I'd always wanted to read Churchill's own account of WWII; finding that it was available as an e-book spurred me to actually do it.

The first volume is... it's interesting, but not enthralling. There's a dreadful sameness to it, really. Some action is taken by the German government, the British government responds in pusillanimous fashion, Churchill gives a speech in Parliament that was 100% correct but went unheeded, and so on. There's no issues with the writing, and reading the text of these speeches, it's difficult to believe that they could have failed to carry the day... but they did.

And the failure is where Churchill is at his most interesting. He bemoans that he wasn't more effective (a little), but simultaneously gives thanks that his opinions made him such an outsider - that he was ready where and when he was ready, having been proved a visionary by events, not tarred with the brush of having been responsible for the crisis. But he's very... polite? It's more than politeness, really. It's easy to say terrible things about Chamberlain, and about the ministers who proceeded him, but Churchill doesn't do so; he's careful to make it plain that at all stages he enjoyed cordial relations with everyone involved, and instead of saying "Chamberlain made a terrible policy decision", he'll phrase it in general terms - "It is scarcely to be believed that such a policy decision could have been taken," if I can paraphrase a little.

(As an aside, one of the disadvantages of e-books is that they're hell to browse through for quotes!)

Of course, he's still criticizing here, and he doesn't pretend otherwise. There's an interesting passage where he talks about French decision-making in '35, and stops short of that conclusion, saying that the area was ripe for research if the French were interested in pointing fingers at responsible parties. By extension, he's acknowledging that he's doing that for the English, even if it's in a very genteel fashion.

But it's not just his writing style, because Hitler doesn't get the same benefits. Without descending into outright name-calling, Churchill makes it clear that Hitler isn't entitled to any of the politeness, or benefit of the doubt, that he would extend to his domestic political opponents. Of course, that's the advantage of the distinction between "genocidal maniac" and "person who let the genocidal maniac get started, out of good intentions"...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at 06:16 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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