The second volume in this collection of the prime minister’s oratory contains the post-war speeches that stoked patriotic fire in the waning days of Empire.
Legendary politician and military strategist Sir Winston Churchill was a master not only of the battlefield, but of the page and the podium. Over the course of forty books and countless speeches, broadcasts, news items and more, he addressed a country at war and at peace, thrilling with victory but uneasy with its shifting role on the global stage. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” During his lifetime, he enthralled readers and brought crowds roaring to their feet; in the years since his death, his masterful writing has inspired generations of eager history buffs.
From 1945 to 1951, Churchill held fast to the political influence he had gained during World War II, serving as leader of the Opposition—the minority party in the English government. While some saw this new position as a demotion for a once-great political leader, he embraced the moment with all his might, addressing a nation triumphant in victory but increasingly aware that its long history of Imperial domination was coming to an end. Even at this moment of relative calm in his career, Churchill’s rousing oratory still shines with brilliance and wit.
Sir Winston S. Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published.During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positionsincluding President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitlerand played an important part in the Allies eventual triumph.One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works.