From the Editor

The Churchill Sesquicentennial

Few individuals did as much to shape the modern world as did Winston Churchill. To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, we have put together this special issue that surveys many aspects of his life and accomplishments. That even in 100 pages we can only sample elements of his career and influence stands as testimony to the measure of his magnitude. Perhaps Walt Whitman best anticipated how Churchill’s titanic life could be understood when he wrote “Song of
Myself” in Leaves of Grass:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes).

Andrew Roberts begins our study with the 2024 Stephen and Jane Poss Distinguished Churchill Lecture, which he delivered in London to the 41st conference of the International Churchill Society. Sir David Cannadine then looks at “Churchill in His Time and Our
Own.”

On the personal side, Celia Lee reports on the progress of restoring the grave of Mrs. Everest, Churchill’s beloved nanny, while Deborah Winslow Nutter clarifies a longstanding misconception about Pamela Plowden, Churchill’s first love. Fred Glueckstein reviews the writing of Marlborough: His Life and Times, when Churchill learned grand strategy by studying his famous ancestor. Seth Alexander Thévoz then walks us through the long list of private clubs to which Churchill belonged, and Michael Makovsky describes Churchill’s personal commitment to Zionism.

This year two long-forgotten Churchill speeches from 1923 were rediscovered. Ronald I. Cohen introduces a speech to the Canadian History Society, while Allen Packwood uncovered a stirring plea made for funds to support British athletes wishing to attend the Olympic Games. Arni Sigurdsson, Paul Bew, and Alastair Stewart then review Churchill’s connections with Iceland, Ireland, and Scotland respectively.

On the lighter side, Joe Oliver puts to rest longstanding urban myths about Churchill and UFOs with a thoroughly researched study,
and Gary Stiles guides us through Churchill’s life as depicted by the cartoonists of Punch. Finally, Mac Thornberry explains why Churchill is a hero still worth having in the twenty-first century.

David Freeman, April 2024

Winston Churchill by Sir William Orpen, 1916
© National Portrait Gallery, London