Having read the first five volumes of Churchill's magnificent history of the war that he was so instrumental in winning, I looked forward somberly to the last volume, fully expecting the "tragedy" in the title to refer to the fate of the Jews in Germany and throughout Europe. But as I worked my way through that volume, I found almost no references to this true tragedy of humanity. The tragedy in question was Churchill's ouster at the end of the war. I finished the volume in disbelief. Checking the index to see if somehow I'd slept through this portion of his tome, I found no reference to holocaust, none to concentration camps, none to the Final Solution, and the only references to Jews are their organizing of a fighting force, their mistreatment in Hungary and an escape in Greece. I have long wondered at this terrible omission, and long to read what the New York Times had to say about this book when it was first published.

Winston Churchill found himself with a lot of time on his hands at the end of the war. Part of his personal tragedy was to suddenly discover, not long after the fall of Berlin but before the bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that he was no longer wanted by the British electorate. That is how "Triumph and Tragedy" ends, with a personal note of sourness, although with little explanation as to the why and wherefore of his own political demise. The truth lay perhaps in the real nature of the man. Recognised as the bulldog who could do a lot more than bark in a War Cabinet, he was called for at once when it was clear that Britain was in danger. Yet so well-known were his qualities as a fighter of men that, once peace was about to return, he was despatched back to political oblivion as being obviously the wrong man to continue. Such is democracy. I've no doubt he felt a little twinge, as many a soldier at the front also paradoxically felt, that his war was over.

Churchill was probably without equal during his own lifetime and, by the curious twists of fate which manage men, was one of the most extraordinary players on the world stage, throughout recorded history. The last sentence in the book nevertheless shows the true heart of a man who, whatever else may be said about him, gave so much:

"It only remains for me to express to the British people, for whom I have acted in these perilous years, my profound gratitude for the unflinching, unswerving support which they have given me during my task, and for the many expressions of kindness which they have shown towards their servant."

My comments refer not only to this penultimate volume but the entire series, and not to the currently advertised edition, but the first edition. Churchill remains one of my favourite authors, and this historic work is arguably his literary masterpiece. Speaking only for myself, I found the weight and style of English to be ideal, not too light or scholarly. His point of view of course is from the winning side, which is his right and privilege. For those willing to put in the time, without tiring of the war, it is well worth the effort. Somehow the narrative never seems to drag, in spite of the considerable length. Enthusiastically recommended.

Churchill was a superb writer, a man whose style I find inspiring. The way he conveys the information in this volume is most engaging. However, this is not really a good history book, as Churchill's focus is much too narrow. He focuses on military and political matters to the near exclusion of everything else. He gives little discussion to things that have had profound effects on history, like disease and plagues (the Black Plague receives brief, cursorary treatment), and if you read through this volume, you will find little if any discussion of music, dress, art, architecture, language, agriculture, sport, religion, literature, or daily life among the English speaking peoples. Science and inventions are only mentioned if they contribute something to the art of war. His work is accurately described by a quote from J. Henri Fabre, "History pays but little attention to these details: it celebrates the battle-fields whereon we meet our death, it scorns to speak of the ploughed fields whereby we thrive; it knows the names of the King' bastards, it cannot tell us the origin of wheat. That is the way of human folly." While Churchill's style is excellent, his chronicling is myopic and therefore unsatisfactory. This volume does not give much "history" of the "peoples" (as the book's title would suggest), but it does tell about an island's wars and her kings.

Churchill has written a wonderfully readable history of early Britain. This effort is broken into three books: 1) The Island Race (i.e., Roman Province, Vikings, Saxons, Alfred the Great); 2) The Making of a Nation (i.e., Norman Invasion, William the Conqueror, Henry Plantagenet, English Common Law, Magna Carta); and 3) The End of the Feudal Age (i.e., Henry V, Joan of Arc, York and Lancaster, Richard III).

As you can tell from this brief sketch of the table of contents, the book is primarily a political and military history of Britain. Although some of Churchill's commentary on the issue of religious faith in Britain was of interest, this effort lacks in its sparse coverage of such matters. The same may be said of Churchill's treatment of Britain's social history.

Churchill does not appear to have broached any new areas in the history of Britain. I'm left with the impression that he is merely passing on the ideas of other historians which he personally believes to be true. Yet, there is nothing wrong with coming to conclusions, and there is great worth in passing on excellent and interesting information to the readers.

Frankly, I enjoyed this book very much. It is an excellent survey of Britain up until the time of the Reformation. I recommend it highly to all who are interested.

When you consider the conditions under which Churchill wrote these books, they are even more amazing. Churchill writes history the way I like to read it. History is about people, ideas and concepts. As the German metaphysical philosophers are so fond of suggesting, perhaps history is the outworking of God's Mind. When I read this book I began to understand not just the evolution of the island race, which I have read about before -- the migration of the tribes across Europe -- but more importantly I began to understand the evolution of the English Parliamentary system. This book describes the painfully slow and difficult process of hewing out those rights which we in America consider our "entitlement" and so often take foolishly for granted. Furthermore, I grew to understand, as the great lawyer, Ray Garrett, Jr., once said, "It is the law that makes organized life possible." Winston Churchill had one of the greatest minds in history. It is a thrill to share his intelligent reflections on history and culture. This book is a must for your personal library.

I quibble with some of Read's inferences - I don't think that Churchill was in favour of the broader trend of Globalisation - he was too nationalistic for that. However, Read writes well, with enthusiasm and with a lot of detailed research. His analysis of Churchill's skills is unbiased and quite on the mark. I have read many books on Churchill and this is one of the better ones with some insight, passion and common sense.

Good effort - some of the facts i quibble with. But thankfully this is no hagiography. Read has done a good job of detailed background research, proper analysis of events all contained by a fluid, effervescent and lucid style. A good read and a must read for those interested in perhaps the 20th century's most important person.

Interesting approach to Churchill Discusses leadership, philosophy as well as Churchill's role in this century and why he is important Read has done a detailed analysis of Churchill's skills including his demerits. The result is pretty objective. Most facts seem right. Twist on world government is interesting and subtle. Should be read by anyone interested in Churchill.

Winston Churchill wrote this book when he was still in his twenties ; this intrigued me enough to read the book. It is a novel that focuses on the life of Richard Carvel ; a wealthy young man from a prominent Maryland family just before and during the Revoloutionary War. Although sweeter and more sentimental than the modern approach itis still a captivating and exciting story.

Book was written by Winston Churchill, an American from St Louis. He also wrote The Crossing, The Crisis, and a nukmber of others. Richard Carvel may be his best. Highly recommended.

I read this book just after I got out of college in 1976. My father read it when he was in prep school in the '30's and had been pestering me for years to read it. After I finished it, I scoured every antique shop and used-book store to find other titles by this American author. Three of his books: Richard Carvel, followed by The Crisis and then The Crossing, team up to form what could be one of the first trilogies in American fiction.
This is the story about a young Marylander in pre-Revolutionary America and his journey to independence. Anyone who likes historical novels will love reading this author. I will advise you, however, to have a good dictionary nearby as some of the words are archaic and need looking up - but that's half the fun of it.

It is a wonderful idea to make available recordings of great speeches. I hope we have more of this in the future.
In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.

I have listened to this collection twice now, both times with pleasure. Hearing the acutal voices of Amelia Earhart, Rev. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong made a deeper connection than simply reading their words. The collection showcases different subjects and many times contrasts opposing viewpoints of the ideas. This volume is a fantastic introduction to the moving ideals and sometimes sad truths that have influenced Western Civilization.

In the beginning of the war, Roosevelt sensed that Churchill even before he became Prime Minister would be important to the war effort. As time went on these men united by a fear of Hitler these men became friends as well as comrades in arms. This book explores there relationship though a rather unique perspective their intelligence departments. It explores how they got their intelligence and what they did with the knowledge that they gained from it. Despite their friendship the used it to advance the agenda of what they wanted for their own countries. At times their intelligence departments actually came into conflict as they both had different hopes and ambitions. As the war progressed these difference became more important.

I found the book very easy to read. Full of information that although I am a WW2 fanatic I have never seen before. I can recommend this book if you want to learn about the relationship of between these two men.

An enjoyable account of the circumstances that brought the two men together, and the relationship that they forged.

Often political friendships form out of necessity and mutual self interest. And that is obvious in this case.

But the fact that the two most remarkable and influential men (in a positive sense) were to forge such an important relationship makes for great reading.

My copy of this book is entitled "An Informal Study of Greatness." What the subtitle promises, the book delivers. Rather than an exhaustive look at each and every event of importance, Taylor gives us a glimpse of Churchill, the man, in a series of anecdotes and vignettes. For example, WWII occupies approximately the same space as the material on his hobby painting. However, as the book was written in 1952 (when Churchill was still alive), and because Churchill himself was so guarded about giving interviews, this was the necessary method of writing. It is very successful, though. Taylor supplies wit and flow to the narrative, so it is very easy and entertaining to read.

Churchill's views would today seem prehistoric - he was against universal suffrage, for example. Likewise, the narrative suffers somewhat for having been written in a time of universal chauvenism. This does not detract from the book - it's always necessary to judge people relative to the times in which they lived, and Churchill's life took place in a time of immense social and military change.

It's clear that the author respects and admires Churchill, but not to the detriment of his objectivity. He does not gloss over Churchill's heavy drinking, lack of fashion sense, or child-like impatience. He does not dwell on them, either, instead moving quickly from story to story to give a sense of the personality of the man, not a detailed analysis of his political or social views.

This book is a fascinating glimpse at the man behind the legend. It's too bad it's been out of print for some time, but it's not too difficult to find used - I gather the book did well, so there's lots of copies out there.

Taylor's biography of Churchill is one of the more interesting biographies I have read. His task is substantial: putting the life of Churchill into a volume with the loud background of the twentieth century is not easy to do. Taylor has managed to give us a kind but honest treatment of one of the great men of the twentieth century. Churchill shines at most everything he does. Although a terrible boy and student at Harrow School, he emerged as a leader at Sandhurst, then a seeker of wars and crises, an early visionary of the threat from Adolph Hitler as well as the Soviet Union and through it all a most controversial figure. How else can we explain his being ousted from his position of Prime Minister two months after he completed his role in orchestrating the defeat of Hitler? Artist, voluminous writer, military officer, faithful husband: all these qualities and more spring forth from the witty pen of Robert Lewis Taylor.

This third volume of Churchill's great work makes wonderful narrative history.

The volume begins in the late 17th Century and concludes with Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo. In the interim we are introduced to the various monarchs of the Hanover dynasty, the emergence of an independent America after the revolutionary war and, finally, the positioning of England as a power after seeing off Napoleon. This truly was the period where the English speaking peoples began their rise to a prominent place on the world stage.

I can heartily recommend Churchill to all readers. He was a great political leader but, it needs to be remembered, he earned his income from writing and journalism and was also a recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature.

The book was the proper length for the evidence put forth, although the final chapters were somewhat repetitive. Excellent description of the JN-25 system. This title belongs on the shelf of any historian interested in the US entry into WWII. That JN-25 had been read by the British had appeared previously, notably in the book "And I Was There" by Admiral Layton and have been ignored by mainstream historians. "Betrayal" forces the reader to reconsider the manipulations of the British whose conduct was clearly cost US lives. Continued British lying and secrecy surrounding the issue indicates that England wishes to wait for the WWII generation to quietly pass from the scene before they come clean.

Churchill is one of the most amazing figures of the last century - yet with all of his background to pick from, this book doesn't present much of him.
This is basically the author sort of randomly meandering around through Churchill's life and then stating his opinion of certain decisions Churchill made. And it's done without providing much of a framework for the various events he discusses. I've read a lot about Churchill and yet I was lost at times trying to figure out where/what/when on some of the events.
There is a lot better out there (William Manchester's 2 volumes for example).

I bought G Best's book because of its apparently good review in John Lukacs book on WSC.

It probably appeals to readers who want a general read about WSC, but in the sense that it appears to be written from existing book sources, it does not seem to offer any new insights - at least it did not for me.

Geoffrey Best undertakes an unenviable task with this book. He attempts to capture the life of one of England's greatest leaders in one book. Best is successful in his attempt.

While it is obviously impossible to list all of Churchill's great stories and accomplishments in just over 300 pages, Best is entertaining in his approach. While this chronological tale may be a bit dry to the average reader, those who enjoy history will embrace this book. Best documents Churchill's attitude that he was destined for greatness early in life, discusses many of his war strategies, and is thorough enough to look into Churchill's family and personal life. Many people are unaware of the tragic lives of his three children, all of which are alluded to in this book. There truly is more to this man than is demontrated in the common pictures history books record of him.

Churchill worked toward bettering England and world almost unitl his death. This man who was largely self taught played a large role in shaping contemporary Europe even when he was no longer the Prime Miister. Even when his idea of the United States of Europe failed, he continued to be an early proponent of arms control and ending communism. The chapters which discuss his later years are among the most fascinating parts of this book.

Books on the life of Churchill can go into much greater detail than this. This book is an excellent starter for learning about the life of Churchill.