A view of Churchill from a left perspective, highlighting what others dare not mention, or at best, shove under the carpet, is a most welcome contribution about the so-called “great man” of British history. I have waited decades for this book. For decades, there has been a cult of personality around Churchill that, at best, sweeps the dark side under the carpet, and at worst, produces a sanitized and whitewashed version of history that is almost obscene. I personally have not watched any movie or documentary, or read any books on Churchill in two decades, because all you get is a groveling hagiography, a form of cult worship. That’s the sort of talk that will get you called a legend and lead to statues of you getting put up in the UK. This was Churchill talking about how he wished to deal with the men, women and children of Kurdistan. This seems to be, in essence, a hatchet job much like Shashi Tharoor’s Inglorious Empire - both these books are collections of selected stories (and in a number of instances are not even fact based) which are then invariably taken out of context. Perhaps in this post fact world, salaciousness sells better than reality and is certainly easier to churn out than proper scholarship. Essentially this is History at its worst.

ii) there is a cult of Churchill in Britain and his supporters / admiring biographers are tying themselves in knots to ignore or deny the facts and repercussions of WC’s policies and imperialism. iii) the British Labour Party has a rotten history of defending / supporting imperialism.The cover-up in Kenya ( UK concentration camps), the collaboration with facist groups in Greece, his support of Franco and Mussolini,the list goes on. I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas…I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gases against uncivilized tribes”.

With the spate of recent movies and books dedicated to the cult of Winston Churchill, Tariq Ali offers a radical reassessment of the man and his inseparable relationship with his beloved British Empire.The cult of personality did not exist in his lifetime, as he was generally hated by the working class—not least for sending in the army to crush striking coal miners in Tonypandy and for using his position as editor of the government newspaper, the British Gazette, to print his anti-union and anti-socialist rants during the 1926 general strike. This explains his loss in the 1945 election, despite being the war leader. The book is described as "A coruscating portrait of Britain’s greatest imperialist." [1] Reception [ edit ] As Tariq Ali said, “As he saw it, and said as much, it was to the benefit of mankind that civilisation was being taken to the savages and inferior peoples” (p. 49).

The record of Churchill as war leader needs some careful deconstructing. When war broke out in 1939, Britain was ruled by appeasers, who did not want war with Germany and who were both unwilling and ineffective in preparing for war. Less than a year previously, Chamberlain had allowed Hitler to take over part of Czechoslovakia at the time of Munich. In May 1940, when Britain had been defeated in Norway and defeat in France loomed, Chamberlain was forced out and Churchill replaced him as prime minister. He was not the first choice of the ruling class: the king and many Tories wanted the appeaser Halifax. When Churchill rose in his first speech as prime minister his own side was largely silent, while the Labour benches applauded. He governed in coalition with Labour during the war. There's so much to get your teeth into with Churchill, his aggressive stance against women voting, he changed political allegiances. He repeatedly used the army on his own civilians and had the navy on standby. His admiration for fascist dictators like Franco and Mussolini. His military incompetence which led to the mass slaughter of the ANZACs at Gallipoli. The slaughter of the Greeks after they had chased out the Nazis, which then led to Churchill and his Labour successors endorsing the Greek fascists, as they were anti-communist. The Bengal famine (between 3.5-5 million perished). He despised Indians and described Gandhi as a, “malignant subversive fanatic”. His integral part in helping violently overthrow the democratically elected Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 and the war crimes in Kenya. And of course let’s not forget his suggestion for the Tory election slogan for the 1955 general election, “Keep England White.” Note that Scotland, Wales and N Ireland don’t even factor in his thoughts?...Yes it’s safe to say that Winston Churchill has quite the CV. His crimes" are driven by Churchill's attempt to shore up the British Empire against the Bolshevik threat,which is repeated over and over as the spoils of empire are divided up or partitioned. History as polemic that occasionally loses its way down the murky paths of "his times" but nevertheless it is in the grand tradition of EP Thomson's later writing. What is not a is a biography of Churchill. It is more a look of his policies/political actions and the effects of them.There is overwhelming evidence for the above. Churchill suggested “that the Tory election slogan for the 1955 general election should be “Keep Britain White” (p. 401).