There are a multitude of books written about Britain’s WWII leader PM Winston Churchill. Not all accounts are flattering and some focus on his monumental failures including the disaster of the Gallipoli Landings 1915, the Sinking of the French Fleet in 1940 and the carpet bombing of Dresden and German cities during WWII. In 1953 Churchill won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his literary and historical writing and for his brilliant oratory. Hero or war criminal? Let’s find out!

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

SUGGESTED READING

• Winston Churchill, His Times, His Crimes (2022 Verso Trade), ISBN 1788735773
• Churchill's Shadow, An Astonishing Life and a Dangerous Legacy (Bodley Head 2022), ISBN 132400276X

COURSE OUTLINE

• Widely divergent assessments of Sir Winston Churchill’s career. His achievements and failures throughout World Wars I and II and his final prime ministership in the 1950s
• Key controversial events and issues especially Gallipoli 1915 and Sinking of the French Fleet 1940 and how the events can be linked to his being named as a “war criminal”
• Nature of the complex legacy of the soldier, journalist, politician, statesman, author, historian

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Come to terms with the complexity involved in evaluating political leaders in the context of their times which may be in contrast to the wider historical/political perspective
2. Discuss the evidence widely cited for such divergent opinions about one of the titans of the 20th century