Churchill's The Great Republic Winston S. Churchill's The Great Republic: A His

Winston S. Churchill's The Great Republic: A History of the United States proves that sometimes foreigners get things right, for unlike so much European commentary on the United States that views all Americans as either cowboys or Marine Corps jugheads (or CIA spooks) determined to take over the world and unsatisfied until a McDonald's sits on every corner of every village of the world, Churchill's examination of American life is an accurate and perceptive description of many of the most important aspects of American culture and can serve as a guide both to the foreigner wishing to understand how Americans got to where we are (or at least where we were three generations ago) and the American wanting a more synthetic view of his or her country's own history, polity and culture. The work is the joint effort and vision of both the Winston Churchill who served England as one of the great military and political leaders of the century as well as of his grandson, who has carved this work out of his grandfather's longer writings.

The book has no single thesis, in part because the writings in it come from a variety of sources, but perhaps in even part because the writings in it cover such a very large period of history and are so evenly balanced in their tone that no single perspective is conveyed throughout. Taken from another perspective, it might be very loosely said that the thesis of the book is that history does matter and that it has explanatory benefit; in other words, wher

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rchill reminds us of the value of alliances among friends, of the advantage of seeing the world from the same perspective (Churchill, 1999, p. 318). No doubt part of the incisiveness on American culture and history came to Churchill through his mother. It is well known that the British wartime leader was half-American through his mother and that he wrote widely and sympathetically on U.S. history, food, and social customs, serving in many cases as a sort of ambassador between the two countries. While the purpose of the book is more education than anything else, it is not simply an example of historical research. Rather, Churchill's writings (and speeches) about Americans should be viewed as a sort of ethnographic enterprise, a mission to promote cross-cultural understanding based on accurate knowledge of each country's history. Churchill's credentials for writing such a book could hardly be more impressive. Not only did he come from an Anglo-American family, but he also participated in creating Anglo-American history. But this book reveals something that few Americans (much less British, one supposes, are probably aware of: Churchill's maternal great-grandmother was half Iroquois, and the former prime minister took great pride i

Category: History - C