Churchill: Walking with Destiny
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Average rating4.9
When we seek an example of great leaders with unalloyed courage, the person who comes to mind is Winston Churchill: the iconic, visionary war leader immune from the consensus of the day, who stood firmly for his beliefs when everyone doubted him. But how did young Winston become Churchill? What gave him the strength to take on the superior force of Nazi Germany when bombs rained on London and so many others had caved? In Churchill, Andrew Roberts gives readers the full and definitive Winston Churchill, from birth to lasting legacy, as personally revealing as it is compulsively readable.
Roberts gained exclusive access to extensive new material: transcripts of War Cabinet meetings, diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs from Churchill's contemporaries. The Royal Family permitted Roberts--in a first for a Churchill biographer--to read the detailed notes taken by King George VI in his diary after his weekly meetings with Churchill during World War II. This treasure trove of access allows Roberts to understand the man in revelatory new ways, and to identify the hidden forces fueling Churchill's legendary drive.
We think of Churchill as a hero who saved civilization from the evils of Nazism and warned of the grave crimes of Soviet communism, but Roberts's masterwork reveals that he has as much to teach us about the challenges leaders face today--and the fundamental values of courage, tenacity, leadership and moral conviction.
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Magnificent.
One thing would have helped this American reader: an explanation of how British politics works, what the titles mean (“Lord Privy Seal?”, what the parties stands are, etc.
“The price of greatness is responsibility” I got introduced to Andrew Roberts Visa Vi his biography on Napoleon. I think that Roberts has an incredible way of simultaneously drawing upon characteristics of figures that influence generations while portraying them in such a human way that it makes me feel like I know them.
There is no better title than “Walking with Destiny” for Churchill. At the age of 16, he said “I have dreams about the future. The world is mine for the taking. If only I am to be given the opportunity.” Destiny suits Churchill so well as he was at the crossroads of both incredible luck and drive. At a young age, he rewrote famous parliamentary speeches so that he would deliver them. These traits foreshadow what would become one of the greatest individualists of all time.
The book spends lots of time - 25 hours - before it covers Churchill becoming PM. At times it felt quite stale and drew out aspects of Churchill's life and at times felt slightly rushed. But it definitely grasps Churchills style incredibly well. I say he is one of the greatest individualists of all time because his conviction in his own beliefs costed him his career and many opportunities. Yet his foresight into the rise of Nazism and Hitler's looming threat to Europe was course right and his rejection of appeasement to pursue war highlights his almost romantic leadership rather than the cold, calculating rationalist leaders are often depicted as.
I think the book does a good job of covering both the good and bad with Churchill. How his unwavering self-belief leads him to defend Jewish people, workers' rights and Hitler yet also failed him in regard to things like women's sufferage, India and the gold standard. It is clear Roberts Is a fan of Churchill but I think he did a good job overall at giving critics a voice.
“One reaching open seas, we forget how we clung to the pilot during the storm”
