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He fought with Kitchener during the Anglo-Sudanese War. He was an outspoken observer of the Spanish-Cuban War. (It should be noted, with regards to Lord Randolph, that more recent scholarship has suggested that WCвЂ™s father died of something other than a sexually transmitted disease).Д®ventually, Churchill became a lancer, and his wide-ranging travels began. This, perhaps, led him to be a relatively poor student who struggled mightily to earn a military commission. Winston grew up in an environment of indifference and low-caliber neglect. If these donвЂ™t sound like the worldвЂ™s best parents вЂ“ a syphilitic politician and a seductress вЂ“ well, they were not.

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His mother Jennie was a beautiful American serial adulteress, who managed (with wiles we can only imagine) to entice men into her bedroom well into late middle age. His father was the syphilitic Lord Randolph, who blamed his VD on an old woman and blew his chance to be Prime Minister. Winston was born into an odd family, with a good name and poorer fortunes. Once Manchester has defined ChurchillвЂ™s world, he launches into a finely detailed description of his life. He was a 20th century figure with a 19th century way of thinking. The class divisions of this time вЂ“ with the attendant mindset вЂ“ greatly influenced ChurchillвЂ™s actions throughout his life. Manchester begins with a sweeping prologue that sets the scene: Victorian England at the time of ChurchillвЂ™s birth. (Unfortunately, Manchester died before completing his opus the third volume was mainly written by Paul Reid). Visions of Glory 1874-1932 is the first installment of this project, and at nearly 900 pages of text, it gives its oversized subject plenty of room. He was given this treatment in William ManchesterвЂ™s The Last Lion trilogy. In many ways, he was the British Teddy Roosevelt (though it would be a different Roosevelt who had to go eye-to-eye wit Hitler): an accomplished writer an inveterate adventurer an ambitious politician a daring thinker a warmonger and killer (by his own account, Churchill slew a handful of dervishes at Omdurman) a lover of navies a paternalistic white supremacist a man of tireless of enthusiasms a man whose personality shaped the world.ДЄ figure this big deserves an epic-sized literary treatment. He was a colossal world-historical figure. The lesson, I suppose, is not to compare oneself to Winston Churchill (or in my case, to compare myself to people who drink wine out of wine glasses).Д¬hurchillвЂ™s life is something awesome to behold. It is especially humbling when you are reading of his life while sitting on a couch that is covered with the detritus of your children, wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt (thus, very nearly a sweat-suit), and drinking Yellow Tail out of a pint glass. Reading about the life of Winston Churchill is an extremely humbling experience. William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932

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Like Adolf Hitler he would have to be a leader of intuitive genius, a born demagogue in the original sense of the word, a believer in the supremacy of his race and his national destiny, an artist who knew how to gather the blazing light of history into his prism and then distort it to his ends, an embodiment of inflexible resolution who could impose his will and his imagination on his peopleвЂ¦Such a man, if he existed, would be EnglandвЂ™s last chanceвЂ¦вЂќ An embodiment of fading Victorian standards was wanted: a tribune for honor, loyalty, duty, and the supreme virtue of action one who would never compromise with iniquity, who could create a sublime mood and thus give men heroic visions of what they were and might become. A believer in martial glory was required, one who saw splendor in the ancient parades of victorious legions through Persepolis and could rally the nation to brave the coming German fury. An embodiment of fading Victorian вЂњEnglandвЂ™s new leaderвЂ¦would have to be a passionate Manichaean who saw the world as a medieval struggle to the death between the powers of good and the powers of evil, who held that individuals are responsible for their actions and that the German dictator was therefore wicked. вЂњEnglandвЂ™s new leaderвЂ¦would have to be a passionate Manichaean who saw the world as a medieval struggle to the death between the powers of good and the powers of evil, who held that individuals are responsible for their actions and that the German dictator was therefore wicked.