Churchill Revised

Here four skillful historians and a psychiatrist perform an autopsy on the British statesman to uncover the causes and consequences of his life. They turn up interesting data--not necessarily revisionist--to the effect that Churchill was brash and egotistical and able. Taylor (The Origins of the Second World War) funds him ""essentially conservative"" but ""fertile in expedients,"" charges him with ""a long catalogue of impatient blunders,"" and decides finally that ""he won the Second World War."" Robert Rhodes James, formerly an official in Commons as well as now a historian (Gallipoli) discusses the ""career politician"" as the leader of changing causes. J. H. Plumb (The Growth of Political Stability in England) examines Churchill as historian finding him insightful but ill-trained and frequently subjective. Basil Liddeil Hart, the military specialist, feels Churchill deserves less censure for his military errors in the First World War, less credit for his successes of the Second. Anthony Storr, the psychiatrist (Human Aggression), in a psychoanalytical biography (which is, however, openminded), examines Churchill's ""depressive temperament"" (he referred to his own depressions as ""the Black Dog"") and the ""underlying despair"" that motivated many of his achievements. Very careful consideration of his faults, but in these essays, ultimately, Churchill's greatness is reaffirmed.