Forty ways to look at Winston Churchill : a brief account of a long life / Gretchen Rubin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rubin, Gretchen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965.

Churchill, Winston.

Physical Description:

x, 304 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Ballantine Books, 2003.

Summary:

Warrior and writer, genius and crank, rider in the British cavalry's last great charge and inventor of the tank, Winston Churchill led Britain to fight alone against Nazi Germany in the fateful year of 1940 and set the standard for leading a democracy at war. Like no other portrait of its famous subject, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill is a dazzling display of facts more improbable than fiction, and an investigation of the contradictions and complexities that haunt biography. Gretchen Rubin gives readers, in a single volume, the kind of rounded view usually gained only by reading dozens of conventional biographies. With penetrating insight and vivid anecdotes, Rubin makes Churchill accessible and meaningful to twenty-first-century readers by analyzing the many contrasting views of the man: he was an alcoholic, he was not; he was an anachronism, he was a visionary; he was a racist, he was a humanitarian; he was the most quotable man in the history of the English language, he was a bore. In crisp, energetic language, Rubin creates a new form for presenting a great figure of history -- and brings to full realization the depiction of a man too fabulous for any novelist to construct, too complicated for even the longest narrative to describe, and too valuable ever to be forgotten.

Contents:

1. Churchill as Liberty's Champion: Heroic View 11

2. Churchill as Failed Statesman: Critical View 20

3. Churchill's Contemporaries: Whom He Knew 33

4. Churchill's Finest Hour

May 28, 1940: The Decisive Moment 35

5. Churchill as Leader: Suited to High Office? 42

6. Churchill's Genius with Words: His Greatest Strength 46

7. Churchill's Eloquence: His Exact Words 55

8. Churchill in Symbols: Metonymy 69

9. Churchill, True: In a Single Word 74

10. Churchill's Desire for Fame: His Motive 77

11. Churchill as Depressive: The "Black Dog"? 82

12. Churchill's Disdain: His Dominant Quality 86

13. Churchill's Belligerence: His Defining Characteristic 92

14. Churchill's Time Line: Key Events 98

15. Churchill as Son: His Most Formative Role 103

16. Churchill as Father: A Good Parent? 109

17. Churchill the Painter: His Favorite Pastime 113

18. Churchill the Spendthrift: A Weakness 119

19. Conflicting Views of Churchill: How Others Saw Him 124

20. Churchill in Tears: Telling Detail 131

21. Churchill the Drinker: An Alcoholic? 136

22. Churchill in Context: Facts at a Glance 139

23. Churchill and Sex: Too Interesting to Ignore 147

24. Churchill as Husband: A Happy Marriage? 152

25. Churchill's Island Story: His Myth 156

26. Churchill in Photographs: How He Changed Through Time 161

27. Churchill as the Hero of a Novel: The Imagined and the Real 171

28. Churchill's Destiny: How He Saw Himself 178

29. Churchill the Imperialist: His Cause 186

30. Churchill's Empire: How He Saw the World 195

31. Churchill and Roosevelt: Friends as Well as Allies? 198

32. Churchill's Imagination: How He Saw History 202

33. Churchill and Hitler: Nemesis 211

34. Churchill Exposed: Missing Information Supplied 221

35. Churchill True or False: Challenged Assumptions 226

36. The Tragedy of Winston Churchill, Englishman: The Meaning of His Life 234

37. Churchill in Portrait: A Likeness 242

38. Churchill's Last Days: How He Died 246

39. My Churchill: Judgment 250

40. Remember Winston Churchill: Epitaph 253.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0345450477

OCLC:

52368214