Book Description

This digital document is an article from Commentary, published by Commentary Magazine on June 1, 1994. The length of the article is 37577 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Disraeli: A Biography.
Author: Edward Alexander
Publication: Commentary (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1994
Publisher: Commentary Magazine
Volume: v97Issue: n6Page: p56(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Statesman (1996), published by New Statesman, Ltd. on November 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1710 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Dictator of downing ST: Tony Blair does not have rivals murdered, nor is Belmarsh the Gulag, but Robert Service, Stalin's biographer, finds some surprising parallels between the PM and the Soviet tyrant.(Cover Story)(Biography)
Author: Robert Service
Publication: New Statesman (1996) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2004
Publisher: New Statesman, Ltd.
Volume: 133Issue: 4712Page: 10(2)

Article Type: Cover Story

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

The New York Times Book Review called John Charmley's previous book on Winston Churchill "entertaining, informative, and infuriating." With equally impressive scholarship, eloquence, and wit, Charmley now turns to the Anglo-American "special relationship" that was the cornerstone of Churchill's foreign policy, ruthlessly stripping away the myth to reveal the unsentimental reality of the Churchill years and beyond, from 1940 to 1957. Churchill carried on the war because of his misguided faith that U.S. help could be enlisted to save the British Empire, contends Charmley. President Roosevelt, however, sought an end to imperialism and thus entered the war only belatedly, ensuring that Britian would end the war weak and dependent on America. And Britian did indeed become a U.S. "pensioner"-a reality dramatically confirmed in 1956, when American pressure led to the removal of Prime Minister Anthony Eden. With vivid assessments of Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Churchill, and Eden, John Charmley brilliantly continues his though-provoking-and sometimes infuriating-ways. ... Read more

Download Description

Adding these charms of manner to a memory of extraordinary strength and quickness and to an amazing vivacity and variety of mental force, any one can understand how fascinating Mr. Gladstone was in society. He enjoyed it to the last, talking as earnestly and joyously at eighty-five as he had done at twenty on every topic that came up, and exerting himself with equal zest, whether his interlocutor was an arch-bishop or a young curate. ... Read more

Download Description

Warrior and writer, genius and crank, rider in the British cavalry's last great charge and inventor of the tank—Winston Churchill led Britain to fight alone against Nazi Germany in the fateful year of 1940 and set the standard for leading a democracy at war.

Like no other portrait of its famous subject, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill is a dazzling display of facts more improbable than fiction, and an investigation of the contradictions and complexities that haunt biography. Gretchen Craft Rubin gives readers, in a single volume, the kind of rounded view usually gained only by reading dozens of conventional biographies.

With penetrating insight and vivid anecdotes, Rubin makes Churchill accessible and meaningful to twenty-first-century readers with forty contrasting views of the man: he was an alcoholic, he was not; he was an anachronism, he was a visionary; he was a racist, he was a humanitarian; he was the most quotable man in the history of the English language, he was a bore.

In crisp, energetic language, Rubin creates a new form for presenting a great figure of history—and brings to full realization the depiction of a man too fabulous for any novelist to construct, too complicated for even the longest narrative to describe, and too valuable ever to be forgotten.

"A compelling read... Gretchen Rubin has produced a shrewd, original, and utterly engaging book, one that achieves the considerable feat of distilling an epic life to its essence while deconstructing the art of biography. Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill does for the writing of history what Wallace Stevens's 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' did for poetry -- both does it and shows us how it's done."
   JAMES ATLAS, AUTHOR OF BELLOW: A BIOGRAPHY

"At last! A book to put all the other books on Churchill into perspective. The Great Man was in danger of becoming hidden by the forest of verbiage in his memory. Gretchen Rubin cuts a clear path to her subject, and along the way takes the reader on a fascinating and hilarious journey."
   AMANDA FOREMAN, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GEORGIANA: DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE

"Was there ever a better subject for biography? Heroic, petty, noble, selfish, courageous, devious, grandiloquent, plain-speaking, generous, tyrannical, Churchill was all these and more. Rubin strives to capture the essence of her larger-than-life subject not through a head-on assault, but by circling him and taking snapshots from a multiplicity of angles. Her Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill is a feat of intelligent compression, a stereoscopic portrait for the space age, a biography in miniature, and not least, a rattling good read."
   MICHAEL SCAMMELL, AUTHOR OF SOLZHENITSYN: A BIOGRAPHY

Reviews (1)

an intriguing introduction to churchill
This terse nonfiction is a stark contrast to Churchill's own voluminous memoirs. For those looking to gain a an insight on Churchill deeper than that of a text book, this is a fabulous read. If you're no history buff, and simply want an intriguing read, I highly recommend this book. Rubin uses a fresh method to analyze Churchill, and portrays each of his many contradictions, allowing the reader to judge the familiar historical figure for his or herself. The book is thusly quite balanced, and touches upon nearly all aspects of Churchill's life and persona. WWII afficianados beware: the military jargon in this paperback is scarce. ... Read more

Book Description

Gladstone and Disraeli surveys the careers of these two influential Prime Ministers. Stephen J. Lee examines how they became the leaders of different parties and goes on to consider their premierships, analysing many different aspects of the two men. Using a wide variety of sources and historiography, Stephen J. Lee compares and contrasts the beliefs of Gladstone and Disraeli, their effect on the economy, social reform, the Irish problem and parliamentary reform, along with foreign policy. ... Read more

Book Description

The greatly revered Mr. Gladstone-four times the prime minister of Great Britain and the premier moral spokesman of the Victorian era-had another, disquieting side. This book is the first comprehensive study to place Gladstone`s dual character in a sophisticated psychological framework, revealing a man who wrestled with powerful internal conflicts as much as he did with the formidable political and social issues of his time. ... Read more

Book Description

William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) has been hailed as the most characteristic and extraordinary of Victorians. His expansive public career--in and out of office from 1834 to 1894 and four times Prime Minister--was consistently controversial and dramatic.This work, by a highly acclaimed Gladstone scholar, makes available in a single volume the story of one of the most powerful political personalities in British history.The book describes Gladstone's education, his political career from the early years as a Tory to his spectacular first administration from 1868 to 1874 and the remarkable private drama of sexual temptation and moral crisis, which from the 1840s underlay Gladstone's public life. Illuminating the keen ways in which Gladstone managed to keep himself at the "top of the greasy pole" and become one of the most successful political figures in Britain, the work shows how Gladstone's career and views helped shape parliamentary politics of the Victorian age. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Superb analysis of Gladstone's early years
William Ewart Gladstone is one of the giants of nineteenth century British politics. First elected to House of Commons in 1832, he went on to serve in a number of offices, most notably as prime minister for an unprecedented four times over a 26-year period.The leader of the Liberals, he left an indelible stamp on the party which spent a generation emerging from underneath his long shadow.

There are few more qualified to study Gladstone's life than H. C. G. Matthew.An accomplished historian, he was co-editor of the third and fourth volumes of the published edition of Gladstone's diaries and lead editor for the remainder of the series.This project forms the basis of his book; taken from the introductions to the third through the eight volumes of the series (with two original chapters added to cover Gladstone's early years), they offer a penetrating examination into the man in the context of his times.

Born in Liverpool in 1809, Gladstone was the fifth child in an Evangelical household.The son of a wealthy merchant, he attended Eton and Oxford, where he excelled academically.Matthew details Gladstone's intellectual and social development during this period, examining both his studies and the circle of friends he had in school.It was the father of one of these friends, the Duke of Newcastle, who offered Gladstone a seat in Parliament from a pocket borough, thus launching the young man on the political career he sought.

Matthew notes that at the start of his career Gladstone was a Tory and a staunch opponent of many of the reform measures being introduced by the Whig governments of the era.Yet while deemed by many to be "the Tories' best hope" for the future, Gladstone's politics were still evolving.Matthew sees the decade from 1841 to 1851 as the crucial period of Gladstone's political development, as he broke from the Conservatives on the issue of free trade and completed his separation with his attack on Disraeli's budget in 1852.Yet as Matthew shows, the decade that followed proved to be the most personally complex period of Gladstone's career.Like most Peelites, Gladstone had no great attachment to the Liberals; in fact, throughout the 1850s his personal inclinations continued to lay more with the Conservatives than with Palmerston.Cooperation ultimately foundered on the social implications of Gladstone's taxing schemes and Disraeli's presence - in the end, Matthew states, Gladstone became a Liberal by process of elimination.

At the same time as he was building his political career Gladstone was also starting a family, marrying Catherine Glynne in 1839 and presiding over a steadily growing household.Matthew provides an insightful examination of Gladstone's private life, particularly with regards to his faith.Embracing Tractarianism after Oxford, he was usually in attendance at church on a daily basis and in many of his writings he attempted to reconcile Christianity to modern civilization.His faith also found expression in an unusual form in his "rescue work" with London prostitutes.Matthew's analysis of this aspect of Gladstone's life is one of the most sophisticated in the book, interpreting his involvement as motivated in part by Gladstone's acknowledgement of (...) the need to confront and overcome temptation - a process that sometimes included self-scourging.In spite of the appearance of this work, though, Matthew concludes that Gladstone ultimately remained within contemporary social conventions and was never unfaithful to his wife.

In 1852 Gladstone joined the Aberdeen coalition as Chancellor of the Exchequer, serving in that office - with a four-year gap between 1855 and 1859 - until July 1866.Matthew considers this the most successful ministerial period of Gladstone's career, as well as the most satisfying on a personal level.Embracing the Liberal ethos of limited government, Gladstone strove throughout his tenure to reduce its role in the economy by minimizing expenditures and shifting finances from tariffs towards a mixture of direct and indirect taxes.Matthew's analysis of such an intricate and inherently dull subject is excellent, clear in its analysis and straightforward in its explanation of how these policies fit into Gladstone's vision of government and society.This period also saw Gladstone's emergence as a national politician, the unquestioned heir to the Liberal leadership after Palmerston's death in 1865 and Lord John Russell's retirement in 1867.

The final three chapters cover Gladstone during his first ministry.In the aftermath of the 1868 election the administration existed on a foundation of sand.Lacking a counterpart to John Gorst, the Liberals failed to build a party organization in the country, as Gladstone relied on his considerable political skills to maintain his government.Here Matthew concentrates on the issues the prime minister dealt with himself; the broader achievements of his administration, in such areas as education and army reform, are addressed in passing, as Matthew focuses on foreign policy and Gladstone's "mission" to pacify Ireland by addressing discontent over religion, land, and education.The failure of the Irish Universities Bill in March 1873 prompted the resignation of the cabinet; Disraeli's refusal to form a Conservative government forced its return, exhausted and fatally weakened by scandal. When Gladstone decided on dissolution the next year, the result was a Conservative victory and his retirement from politics.Though two more decades remained in political career, at this point he had already left a considerable legacy, one that Matthew has analyzed with an ability and expertise that is unlikely to be bettered. ... Read more