Winston Churchill was the greatest wartime prime minister in Britain’s history. To his defenders he was not only the man who saved the West from the tyranny of Nazi Germany, but an exceptional human being, abounding in physical and moral courage, a genius who stood head and shoulders above his rivals. To his detractors, he was more of a liability than an asset in World War Two, sacrificing the interests of Britain to those of the Soviet Union and the United States. In this short, incisive guide, Paul Addison, the author of the Dictionary of National Biography entry on Churchill, analyses his extraordinary career and looks at the radically different ways in which historians have seen him.
About the Author
Paul Addison taught history at the University of Edinburgh from 1967 to 1996 and was Director of the Centre for Second World War Studies from 1996 to 2005. A former Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, his publications include The Road to 1945: British Politics and the Second World War (1975), Churchill on the Home Front 1900-1955 (1992) and Churchill: the Unexpected Hero (2003).
