"In the official biography of Sir Winston Churchill, of which this is the first of eight volumes, Randolph Churchill--and later Sir Martin Gilbert, who took up the work following Randolph's death in 1968--had the full use of Sir Winston's letters and papers, and also carried out research in many hundreds of private archives and public collections. The form in which the work is cast is summed up in the phrase that Randolph quotes from Lockhart: "He shall be his own biographer." The subject is presented, as far as possible, through his own words, though never neglecting the words of his contemporaries, both friends and critics. Volume I, first published in 1966, covers the years from Churchill's birth in 1874 to his return to England from an American lecture tour, on the day of Queen Victoria's funeral in 1900, in order to embark on his political career. In the opening pages, the account of his birth is presented through letters of his family. The subject comes on the scene with his own words in a letter to his mother, written when he was seven. His later letters, as a child, as a schoolboy at Harrow, as a cadet at Sandhurst, and as a subaltern in India, show the development of his mind and character, his ambition and awakening interests, which were to merge into a genius of our age. The narrative surrounding these letters presents facts relevant to Sir Winston and other personalities discussed, and fills in the historical background of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Here is all the excitement of the beginning of the extraordinary career of the greatest statesman of the twentieth century"--Bloomsbury collection.

The first volume in William Manchester's masterful, magnum opus account of Winston Churchill's life. The Last Lion: Visions of Glory follows the first fifty-eight years of Churchill's life--the years that mold him into the man who will become one of the most influential politicians of the twentieth century. In this, the first volume, Manchester follows Churchill from his birth to 1932, when he began to warn against the re-militarization of Germany. Born of an American mother and the gifted but unstable son of a duke, his childhood was one of wretched neglect. He sought glory on the battlefields of Cuba, Sudan, India, South Africa and the trenches of France. In Parliament he was the prime force behind the creation of Iraq and Jordan, laid the groundwork for the birth of Israel, and negotiated the independence of the Irish Free State. Yet, as Chancellor of the Exchequer he plunged England into economic crisis, and his fruitless attempt to suppress Gandhi's quest for Indian independence brought political chaos to Britain. Throughout, Churchill learned the lessons that would prepare him for the storm to come, and as the 1930's began, he readied himself for the coming battle against Nazism--an evil the world had never before seen.

In the definitive biography of Sir Winston Churchill, of which this is the first of eight volumes, Randolph Churchill-and later Sir Martin Gilbert, who took up the work following Randolph's death in 1968-had the full use of Sir Winston's letters and papers, and also carried out research in many hundreds of private archives and public collections. The form in which the work is cast is summed up in the phrase that Randolph quotes from Lockhart, "He shall be his own biographer." The subject is presented, as far as possible, through his own words, though never neglecting the words of his contemporaries, both friends and critics. Volume I, first published in 1966, covers the years from Churchill's birth in 1874 to his return to England from an American lecture tour, on the day of Queen Victoria's funeral in 1900, in order to embark on his political career. In the opening pages, the account of his birth is presented through letters of his family. The subject comes on the scene with his own words in a letter to his mother, written when he was seven. His later letters, as a child, as a schoolboy at Harrow, as a cadet at Sandhurst, and as a subaltern in India, show the development of his mind and character, his ambition and awakening interests, which were to merge into a genius of our age. The narrative surrounding these letters presents facts relevant to Sir Winston and other personalities discussed, and fills in the historical background of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Here is all the excitement of the beginning of the extraordinary career of the greatest statesman of the twentieth century.

Volume one of the complete wartime correspondence of the two great statesmen of the twentieth century This three-volume work is the first complete collection of the correspondence of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. These volumes bring together every written communication that passed between Churchill and Roosevelt during their years of wartime leadership, providing rare perspective on the politics and strategy of the Second World War as conducted by two of history’s most charismatic men. Few other world leaders have communicated so regularly and on such an informal and often personal level. The topics covered in their correspondence range from the fate of nations and the shape of the postwar world to the mixing of martinis, details of fishing trips, and the swapping of doggerel verse. A major scholarly contribution, Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence draws on exhaustive research in American and British archives and include telegrams, letters, memos, and scrawled notes as well as transcripts made of Churchill and Roosevelt’s telephone conversations and a number of message drafts and unsent cables that offer unique insights into the thinking of the two leaders. Warren Kimball provides invaluable commentaries throughout, giving the context of specific documents and providing a chronology of the period. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A major new history of Churchill in the 1930s, showing how his meetings at Chartwell, his country home, strengthened his fight against the Nazis In the 1930s, amidst an impending crisis in Europe, Winston Churchill found himself out of government and with little power. In these years, Chartwell, his country home in Kent, became the headquarters of his campaign against Nazi Germany. He invited trusted advisors and informants, including Albert Einstein and T. E. Lawrence, who could strengthen his hand as he worked tirelessly to sound the alarm at the prospect of war. Katherine Carter tells the extraordinary story of the remarkable but little known meetings that took place behind closed doors at Chartwell. From household names to political leaders, diplomats to spies, Carter reveals a fascinating cast of characters, each of whom made their mark on Churchill's thinking and political strategy. With Chartwell as his base, Churchill gathered intelligence about Germany's preparations for war--and, in doing so, put himself in a position to change the course of history.