Winston Churchill :: essays research papers

Winston Churchill SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, (1874-1965),British leader. English on his fathers situation, Americanon his mothers, Sir Winston Leonard SpencerChurchill embodied and expressed the double vitalityand the national qualities of both peoples. His raises show to the richness of his historic inheritanceWinston, after the Royalist family with whom theChurchills married before the English Civil WarLeonard, after his remarkable grandfather, LeonardJerome of New York Spencer, the married name ofa daughter of the 1st duke of Marlborough, fromwhom the family descended Churchill, the familyname of the 1st duke, which his descendents resumedafter the Battle of Waterloo. All these strands cometogether in a career that had no line of latitude in Britishhistory for richness, range, length, and achievement. Churchill took a leading part in laying the foundationsof the welfare state in Britain, in preparing the RoyalNavy for globe War I, and in settling the politicalboundaries in the Mi ddle East after the war. InWORLD WAR II emerged as the leader of the unifyBritish nation and Commonwealth to resist theGerman domination of Europe, as an inspirer of theresistance among free peoples, and as a primearchitect of victory. In this, and in the struggle againstcommunism afterward, he made himself anindispensable link between the British and Americanpeoples, for he foresaw that the best defense for thefree human being was the coming together of theEnglish-speaking peoples. Profoundly historicallyminded, he also had prophetic foresightBritish-American unity was the message of his lastgreat book, A business relationship of the English-SpeakingPeoples. His dominant qualities were courage and imagination.Less obvious to the public, but no less important, washis powerful, original, and fertile intellect. He hadintense loyalty, marked magnanimity and generosity,and an affectionate nature with a puckish humor.Oratory, in which he ultimately became a master, helearned the hard way, but he was a natural wit. Theartistic side of his temperament was displayed in hiswritings and oratorical style, as well as in his paintings.He was a combination of soldier, writer, artist, andstatesman. He was not so secure as a mere partypolitician. Like Julius Caesar, he stands out not onlyas a great man of action, but as a writer of it too. Hehad genius as a man he was charming, gay, ebullient,endearing. As for personal defects, such a man wasbound to be a great egoist if that is a defect. Sostrong a personality was apt to be overbearing. Hewas something of a gambler, always too willing totake risks. In his earlier career, people thought him ofunbalanced judgment partly from the very excess of