Churchill and empire : a portrait of an imperialist / Lawrence James.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

James, Lawrence, 1943- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965.

Churchill, Winston.

Prime ministers--Great Britain--Biography.

Prime ministers.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Politics and government--1936-1945.

Politics and government.

Great Britain--Foreign relations--20th century.

International relations.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

viii, 452 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Pegasus Books hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Pegasus Books, 2014.

Summary:

Narrative historian Lawrence James has written a genuinely new biography of Winston Churchill, one focusing solely on his contradictory relationship with the British Empire. As a young army officer in the late nineteenth century serving in conflicts in India, South Africa, and the Sudan, his attitude toward the Empire was the Victorian paternalistic approach--at once responsible and superior. Conscious even then of his political career ahead, Churchill found himself reluctantly supporting British atrocities and held what many would regard today as prejudiced views, in that he felt that some nationalities were superior to others. His (some might say obsequious) relationship with America reflected that view: America was a former colony where the natives had become worthy to rule themselves, but--he felt--still had that connection to Britain. This outmoded attitude was one of the reasons the British voters rejected him after leading the country brilliantly in the Second World War. His attitude remained decidedly old-fashioned, truly Victorian, in a world that was shaping up very differently.--From publisher description.

Contents:

Jolly little wars : Omdurman

He'll be prime minister of England one day : a subaltern's progress

A dog with a bone : Lieutenant Churchill's imperial world

An adventurer : questions of character

Humbugged : the Colonial Office, 1905-1908

Tractable British children : more native questions

Breathing ozone : the Admiralty, October 1911-March 1914

These grave matters : the Irish crisis, March-July 1914

The interests of Great Britain : the coming of war, July-August 1914

A war of empires : an overview, 1914-1918

I love this war : the Dardanelles and Gallipoli, August 1914-May 1915

A welter of anarchy : Churchill, the Empire and the Bolsheviks, 1919-1922

Carry on like Britons : Churchill's Russian war, 1919-1921

The weight of the British arm : policing the Empire, 1919-1922

Reign of terror : Churchill and Ireland, 1919-1923

The possibility of disaster : the Near and Middle East, 1919-1922

The will to rule : the struggle to keep India, 1923-1936

An unnecessary war, part I : the Japanese challenge, 1931-1939

An unnecessary war, part II : appeasement, 1935-1939

A war of peoples and causes : Churchill as war leader and strategist

We felt we were British : the Imperial war effort

A disaster of the first magnitude : holding the Middle East, 1939-1941

Supreme effort : distractions, chiefly French

Britain's broke : Anglo-American exchanges, 1939-1941

A shocking tale : the Singapore debacle, 1941-1942

The dark valley : perils and panic, 1942

A state of ordered anarchy : India, 1942-1943

The wealth of India : subversion and famine, 1943-1945

The flag is not let down : Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt

Fraternal association : America and the future of the British Empire

Your lofty principles : gains and losses, 1945

Abiding power : the Empire and the Cold War, 1946-1951

Splutter of musketry : small wars, 1950-1951

A falling from power? : atom bombs and Arabs, 1951-1955

The third British Empire, 1951-1955.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 391-432) and index.

ISBN:

9781605985695

1605985694

OCLC:

858843458