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Title: My Early Life: 1874-1904 by Winston Churchill, William Manchester ISBN: 0-684-82345-4 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 06 June, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.73 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent Autobiography
Comment: Winston Churchill's autobiography of his early life is an engrossing and informative read. After reading other biographies of Churchill it is interesting to get the story from the Churchill himself. In addition to learning about Churchill's youth, one gets a portrait of late Victorian England, a world that no longer exists.
The opening chapters are amusing as Churchill humorlessly recalls his difficult days in the British public school system. The middle section covers his military career in India and Africa. It is hard to understand Churchill's zest for war in today's climate. Europe had not seen the destruction total war could wrought. It is miracle he survived all the engagements he took part in. As Churchill points out most believed there would never be a major war at that time and war was still considered to be romantic. He sadly points out that most his former comrades would killed in the Boer War and the First World War. The chapters on Churchill's escape from the Boer POW camp are a real treat.
"My Early Life" is one of the finest autobiographies I have read. One can see why Churchill was awarded a Nobel Prize for literature. His command of the English language is masterful. What gives added relevence to this book is that it was written in the 1920s, little did Churchill know that he would play a central role in stopping Hitler and becoming one of the world's finest spokesman for freedom.
Rating: 4
Summary: Accessible Churchill
Comment: Churchill presents us with a short and lively account of his early life, making this one of his more accessible works.
We see it all: nanny-pampered, mother-neglected child; dim-witted schoolboy but top-notch military student; officer and reporter. In fact as a reporter in the Boer war, he worked as what we are calling today (during the Iraqi war) an embedded reporter. So deeply embedded that the Boers made him a POW though he was a non-combatant.
My favourite chapters deal with his schooling. He laughs at himself, poking fun at his younger self's total ineptitude at subjects such as Latin and mathematics, all the while humbly pointing out that he became such a good writer because being perceived as such a dolt by his teaches, the only thing they'd bother teaching him was English.
The accounts of his military life are interesting but are today overshadowed by the first and second world wars, so that I was unfamiliar with the background that led to conflicts in the Soudan or against the Boer. I recommend reading up on the Boer War in a good enclyclopedia.
Througout the book, WSC displays wit and irony. WSC reminds his readers that following the Boer War, the public thought that no more wars would be fought among white people (don't ever expect WSC to be P.C.--he calls a spade a spade) and that World War One came along anyway. Since he was writing before WW2, the intent was clearly to wake his countrymen up to the possibility of future conflict.
Recommended.
Rating: 4
Summary: Churchill & Manchester? A Must Read
Comment: For anyone unfamiliar with either Winston Churchill or William Manchester, this book provides a nice introduction to both. Remember the name Manchester, and when you're done with this book, go immediately back to Amazon.com and buy "The Last Lion", both volumes (the third volume is not yet published, alas).
There are many astonishing events in Churchill's life, and one wonders at the extent of self-aggrandizement in this book (certainly you wouldn't expect a politician to be entirely honest!). Nevertheless, if only 1/4 of Churchill's stories were true, it would be more than enough to establish him among the icons of history.
That this work ends on Churchill's (first) rise to public prominence is fitting. It is as if to say that prior to his political ascendency, Churchill's life was his own, and thus worthy of his own gifted commentary. Whereas after he became a public figure, there was really nothing more for him to personally relate (of course, Manchester's anecdotal stories concerning Churchill's bathtime hijinks put the lie to that theory - refer to the Last Lion VII). Not that there isn't plenty of autobiography in Churchill's other works (his history of World War II is rife with personal detail), but the tone is different, and the degree of revelation more subdued.
It is of incalculable benefit that we have access to such a personalized view of the childhood and formation of such a great man. Not that he could be duplicated by applying such remedies to your own children (just add syphalitic father, sexually uninhibited but devoted mother, and healthy dose of latin lessons at exclusive English school).
I must confess that among the many details contained in this book, the one that I find most revealing is Churchill's daring and disastrous gambit during a childhood game of tag (a presage to Forcing the Dardanelles?). This single incident speaks clearly to Churchill's indominatable spirit, incredible daring, and dangerous creativity.
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Title: The Wit & Wisdom of Winston Churchill by James C. Humes, Richard M. Nixon ISBN: 0060925779 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 25 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 by William Manchester ISBN: 0316545031 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 30 May, 1983 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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Title: The Gathering Storm by Winston S. Churchill ISBN: 039541055X Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 09 May, 1986 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: The River War: An Account of the Re-Conquest of the Soudan (Lost Treasures Series) by Winston S. Churchill ISBN: 1853752649 Publisher: Prion Books Pub. Date: February, 1998 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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Title: Marlborough - Volume I by Winston Churchill, University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226106330 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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