First of a collection of books that examines how history's greatest
leaders acquired power and then employed it for their own ends - and for
good or ill.
Many indeed, are the biographies of Winston Churchill, one of the most
influential figures of the twentieth century. But what was that
influence and how did he use it in the furtherance of his and his
country's ambitions? For the first time, Professor William Nester has
delved into the life and actions of Churchill to examine just how
skillfully he manipulated events to place him in positions of power.
His thirst for power stirred political controversy wherever he intruded.
Those who had to deal directly with him either loved or hated him. His
enemies condemned him for being an egoist, publicity hound,
double-dealer, and Machiavellian, accusations that his friends and even
he himself could not deny. He could only serve Britain as a statesman
and a reformer because he was a wily politician who won sixteen of
twenty-one elections that he contested between 1899 and 1955.
The House of Commons was Churchill's political temple where he exalted
in the speeches and harangues on the floor and the back room
horse-trading and camaraderie. Most of his life he was a Cassandra,
warning against the threats of Communism, Nazism, and nuclear
Armageddon. With his ability to think beyond mental boxes and connect
far-flung dots, he clearly foretold events to which virtually everyone
else was oblivious. Yet he was certainly not always right and was at
times spectacularly wrong.
This is the first book that explores how Churchill understood and
asserted the art of power, mostly through hundreds of his own insights
expressed through his speeches and writings.
