'The Man Who Saved the World'? - How the British Think About Winston Churchill Today

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, University of Koblenz-Landau (I. f. Anglistik&Romanistik), course: Area Studies III, language: English, abstract: Often in history, people change their opinion about important historical figures. Statesmen despised by their people are often admired soon after their death or even right after they are deselected. People revered during their lifetime have become outcasts after historical facts turned up that proving they were failures or even felons. Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955, has experienced both during lifetime. Before Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister, some people called him a 'brilliant abnegator.' But his courageous fight against Hitler during World War II had a lasting effect on Churchill's reputation, and in the years after the war he was almost transfigured. Incredibly much has been written about Churchill as a politician, statesman, strategist and historian, a man with indomitable zest for action, a brilliant mind and a hot temper. As a consequence from the personality cult of his time, he was declared the 'Anti-Hitler.' John Charmley, a Churchill biographer, writes that 'Churchill stood for the British Empire, for British independence and for an 'anti-socialist vision of Britain.' Yet not every aspect of his long and eventful life is viewed positively today: Charmley also points out that all Churchill had contributed to the European idea was 'hardly more than an impressive speech.' Churchill's order to bomb civil residential areas of German cities in WWII to demoralize the people and to take revenge on the Germans for air raids on Coventry and London is seen as critically as his involvement in decisions that led to the to the expulsion on 12.4 million people after WWII. Yet most people agree that Churchill's unbendingness saved the lives of millions of people. Other biographers often emphasized his racist attitudes, although these were still common among Europeans until the late 1950s. Churchill was convinced of the White - not to say Anglo-Saxon - supremacy. Most interestingly, under his government Britain started becoming a multicultural society. The same goes for the principles of eugenics, which he was convinced of, but which were also widespread among contemporaries. However, he also talked about the Jews as 'the most impressive and remarkable race that has ever appeared on earth,' which contrasts him from ideological racists of his time as well as the fact that many biographers mention his magnanimity as his predominant character trait. [...]