, Minnesota History, 57/7 (2001), p. 349, citing Robert H. Pilpel, Churchill in America 1895–1961: An Affectionate Portrait (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1976; London: New English Library 1977), p. 39; and Christopher Schwarz, ‘When the Twain Met: Winston Churchill and Samuel Clemens’, Finest Hour, 149 (2010–11), pp. 40–44.
In recent years, Churchill’s work as historian has attracted attention (most notably) from Peter Clarke, Mr. Churchill’s Profession: The Statesman as Author and the Book that Defined the ‘Special Relationship’ (London: Bloomsbury, 2012) and John Ramsden, Man of the Century: Winston Churchill and His Legend since 1945 (London: HarperCollins, 2002). Any research, however, that examines Churchill’s memoir of the Second World War owes a debt to David Reynolds’s Wolfson prize-winning work, In Command of History: Winston Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (London: Allen Lane, 2004).
Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Volumes I–VI (London: Cassell, 1948–54).
Churchill, Mansion House speech, London, 10 November 1942, in Robert Rhodes James (ed.), Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches: Volume VI, 1935–1942 (New York: Chelsea House, 1974), p. 6695.
Eugene L. Rasor, Winston S. Churchill, 1874–1965: A Comprehensive Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000).
Curt J. Zoller, Annotated Bibliography of Works About Sir Winston Churchill (New York: Sharpe, 2004), pp. 3–132. The works listed by Zoller go up to and include 2002.
Fred Glueckstein, ‘“Cats look down on you… ”: Churchill’s feline menagerie’, Finest Hour, 139 (2008), pp. 50–53; Raymond Callahan, ‘Winston Churchill, Two Armies, and Military Transformation’, World War II Quarterly, 5/4 (2008), pp. 36–42.
A.J.P. Taylor et al., Churchill: Four Faces and the Man (London: Allen Lane, 1969) in which Taylor considered Churchill ‘The Statesman’, pp. 11–51; Robert Rhodes James discussed Churchill ‘The Politician’, pp. 55–115; J.H. Plumb examined Churchill ‘The Historian’, pp. 119–51; Basil Liddell Hart debated Churchill ‘The Military Strategist’, pp. 155–202;and Anthony Storr psychoanalysed Churchill ‘The Man’, pp. 205–46.
George Watson, The Literary Thesis: A Guide To Research (London: Longman, 1970), pp. 13 & 14.
This research concentrates upon the Indian Army, and the relevant publications will be referenced in Chapter 6. The best studies regarding other colonial soldiers (most notably African soldiers) are: Hal Brands, ‘Wartime recruiting practices, martial identity and post-World War II demobilization in colonial Kenya’, Journal of African History, 46/1 (2005), pp. 103–25; Frank Furedi, ‘The demobilised African soldier and the blow to white prestige’, in David Killingray and David Omissi (eds), Guardians of Empire: The Armed Forces of the Colonial Powers, c. 1700–1964 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 179–97; Ashley Jackson, The British Empire and the Second World War (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006); and David Killingray with Martin Plaut, Fighting for Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War (Woodbridge: James Currey, 2010).
Douglas Ford, Britain’s Secret War Against Japan, 1937–1945 (London: Routledge, 2006), p. 2.
Even after he had been drafted, Henry Novy (1919–87), one of Mass-Observations (MO) paid participants, continued to write reports for MO. Novy was also one of the first trustees appointed to the MO archive in the 1970s. Cited in Sandra Koa Wing (ed.), Mass-Observation: Britain in the Second World War (London: Folio, 2007), Henry Novy, 15 February 1942, p. 126.
Douglas Ford, Britain’s Secret War Against Japan, 1937–1945 (London: Routledge, 2006), p. 2. For the Official Histories of British Intelligence see Francis H. Hinsley with E.E. Thomas, C.F.G. Ransom and R.C. Knight, British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volumes I–II, Its Influence on Strategy and Operations (London: HMSO, 1979–81); Hinsley with Thomas, Ransom and C.A.G. Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volume III, parts 1 and 2, Its Influence on Strategy and Operations (London: HMSO, 1984–88); Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volume IV, Security and Counter-Intelligence (London: HMSO, 1990); and Michael Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volume V, Strategic Deception (London: HMSO, 1990).
The one obvious exception to this rule was produced by the Military Histories Section: Major-General S. Woodburn Kirby, The War Against Japan: Volumes I–V (London: HMSO, 1957–69).
Zara Steiner and Keith Neilson, Britain and the Origins of the First World War (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); Christopher Bell, ‘The “Singapore strategy” and the deterrence of Japan: Winston Churchill, the Admiralty and the dispatch of Force Z’, English Historical Review, 116/467 (2001), pp. 604–34; Robert O’Neill, ‘Churchill, Japan and British security in the Pacific, 1904–1942’, in Roger Blake and Wm. Roger Louis (eds), Churchill: A Major New Assessment of his Life in Peace and War (Oxford: OUP, 1993), pp. 275–90.
Jerome M. O’Connor, ‘Churchill and Roosevelt’s secret mission to Singapore’, Finest Hour, 133 (2006–7), pp. 20–23; Karl Hack and Kevin Blackburn, Did Singapore have to fall? Churchill and the Impregnable Fortress (London: Routledge, 2003); Raymond Callahan, ‘Churchill and Singapore, in Brian Farrell (ed.), Sixty Years On: the fall of Singapore revisited (Singapore: Easter University Press, 2002); Bell, ‘The “Singapore strategy” and the deterrence of Japan; Ian Cowman, ‘Main Fleet to Singapore? Churchill, the Admiralty and Force Z’, Journal of Strategic Studies, 17/2 (1994), pp. 79–93; Ian Hamill, ‘Winston Churchill and the Singapore Naval Base, 1924–1929’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 11/2 (1980), pp. 277–86.
Auriol Weigold, Churchill, Roosevelt and India: Propaganda During World War II (London: Routledge, 2008); Arthur Herman, Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged our Age (New York: Bantam, 2008); Larry Arnn, ‘India in recent historiography: Perhaps Churchill believed in real liberation’, Finest Hour, 118 (2003), pp. 22–3;Philip Ziegler, ‘The Transfer of Power in India’, in R. Crosby Kemper (ed.), Winston Churchill: Resolution, Defiance, Magnanimity, Good Will (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996); Sarvepalli Gopal, ‘Churchill and India’, in Blake and Louis (eds), Churchill, pp. 457–72;Carl Bridge, ‘Churchill and Indian Political Freedom’, Indo-British Review, 13/2 (1987), pp. 26–30; M.S. Venkataramani and B.K. Shrivastava, Roosevelt-Gandhi-Churchill: America and the Last Phase of India’s Freedom Struggle (New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1983); and finally Robin James Moore, Churchill, Cripps and India, 1939–1945 (Oxford: OUP, 1979).
Ian St John, ‘Writing to the defence of Empire: Winston Churchill’s press campaign against constitutional reform in India, 1929–35’, in Chandrika Kaul (ed.), Media and the British Empire (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); Ronald Hyam, ‘Churchill and the British Empire’, in Blake and Louis (eds), Churchill, pp. 167–86;John Barnes and David Nicholson (eds), The Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries, 1929–1945 (London: Hutchinson, 1988); and Jackson, The British Empire and the Second World War.
The following are mainly British university theses (as opposed to the mainly America University theses listed by Zoller in endnote 10 above): A.J. Whitfield, ‘British Imperial consensus and the return to Hong Kong, 1941–45’, PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, 1998; A.D. Stewart, ‘Managing the Dominions: the Dominions Office and the Second World War’, PhD thesis, King’s College, London, 2002; R. Hirasawa, ‘Liberals and empire in Victorian Britain: a study in ideas’, PhD thesis, University of Exeter, 2005; K. Evans, ‘The development of the overseas trade of the British Empire with particular reference to the period 1870–1939’, MA thesis, University of Manchester, 1955–56;J. Reece, ‘Henry Page Croft, 1881–1947: the Empire and the Conservative Party’, MPhil thesis, University of Nottingham, 1991; A.J. Cumming, ‘The Navy as the ultimate guarantor of freedom in 1940?’, PhD thesis, University of Plymouth, 2006; N.W. Sloane, ‘The Paradox of Unity: Winston Churchill, Mackenzie King and Anglo-Canadian relations, 1940–1945’, PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, 2007; and K.C. Akora, ‘India League and India conciliation groups as factors in Indo-British relations, 1930–1949’, PhD thesis, London School of Economics, London, 1989. The following theses have all been published as books which were based on their respective research areas: I. Hamill, ‘The strategic Illusion: the Singapore Strategy and the defence of Australia and New Zealand, 1919–1942’, PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 1974–75;J. Neidpath, ‘The Singapore naval base and the defence of Britain’s eastern empire, 1919–1941’, DPhil thesis, Oxford University, Oxford, 1975;F. Woods, ‘One more fight: The writings of Winston Churchill’, PhD thesis, University of Keele, 1992; and I. Cowman, ‘Anglo-American naval relations in the Pacific 1937–1941’, PhD thesis, King’s College, London, 1989.
Maurice Ashley, Churchill as Historian (London: Secker & Warburg, 1968), p. 20.
Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Volume I, The Gathering Storm (London: Cassell, 1948), p. vii.
E.H. Carr, What Is History? (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1961;repr., 2001), pp. 16 & 17.
So convincing was Churchill’s image as the ardent imperialist that in 1952, when Churchill addressed the American houses of Congress, a Congressman’s wife remarked that she had ‘felt that the British Empire was walking into the room’, Ashley Jackson, Churchill (London: Quercus, 2011), p. 351, citing Alistair Cooke, Manchester Guardian.
Penderel Moon (ed.), Wavell: The Viceroy’s Journal (Karachi: OUP, 1974), Wavell quoting Mountbatten, 30 September 1943, p. 21.
Raymond Callahan, ‘Review: In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War’, Journal of Modern History, 70/2 (2006), p. 552.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Catherine A.V. Wilson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wilson, C. (2014). Introduction. In: Churchill on the Far East in The Second World War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137363954_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137363954_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-47316-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-36395-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)