Churchill: Retreat from Empire

by Raymond Callahan

In 1937, Winston Churchill wrote, "I want to see the British Empire preserved for a few more generations in its strength and splendour." It was this romantic vision of Britain as a world power that guided Churchill but in the end was destined to failure.

Churchill's public life was filled with irony. As a member of an aristocratic family, he supported Lloyd George and accommodated himself to the British social revolution brought about by the Labour party after 1946; reaching the apex of his career as a Tory prime minister, he was regarded with suspicion by the Conservative party regulars; and as a staunch anti-Communist, he led Britain into an alliance with Stalin. The supreme irony, however, was that he called forth in World War II the very force—American nationalism—that guaranteed the demise of the empire.

The author has synthesized the existing voluminous material on the remarkable wartime prime minister ad drawn heavily from Churchill's own writings to present a picture, not only of a heroic figure of British history but also of a tragic hero who said at the end of his career that his work had "all been for nothing . . . . The Empire I believed in has gone."

306 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Raymond Callahan is professor emeritus at the University of Delaware. He earned his bachelor's degree at Georgetown and received an MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Reviews

[Lam Opal Huang · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a privilege to read a historic account of the contentious yet undoubtfully great wartime leader, during his era and beyond. His perseverance, vision and tenacity in the darkest moments of the British history and the world's touched me deeply. In the chaotic and complex worldwide engagement in the Second World War, Churchill remained unwavered in his determination to bring peace and order to the world, and reserve the imperial power of his beloved nation on the world stage. This is the making of a national leader, a world leader. Through war, his true character and capacity were splendidly displayed. I have nothing but admiration of both his valor and deep personal struggles. The meticulous account in this book of the historic details during Churchill's political career through the Second World War really brought me to live through those crucial moments, shaping my perspective on the history of mankind, of which our current geopolitical tension evolved from.