Felix Klos is a historian who has had access to unpublished Churchill papers and archives. He undertook his research at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and in archives throughout Europe.
An exceptionally well crafted work of history. Politically, what is particularly important about it is the way that Churchills argument was not about economics, but about the political need for collaboration between European states as a way of avoiding the return of small nation protectionism and the political antagonisms to which it gave rise.
Professor Gareth Stedman Jones, Kings College, University of Cambridge
A deeply researched and beautifully written exploration of a largely forgotten historical moment Churchills postwar campaign for a United Europe. This new study expertly brings together the political and the personal and conjures up the intrigue and passion of hobnobbing and negotiations above the rubble of destruction. This is a timely reminder of where the European dream came from and how, even at that time, it was derailed by short-sighted British politicians of both Right and Left.
Professor Robert Gildea, University of Oxford, winner of the Wolfson History Prize
This accessible and thoroughly researched study explores Churchills extraordinary contribution to the original emergence of the European project, and will challenge muddled explanations of his thinking on Europe. An important book which could not have come at a better time.
Dr Sue Onslow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies
All historical writing speaks to the present through the past, but it is rare, very rare, to find a work of scholarship that is as decisively relevant as Felix Kloss portrait of Winston Churchill in his later career as a champion of Europeanism. This scrupulous, elegant book rejuvenates for the twenty-first century the prophetic vision of one of the towering figures of the twentieth.
Vijay Seshadri, author, essayist and winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize
All politicians suffer from having their words misquoted or taken out of context, but the posthumous conflicts over the precise nature of Churchills views on European integration are probably in a class of their own. Timely, erudite and absorbing.
Professor Peter Catterall, editor of The Macmillan Diaries
CHURCHILLS
LAST STAND
The Struggle to Unite Europe
FELIX KLOS
Published in 2018 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright 2018 Felix Klos
The right of Felix Klos to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
ISBN: 978 1 78453 813 2
eISBN: 978 1 78672 292 8
ePDF: 978 1 78673 292 7
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Typeset in Stone Serif by OKS Prepress Services, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Sweden by ScandBook AB
Why is it that you, Sir Winston, became the champion for the European ideal? I believe this can be explained from two human qualities that also are the requisite qualities for statesmanship: greatness of thought, depth of feeling.
(Konrad Adenauer addressing Churchill in 1956 at the occasion of the awarding of the Charlemagne Prize, the highest honour for service to European unity)
LIST OF PLATES
Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1942. (US Library of Congress, Licensed by Wikimedia Commons)
Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. The Leader of the Labour Party Clement Attlee was also in attendance, as the results of the 1945 General Election were not yet known in Britain. Churchill would learn during the conference that the Conservative Party he led had lost power in the United Kingdom. (US National Archives, Licensed by Wikimedia Commons)
Count Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi (standing) at the welcome during the Pan-Europe Congress in Berlin, 1930. On the right sits his wife Ida Roland, actress. Count Coudenhove-Kalergi was one of the earliest driving forces behind greater European integration. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)
A crowd gathered to hear Winston Churchill speak in Zurich, 1946. Churchill argued in the speech for a kind of United States of Europe to preserve peace. (Photo by Hans Staub/Alinari Archives, Florence/Alinari via Getty Images)
Commemorative plaque for the speech of Winston Churchill on 19 September 1946 at the University of Zurich. The final line translates into English as Let Europe arise! (Wikimedia Commons)
Duncan Sandys, British politician and Joint Secretary of the United Europe Movement, addressing a conference in the Ridderzaal at The Hague, 29 January 1948. Duncan Sandys (190887) was a key ally of Churchills European project, as well as his son-in-law. (Original Publication: Picture Post 4548 Is Europe Nearer Union? Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/ Getty Images).
United Europe poster. The official public inauguration of what ultimately came to be known as Churchills United Europe Movement took place at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 1947. Five thousand United Europe posters were placed across London ahead of the meeting. At Churchills instructions, a large red and white banner with the words EUROPE ARISE! hung from the halls ceiling. (Photo Credit: Historical Archives of the European Union, Florence. File 808.)
Sir Winston Churchill speaks at the United Europe Movement at the Royal Albert Hall event on 14 May 1947. (Photo found in Europe Unites: The Hague Conference and After, published London 1949. Photographer unknown.)
Churchill and Eden in London, 1954. Anthony Eden would successfully help discourage Churchill from pursuing his European plans. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For generously helping me set up the narrative of the book and sharpening my thinking, I am most grateful to my supervisor at Worcester College, Oxford, Robert Gildea; Anne Deighton at Wolfson College, Oxford; Sue Onslow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies; Peter Catterall at the University of Westminster; Patricia Clavin at Jesus College, Oxford; Alan Packwood at Churchill College, Cambridge; Warren Dockter at Aberystwyth University; and Lord Watson of Richmond. For a stellar education and unwavering academic enthusiasm I am indebted to my tutors at Lincoln College, Oxford, Susan Brigden, Perry Gauci and Alana Harris; and my supervisors at Middlebury College, Michael Kraus and Allison Stanger.
For his patient, expert help in preparing a draft manuscript, my thanks are due to Mitchell Byrne. I am indebted to Stefan Curtress, Alexander Wilson, Matthijs Terhoeve and Oliver Baines for their invaluable assistance in my research travels.
