No comments about Lloyd George: The Young Lloyd George.

No comments about The Grand Old Man Or The Life And Public Services Of The Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone.

No comments about Winston Churchill Studies in Statesmanship: Studies in Statesmanship.

No comments about The Letters of Benjamin Disraeli to His Sister 1832 to 1852.

No comments about Lloyd George (Lancaster Pamphlets).

1 comments about Disraeli (Profiles in Power).

1. Of the great political figures of Victorian Britain, few have attracted the attention of Benjamin Disraeli. A converted Jew from a family of merchants and the son of a noted literary scholar, he rose in an aristocratic age to become Prime Minister of Great Britain. While numerous biographies have been written about him, most concentrate on his ostentatious personality, the style that characterized the man. Ian Machin's brief study, a volume in the "Profiles in Power" series, focuses instead on the political side of Disraeli's life, examining the positions and tactics he adopted over the course of his long career in public life.
   
   Machin's book offers a good introduction to Disraeli and his politics, examining both his rise through the Tory ranks and his attitudes towards the prevailing issues in mid-Victorian politics.. His contention is that the quest for power is the dominant theme running through Disraeli's career. To achieve it, Disraeli adopted an opportunistic approach in advocating policies or principles, trimming his sails to catch the prevailing political wind. This is most readily apparent in his economic policy, where Disraeli's advocacy of protectionism (which led to the destruction of Sir Robert Peel's government in 1846) was abandoned six years later in an attempt to improve his party's odds of winning seats in Parliament. Even after the Conservatives finally took office with a majority government in 1874, Machin notes, Disraeli possessed no legislative agenda beyond pursuing reform measures that would appeal to the public in an increasingly democratic age.
   
   Though some might object to Machin's interpretation of Disraeli's career, this should not overshadow the overall qualities of the book. Balanced and insightful, it does a remarkable job of surveying Disraeli's life and career in such a short number of pages. For readers seeking to learn about this larger-than-life political figure, this is an excellent place to start.

No comments about The Life Of William Ewart Gladstone V1.

No comments about Churchill: A Life - The Man Behind the Legend.

5 comments about Churchill's War: The Struggle for Power.

1. And they were right. David Irving tells a compelling story demonstrating that far from the great statesman view of media and historians, Winston was a drunken compulsive gambler heavily indebted to jewish financial interests, and repaid them by turning Englan against its natural ally Germany, which could and should have destroyed Bolshevism. Recall the "iron curtain" speech? Churchill should know-it was his fault.



2. Irving is a discredited "historian" of dubious credentials and poor reputation, but this book is fascinating in the creative manipulation of supposed new information. In that, Irving is at the top of his game. Sadly, one simply can't believe what he writes.



3. With the publication of Lord Alanbrooke's "War Diaries", and the (finally!) re-publication of Henry Williamson's "Lucifer Before Sunrise" and "The Gale of the World", Irving's well-documented, totally supported theses are independantly ond objectively confirmed. The mythologizing of the origins and conduct of World War II was begun by Churchill himself, and has accelerated in the last 20 years to a point that anyone not toeing the "politically correct" line is attacked as a Nazi sympathiser.

   Irving's early books were universally praised. Almost all authors of major works on Hitler's war leadership and the Wehrmacht High Command -- including the multi-volume official histories written by the MGFA (the German Federal Military History Research Office) -- cite Irving's own books or the sources he has uncovered and employed. However, the "political acceptibility" of the material uncovered (not fabricated) by Irving has lead to his current demonization.

   Sometimes, the truth isn't as pretty as we'd like it to be. And when it comes to World war 2, the "truth" is getting harder and harder to find.




4. I used to be a convinced Irving reader. Convinced that is that he represented an alternative view of history. This book is the one where he really departed from reality.

   All of Churchill's faults, alcoholism, cronyism, poor financial judgement, are high-lighted. The fact that he saved civilisation as we know it is ignored.

   The early Nazi leaders biographies and Hitlers War were interesting. I never even picked up on the holocaust denial views in there at the time.

   One is judged by the company one keeps......inspect the ranks of Irvings defenders nowadays.....This is not rational objective history.




5. This book, is not what I expected, I thought I was going to read a two volume bashing on the British leader during World War II. But instead, David Irving once more demonstrates his skills as a thorough researcher and an easy to follow writer. You get an intimate look into the life of Winston Churchill, you learn about his vices, his faults but also you grow to admire him, to admire his dexterity as a cunning, resourceful, manipulative and a brilliant man, you finish reading, the two volumes, understanding why he was the only man capable of being the Prime Minister and why he took the Allies to final victory.
   
   Along the pages you'll learn of a lot that things that happened 'behind the curtain', you'll know of military operations that you never heard to talk of before, as well as familiar topics as the Battle of Britain, the sinking of the Bismark, the Battle of the Atlantic, North Africa: Rommel vs Montgomery, the 'Dambusters', etc. Learn how the United Nations Organization was born, how the Manhattan project was put under way, or why at No.10 Downing Street they knew, beforehand, of every german military operation (and japanese too!); & you'll read about family gossips too.
   
   Let's hope that once David Irving is released from prison, he can conclude writing, and that he publishes the long awaited volume III. I'm sure that in several decades from now, and once this policy, politically motivated, of mental censorship be over, David Irving will go down in history as one of the best WWII historians.

No comments about William Ewart Gladstone And His Contemporaries: Fifty Years Of Social And Political Progress.