Winston S. Churchill - A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Collection: A One-Volume Abridgment by Christopher Lee

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First published in Great Britain by Cassell, London 1998

This Bloomsbury Revelations edition first published 2021

Copyright Winston S. Churchill and Christopher Lee, 1998, 2021

Winston S. Churchill and Christopher Lee have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Authors of this work.

Cover design: Ben Anslow

Cover image: Winston Churchill portrait Shawshots / Alamy Stock Photo

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ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-7630-0
PB: 978-1-3500-4294-0

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Winston S. Churchill was the first person to become An Honorary Citizen of the United States. It was an honor not lightly bestowed by Congress, nor was it lightly received. Churchills understanding of the cultural and political theatre of the United States was far more than an interest to support his pragmatic belief in the need for transatlantic alliance in the face of two world wars and the Cold War. Moreover, it should be remembered that Churchills American-born mother, Jenny Jerome, was a greater direct influence on his early life than was his father, Lord Randolph Churchill. Indeed, Churchills search for glory, medals and money was more after his mothers style than his sometimes distant father.

The British have always been keen on glory and medals. They wear both with satisfied modesty. Churchill saw little point, nor future, in being ordinary and so the opportunities for military splendour and decorations meant that even with self-congratulation achievement, the Churchill name was, by the start of the twentieth century, rescued from ordinariness given the great mans pedigree, hardly a natural state. As a Marlborough, Churchill understood origins. His whole life was influenced by the self-assurance that comes with a faith in a mans past; Churchill was in no doubt that future generations would be proud of their ancestors and the ledgers and lexicons of British Imperial history.

Churchills sense of his nations history meant that he wanted A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (HESP), to bring a sense of origins to the people of the British Empire and Dominions and especially, to the one that got away, the United States. In the latter example, Churchill believed HESP would stress the common heritage of Great Britain and the United States of America as a means of enhancing the friendship of the two nations. The intensity of his belief may be found in the amount of space he devoted the American War of Independence a considerably higher proportion of his history than most other passages of the one thousand years of history of the islands. His Imperial view of why the British lost America is uncomplicated and may even be essential reading if we are to understand the great historical figure who coined The Special Relationship.

There is a marked difference between Churchills belief in transatlantic friendship and a more realistic twenty first century object of co-operation. During Churchills lifetime (18741965) diplomatic, military and commercial pragmatism meant that British Prime Ministers turned to American Presidents. This inevitable relationship (rather than special relationship) is something Europeans understand. Some aspect of George Bernard Shaws empty aphorism that America and England are two nations divided by a common language lodges in European suspicions of the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. Charles de Gaulle never trusted the United States to fulfill anything but self-interest and, during World War II, he understood that if Churchill were forced to choose between him and Roosevelt, then WSC would stand with America. Churchill claimed the term Special Relationship as his own. He used it in 1945 in conversation and public speeches; most famously he proclaimed during his Sinews of Peace Address,

I come to the crux of what I have traveled here to say. Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States.

Churchill had all but written HESP by the start of World War II. It was put to one side when he became the wartime British Prime Minister. At the 1945 General Election, Churchill and his Conservative Party, were in turn, put aside by the electorate. The old order was truly changing and giving way to new and dramatic times. Instead of resurrecting HESP, Churchill started work on his six volume, The Second World War. He needed the money world royalties would bring, and he wanted to make sure that his version of his part in Hitlers downfall would be in print in his words. Churchills view was that eventually the war would be a matter for historians, but he, Churchill would be one of them. It was not until 1956 that the first volume of