Churchill's First Greatest Work

At Full Flow: Winston Churchill’s The River War Restored, Finest Hour, No. 193, Third Quarter 2021, pp. 42-45 (not available online). "This definitive edition is a contribution of monumental significance to the preservation and understanding of Churchill’s life and work. No praise is too great for Professor Muller, St. Augustine’s Press, and the International Churchill Society for their labors in the production of these remarkable volumes. The patience many subscribers have shown in waiting for thesevolumes has been vindicated."

Theresa Couldn't Do It

A Leader, But Not for All Seasons, Newsday, June 9, 2019. "I have often commented that May could have been a successful prime minister in a different age, because she has genuine talents. Above all, inside a settled system, she was an effective administrator. Unfortunately, she was tasked with presiding over Brexit, an unsettled system."

Cowling Redux

Fearful Levity, review of Robert Crowcroft, The End is Nigh: British Politics, Power, and the Road to the Second World War, Finest Hour, Number 184, Spring 2019.

Remember Winston Churchill

Churchill Comes to Washington, Weekly Standard, November 6, 2016, "Monuments to Winston Churchill abound in the United Kingdom. You can remember the greatest man of the 20th century at his birthplace, Blenheim Palace, or by his grave nearby at Bladon. Then there are the Cabinet War Rooms in London, his country house, Chartwell, and, of course, the magnificent Churchill Archives Centre in Churchill College at Cambridge University. As the simple memorial in Westminster Abbey—next to the statue of Churchill in Parliament Square—puts it, there is no shortage of occasions to "remember Winston Churchill" in Britain."

On Churchill and Brexit

Would Churchill Have Backed Brexit?, Forbes, May 17, 2016, "London’s now-former mayor, Boris Johnson, a best-selling biographer of Winston Churchill, has claimed the Great Man for the side of Brexit, Britain’s exit from the EU. Writing in the Guardian, journalist Martin Kettle offers the contrary argument that “everything we know” about Churchill suggests that would “be a committed voter to remain” inside the European Union."

Inaction This Day

Should Obama Pester, Nag, and Bite? Yes, Newsday, June 14, 2015. "During a news conference Monday at the G-7 meeting in Germany, President Barack Obama acknowledged that his administration does not have a "complete strategy" to defeat the Islamic State group. That much is obvious. What's as troubling as his strategic failure is the president's explanation of why he has failed."

The Lost Chance to Avoid War

Fight Hard to Deter, or Prepare for a Fight, Newsday, August 8, 2014. "In his history of the Great War, Winston Churchill was asked whether Britain could, by a dedicated act of friendship, have reconciled France and Germany and averted the war. He replied that he could not tell. All he knew was that he had done his best, and that his nation had survived. That is the wisdom of Olympus."

Neither Submission Nor War

Obama’s Furious Battle Against Straw Men, Newsday, May 2, 2014. "We can go well beyond his toothless sanctions on Russia without going to war. And far from loving war, Obama’s critics want to prevent it by making it clear to regimes like Russia and Iran that we will – calmly and resolutely – defend our allies and interests. By encouraging autocratic regimes to take chances, Mr. Obama actually risks encouraging wars.

Winston's Back!

Bust of Winston Churchill Dedicated in U.S. Capitol, Heritage Foundation Foundry, November 1, 2013. "Congress dedicated a bust of Winston Churchill, one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century and an honorary American citizen, in a ceremony this week in the magnificent Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol. The event was a powerful tribute to Churchill’s leadership and to his great legacy in the United States and around the world."

Churchill's Understanding of the Glorious Fourth

Churchill on the “Practical Truth” of the Declaration of Independence, Heritage Foundation Foundry, July 4, 2013. "As a statesman, an author, and a friend of the United States, Winston Churchill was regularly called upon to offer his sentiments on the meaning of the Fourth of July. In his remarks over the years, as Lewis E. Lehrman points out, he emphasized a similar theme: Though the Declaration of Independence signaled the American political break from Britain, it was inspired by a shared Anglo–American political tradition of resistance to tyranny."

The Ends of Dictators

Comparing Qaddafi and Mussolini, Contentions, October 24, 2011. "They were both centers of cults of personality, relentlessly occupied in trying to stir up trouble, bitterly hostile to democracy and to every manifestation of liberalism, with an overblown crackpot ideology that masqueraded as a self-sufficient cure for all ills, and a brutal regime that was treated far more seriously than its accomplishments or the skills of its leader merited."

The Decline and Fall of Victorian Values

Riots Reveal to World How Britain Has Lost Its Values, Yorkshire Post, August 31, 2011. "As the liberal media are always eager to remind us – because it promotes moral relativism – Britain before the Victorians was a drunken and disorderly place. The Victorians couldn’t solve this problem completely, but they did enough to recast the British character, and to make it more than a stereotype. In modern Britain, this Victorian order has been broken down."

Lessons from a Forgotten Churchill Speech

Why Churchill’s Lessons on War and Peace Still Ring True Today, Fox News, May 13, 2011. "One of Churchill’s greatest speeches during this struggle came in 1934. His subject was simple: “The Causes of War.” In this broadcast, he dismissed the idea that the way to prevent war was to focus on teaching Britons to hate violence, for the threat to peace did not stem from Britain. It stemmed from “a nation which with all its strength and virtues is in the grip of a group of ruthless men preaching a gospel of intolerance and racial pride, unrestrained by law.” It stemmed from the nature of the Nazi regime. Americans would do well to remember, when we wonder at the actions of foreign regimes, that they behave as they do not because of our failures, but because of their own."

Hitchens, Churchill, and The Monarchy

Churchill, Edward VIII, and ‘Arms and the Covenant’, Contentions, January 26, 2011. "Christopher Hitchens doesn’t like The King’s Speech. Not because of its cinematic qualities, which he appreciates, but because of its political ones. According to him, the movie is a “a gross falsification of history” because it shows Churchill as “generally in favor of a statesmanlike solution to the crisis of the abdication” and because it neglects to portray Edward VIII as “a firm admirer of the Third Reich” and George VI as an appeaser and anti-Churchill."

A Very Bad Christmas Card

A Bad Christmas Card, and in Retrospect, Even Worse, Contentions, December 22, 2010. "I don’t spend a lot of time hanging out on Liberal Democrat message boards. But a friend has pointed out a wonderful post – I hesitate to say it’s really in the spirit of the season, for reasons that will soon be obvious – by Stephen Tall on LibDemVoice, reproducing a Christmas card contained in the Conservative Party Archive and sent in 1938 by R.J. Rosie, a prominent physician, to Percy Cohen, a Jewish Conservative and then a member of the Conservative Research Department."

Churchill on Fitness and Leadership

On Winston Churchill and Former Gov. Blagojevich, Contentions, August 27, 2010. "On Fox News Sunday, a slightly incredulous Chris Wallace asked former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich if he was serious when he compared himself to Winston Churchill in his ability to come back from political oblivion. Blagojevich replied “You’re right, I’m not serious. I don’t smoke cigars or scotch, and I think I can run faster than him.” As Sir Winston died in 1965, it would be most surprising if the Governor was not fleeter of foot. But Churchill would have smiled at Blagojevich’s observations on smoking, drinking, and running."

What Cameron Should Say (Or Have Said)

Britain’s David Cameron Must Tell Obama the Truth, Foxnews.com, July 20, 2010. "In a relationship, troubles never come one at a time. The Anglo-American Special Relationship is no different. Obama’s early discourtesies – the ejection of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, the gift of incompatible DVDs to Gordon Brown, who is partially blind – were minor in themselves. But they were a token of the president’s belief that Britain is just like any other European country – easily wooed, and hence of no real account."

Churchill At His Best

'I Am Ashamed of You for Writing Such a Letter', Contentions, June 3, 2010. "Time for a bit of encouraging news. Christie’s has just finished the first part of a sale of Churchill memorabilia collected by Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. Among the items sold was an exchange between Churchill and Eliot Crawshay-Williams, who had in the early 20th century been one of Churchill’s assistant private secretaries."

Lessons from Churchill to Cameron on May 10

In Britain, Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man?, FoxNews.com, May 10, 2010. "May is a momentous month in British political history. By virtue of the respite it offers from Britain’s legendarily gloomy weather, it has witnessed more than its fair share of elections. And by virtue of the fact that good campaigning weather is also good fighting weather, May marks the most historic handover of power in modern British political history. Today is the seventieth anniversary of the beginning of France’s defeat at the hands of the German Army, of Winston Churchill’s entry into Number 10 Downing Street, and of Britain’s salvation."

On May 10, From Churchill to Cameron

Churchill's Anniversary Offers Insights on Coalition Government in Britain, Heritage Foundation Foundry, May 10, 2010. "No matter what happens, the result is likely to be a coalition government. But the British experience of coalition governments has not been a happy one. And this is a particularly appropriate day to reflect on that fact, because it was seventy years ago today – May 10, 1940 – that the last successful coalition government in Britain was formed."