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 McDonaldÆs sits on every corner of every village of the world, ChurchillÆs 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 countryÆs 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 grandfatherÆs 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, where we come from does matter and cultures that have common roots may also have common dreams and common goals.
The Great Republic is in many ways a deeply personal view by Churchill's of American history, from the arrival of the first European settlers to the dawn of the Cold War. Edited by his grandson, the historian and journalist Winston S. Churchill, the book is a retelling of the American story, including superb short histories of the Revolutionary War an...