Only a handful of times during World War II was the situation so dire that the House of Commons had to meet secretly--to keep its counsel from reaching the enemy. Five separate times during the war, between 1940 and 1942, Winston Churchill addressed the secret assembly. Those speeches are reproduced in this collection.
Here, Churchill delivers his immediate reactions to the fall of France, the discovery of a vast enemy armada in the English Channel, and the fall of Singapore, which may have been the most heartbreaking and costly military failure of Churchill's career. Readers can glean a startling intimate insight into Churchill's thinking by noting the words and phrases he chose to omit as well as those he included. Originally published in 1945, Churchill's words provide fascinating context to some of World War its most significant events--and still carry great weight and meaning today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."
Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published.
During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positions--including President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitler--and played an important part in the Allies' eventual triumph.
One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Even decades later, long after the bloody conflict of World War II has been consigned to history, Sir Winston Churchill's words to a country at war still have the power to thrill. Arguably the greatest orator of the last hundred years, Churchill was at his best when leading Britain in times of war--sometimes exhorting, sometimes pleading, sometimes energizing, and always inspiring.
Rosetta Books offers a complete set of volumes of the wartime speeches for which Churchill was best known, presented in the original formats in which he authorized them for publication. Churchill's oratory was cited by the Nobel Foundation in granting him the Nobel Prize for Literature. Ranging from the beginning of England's brave stand against Hitler to the surrender of Japan and its aftermath, they bring a long and turbulent period in world history to vibrant life.