How Winston Churchill Changed the World

By: Michael Shelden, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Michael Shelden

Great Britain’s most celebrated statesman, Winston Churchill, didn’t just live history - he made it. In these 24 lectures that unfurl like a great story, enjoy a thorough, multifaceted exploration of Churchill’s life, accomplishments, complexities, and legacies.

Guiding you chronologically through the life and times of this master statesman, Professor Shelden takes you from the dawn of Churchill’s political career to his final years in a much-changed geopolitical landscape. You’ll examine Churchill’s beginnings as a young liberal statesman, his rise to the Admiralty and his relentless push for an imposing naval force, his fight against the Nazis, his equally dramatic postwar career suspended between two different cold wars (against the Soviets and Britain’s Labour party), and more.

You’ll also get fascinating insights into Churchill’s iconic public speeches, his philosophies of freedom and history, and his early realizations of the dangers of both Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. But these lectures never shy away from examining how Churchill’s preference for the backward glance of history occasionally distorted his view of the future, leading to missteps and disasters, including his failure to understand the rise of independence movements in the British colonies and his controversial World War II bombing campaigns in German cities like Dresden.

Poet, historian, statesman, soldier, prime minister, husband - Churchill played many roles throughout his life. And these lectures bring them all together to create a fascinating, multilayered biography.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 The Great Courses (P)2018 The Teaching Company, LLC

GREAT FOR STUDENTS 👍👍👍

Great overall I wouldn't compare to any of his own biography's nor others , but its a different format and worth the purchase.....👍👍👍

A rhetorical perspective

Before listening, I read the reviews posted by others. Some suggested the author was too much in love with Churchill, and others questioned his objectivity. Contemporary philosophies, psychologies and even neuroscience demonstrate that none of us is completely "objective." We all have our biases. The topic interested me, so I listened.

This was a very informative and thoughtful presentation. The author clearly had passion about the topic, and his own perspectives, which he owns. I would rather listen to someone who has an opinion than some bland reporting of common facts and broadly held views. The telling of this tale seemed to me to be balanced: the author recognized Churchill's multiple flaws, mistakes and contextual challenges - he was, after all, a Victorian in his upbringing, and a descendent of nobility.

What I most appreciated was the rhetorical attention here. The author well weaves the oratorical gifts of Churchill into the story, and demonstrates how his learning, his gift of language, his deep appreciation of and commitment to history were tactical weapons he could deploy with enormous effectiveness.

Overall very satisfying. There were a few places the performance could have been better edited, but that is nit-picking. If you are interested in a great overview of Churchill without having to move through 50 hours of listening [other options], for the Churchill neophyte, this is a splendid initiation.

A Great, Great Couse

These lectures were some of the best history lectures I heave ever heard. The professor clearly loves his subject but can give you an unvarnished picture of Churchill. I also doubt you can find one source with so much information about Churchill short of reading his definitive biography, something I now intend to do. Totally loved it and plan to listen to it many times over!

very very good

Today's youngsters need to hear this. We take our freedom for granted. Excellent narrator.

Recommendation

This was a very engaging biography. I’d not realized Churchill was criticized after the war and called a warmonger by some. Very enlightening.

Wonderfully interesting and insightful

I have done some reading on Winston Churchill previously and this series of lectures I found to be fantastic. They contained insights that I had never heard before that were very interesting and and helpful in enriching the understanding of Churchill’s character.

Engaging and enlightening

So educational. I highly recommend it. It’s not just for students but for all lifelong learners.

Not a biography but an analysis

I’ve read biographies of Churchill and other books about him. This is different. First, it’s technically a series of lectures by an eminent professor at Indiana State University, Michael Shelden. But, don’t let that turn you off. It’s very readable or listenable, depending on how you take it, and certainly no ivory tower lecture.
Churchill was born in the early Edwardian Age at close to the height of the British Empire and lived all the way to the social revolutions of the 60s as the British began their takeover of Pop/Rock music with groups from the Rolling Stones to the Beatles to the Animals and more. He saw himself as a classicist and his depth of knowledge of literature, rhetoric, history, and governance gave him a depth of thought and made him the great communicator that made him such an effective leader in World War II. He served in various places around the world in the service of the Empire, giving him a more global view. He fought in the Boehr war and was captured. His daring escape involving crossing enemy territory over several days made him famous and led to a promising political career and his rise to the Admiralty in 1914. He pushed to make Britain a modern naval power giving them a great advantage in World War 1.
But, some serious errors that led to the disastrous defeat at Gallipoli brought him down, even though he was not completely to blame for that. Between the wars, he was relegated to a has-been, a relic of a long gone age but he very early recognized the danger of the rise of Adolph Hitler. This was at a time when most Britons looked on Hitler as an astute politician who was going to rebuild Germany and reclaim its position in the world. It was also a time when the thought of getting involved in any other war was so revolting that it could not even be discussed. Once when he was invited to speak at Oxford, the uproar from the audience was so great and lasted so long that he had to leave the stage. But when war did break out, he completely changed the tenor, the attitude of the people.
And this is where these lectures shine. Professor Shelden doesn’t give us a glorified hagiography of Churchill and is quick to point out his weaknesses and his failures as well as the many problems in his personal life. He also notes how his emotional ties to the empire and to the past sometimes colored his understanding of the future and clouded his view of what the world could and would become. He greatly underestimated the strength of Japan and was unprepared for the rapid conquering of British holdings in Asia.
But he also doesn’t just tell us what Churchill did or didn’t do. He helps us understand how he was able to have such a great influence on our world, and one that continues today. An interesting note on how he changed the hearts not only of politicians but of the average pacifist Briton. World War I was a horrible bloodbath and every family had lost loved ones in the fight and had others who returned from the war changed forever. There was no appetite for another war. We know of his great “finest hour” speech promising to fight on and never surrender but it was not just his speeches. He had the history to prove it. When he talked about dying for country, they knew of his many acts of heroism in the past. But Shelden also notes that he showed that he was still willing to do so when, just as the British were evacuating in disgrace from Dunkirk, he was flying over enemy lines to Paris to plead with the French government not to surrender, that Britain would be back. And this at a time when Germany had the best air force in all of Europe.
He notes that Churchill has been seen as the model for both liberals and conservatives alike, because Churchill’s political views were not ideological. He changed parties several times but not because he was a politician that just followed the whims of the prevailing climate and in fact went against what was popular at the time. He believed in a strong military but also in the priority of diplomacy when possible.
After the war, he understood the dangers of the Stalinist USSR and later the Warsaw Pact. It was he who coined the term, “Iron Curtain.” On the other hand, he also failed to understand the rising movement for independence in British colonies after the war and failed to provide for an orderly transfer of power.
I enjoyed this because it was more than a biography. It does what the title says, helping us understand in what way Churchill changed the world and how he did so. Highly recommended.

Great man great history great course

Never tired of Churchill
If one tired of Churchill, he or she missed a lot .
Thanks prof.

Outstanding

Great biography of a fascinating and courageous giant of history. Performance is on the same high plane as the story. One of the best organized and delivered courses I have listened to from the Great Courses.