Churchill and Peace with Germany

Part three of a response to Andrew Roberts and Zewditu Gebreyohanes Roberts and Gebreyohanes write that ‘[t]here were plenty of senior figures in the British government who were willing to countenance making peace with Hitler in 1940, but Churchill was not.’ This is inaccurate. Churchill was opposed to the idea of Italian mediation, supported by … Continue reading Churchill and Peace with Germany →

Churchill and the Nazis

Part two of a response to Andrew Roberts and Zewditu Gebreyohanes Roberts and Gebreyohanes write that Churchill had a ‘dogged determination to defeat the Nazis, the threat from whom he had been warning against for almost a decade’. This is a misleading characterisation of Churchill’s understanding of the Nazi movement. Churchill indeed warned against the … Continue reading Churchill and the Nazis →

How Sir Martin Gilbert Fudged the Facts to Protect his Hero

I. Sir Martin Gilbert was Churchill’s official biographer, and evidently enamoured of his subject: ‘I never felt that he [Churchill] was going to spring an unpleasant surprise on me. I might find that he was adopting views with which I disagreed. But I always knew that there would be nothing to cause me to think: … Continue reading How Sir Martin Gilbert Fudged the Facts to Protect his Hero →

Churchill’s Prejudices

Many people today are aware of Winston Churchill’s low opinion of Africans, Indians and Arabs. Somewhat less known are his negative opinions of a number of Jews. In 1920 an article by Churchill appeared in the Illustrated Sunday Herald, titled ‘Zionism versus Bolshevism’. In it he expressed his belief that patriotic ‘national Jews’ could be … Continue reading Churchill’s Prejudices →

A Regius Professor at Oxford Considers African History

Hugh Trevor-Roper was Regius Professor of History at Oxford 1957-1980, and Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge 1980-1987. In a 1965 book, The Rise of Christian Europe, Trevor-Roper observed that ‘[u]ndergraduates, seduced, as always, by the changing breath of journalistic fashion’ wanted to be ‘taught the history of Africa’. Of course, those foolish, trendy undergraduates had made … Continue reading A Regius Professor at Oxford Considers African History →

Britain’s Contribution to the Defeat of Nazi Germany

The first in a series responding to Andrew Roberts' and Zewditu Gebreyohanes' paper, ‘The Racial Consequences of Mr Churchill: A Review' Roberts and Gebreyohanes make several claims about the British contribution during the Second World War in their paper. They write that Britain ‘played a central role’ in the defeat of the Nazis (p21), that … Continue reading Britain’s Contribution to the Defeat of Nazi Germany →

Historical Fact and Fiction

I’m tired of the way historical fact is continually sacrificed in Britain on the altar of national mythology. A recent example of such distortion comes from Andrew Roberts and Zewditu Gebreyohanes, who have written a paper that can be found online entitled '"The Racial Consequences of Mr Churchill": A Review'. They attempt to refute various … Continue reading Historical Fact and Fiction →