Took a lot of political science in college. I was two classes and a big test/paper shy of a degree in the subject, but I decided to coast second semester senior year, taking art, epic poetry, Anglo-Saxon, and Romanticism instead of busting my ass. Never read anything by Churchill though, which seems like a travesty.
"The Gathering Storm" is the first book of his six part memoir written about World War II (The Second World War). This volume focuses on the events leading up to the war, providing context for the political climate in Europe during the 1930s. It was fucked, obviously.
The stuff I was most familiar with is Churchill begins. He basically puts us in the aftermath of World War I with all the economic and political turmoil that ensued. “When Marshal Foch (the French general/military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during WWI) heard of the signing of the Peace Treaty of Versailles,” Churchill writes, “he observed with singular accuracy: 'This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years.'” We then get into the rise of the Nazis and the Furer, Adolf Hitler, and the long, slow rearmament of the German military and their incrementally aggressive foreign policies.
The book is written from the ultimate insider's perspective, Churchill was the guy sounding the alarm bells on Hitler's intentions, firing shots at dudes who didn't see Nazis as the potential threat they obviously were to global peace/security. Especially scathing is his criticism of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain whose policy of appeasement sought to avoid conflict with Hitler through diplomatic negotiations. Look at how that worked out! Loser.
Alternatively, Churchill emphasized the need for strong leadership and military preparedness to counter the growing Nazi threat. Churchill believed had Britain and its allies taken a more assertive stance against Hitler's aggression at an early stage, the whole thing might have been avoided.
“It is my purpose, as one who lived and acted in these days, first to show how easily the tragedy of the Second World War could have been prevented; how the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous,” he wrote.
Also, “If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
Here are some of my favorite quotes, some of which I apply in my daily when I ask “what would Churchill do?”
“Stalin and the Russian nation and its scores of millions were to pay a frightful forfeit. If a government has no moral scruples it often seems to gain great advantages and liberties of action, but ‘All comes out even at the end of the day, and all will come out yet more even when all the days are ended.’”
“It is always more easy to discover and proclaim general principles than to apply them.”
“It is where the balance quivers, and the proportions are veiled in mist, that the opportunity for world-saving decisions presents itself.”
“One thing is absolutely certain, namely, that victory will never be found by taking the line of least resistance.”
“The worst quarrels only arise when both sides are equally in the right and in the wrong.”
“There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if, when it comes, it is a far worse war or one much harder to win.”
“Virtuous motives, tramelled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness.”
“We shall see how the counsels of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be found to lead direct to the bull’s-eye of disaster.”
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