Paul Addison on Winston Churchill

“Having...announced his "Four Years Plan", Churchill was sincere enough in his commitment to social reform. If a Churchill Government had been elected in 1945 some form of National Health Service would have been introduced, along with comprehensive social insurance and policies to maintain full employment.”

“Churchill's general conception of British history was also, in a sense, commonplace. It was a romantic Whig history: the story of the growth of liberty and representative institutions at home, in parallel with the rise of Britain as a great power overseas. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Great Reform Act of 1832 were accompanied by Blenheim, Trafalgar and Waterloo. It was a story, besides, of great men: great parliamentarians like Hampden or Pitt, and great commanders like Cromwell or Nelson. But this was the point at which the national myth of Whig history merged into the family myth of Winston Churchill. Among the great men of history were Churchill's father, Lord Randolph, and his ancestor, John Churchill, the first duke of Marlborough. It was they who provided the link between Churchill's conceptions of British history, and his sense of personal destiny. The Glorious Revolution, and the rise of Britain as a great power, were exemplified for Churchill by the career of Marlborough. The rise of parliamentary democracy was exemplified by the career of Lord Randolph. Churchill came to see his own life as a re-enactment and continuation of theirs.”