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In the past several years, a wave of revisionist scholars have attacked Churchill’s wartime strategy, domestic politics, and private life, and have even claimed that he could have responsibly kept England out of the war. Norman Rose, the first historian to be granted access to the Churchill archives since the publication of Churchill’s authorized biography, sets the record straight, combining a proper assessment of Churchill’s achievements with a legitimate strand of revisionism. Rose’s Churchill is impetuous, and capable of disastrous miscalculation — as in the Dardanelles expedition and the Norwegian campaign of 1940. Yet Rose defends Churchill’s place in the pantheon of history, showing that through his story runs a tragic thread — how the scion of a great aristocratic house, in many ways the quintessential English aristocrat, conservative and imperialist, came to preside over his country’s decline. It is this theme, at once dramatic and poignant, that Norman Rose handles with fine understanding and perception in this comprehensive and fully documented account of Churchill’s life.
British critics widely hailed Norman Rose’s Churchill as quite simply the best biography yet written, calling it a “masterpiece.
book reviews
- David Cannadine, Observer
‘(Rose’s) Churchill is a great man, with flaws and faults to match, the saviour of his country who is also a statesman in an era of decline. This balance and breadth, this combination of sympathy and detachment, and this wide-ranging historical vision, mark out this book as the best one-volume life yet written.’ - Robert Blake, Times Literary Supplement
‘The first serious biography to appear since the Churchill archives have been opened have become generally available to historians. It is a work of careful scholarship and admirably written…Innumerable have been, are being, and will be produced about Churchill; but as matters now stand, it is difficult to think of a better single-voliume biography that this.’ - Anthony Howard, The Sunday Times
‘Norman Rose’s straight narrative of Churchill’s life is…a minor masterpiece. Untainted by any pre-determined “revisionist” stance, it tells a colourful story vividly and elegantly. It is probably the best one-volume biography available.’
- Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph
‘Professor Rose’s Churchill: An Unruly Life is the best to date…Although Rose does ample justice to his subject’s manifest weaknesses, he never loses sight of Churchill’s grandeur…This biography, though sometimes harsh, is notably fair.’
- Andrew Roberts, The Times
‘A superior work…(Rose) presents the story of Churchill’s career in a refreshing and objective way.’
- Finest Hour - The Journal of the International Churchill Societies
‘In our opinion the best single-volume interpretive study biography, judicious and wise with many new angles.’
- Henry Kissinger, New York Review of Books
‘A comprehensive and readable biography…it is fair, presenting positive assessments together with significant criticisms.’
- New York Times Book Review listed Churchill
'An Unruly Life as one of its Notable Books for 1995'
- Hugo Barnacle, The Independent
‘A well written narrative with warmth and light to it…Norman Rose shows us through the dark woods and open landscape of an extraordinary life.’
- National Review
‘If one wants the life with the benefit of the most modern scholarship, delivered briskly and well, one would be hard pressed to do better than Norman Rose’s volume.’
- David Mehegan, Boston Globe
‘A thorough, analytical, readable one-volume biography of a “great man” is an uncommon thing, much to be treasured. Norman Rose…has done it with grace and style, in a voice of quiet reason and with acute charcterization.’
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