Winston Churchill is credited with stopping the nazi invasion of England and therefore contributing to the preservation of western civilization. Those who subscribe to this view believe that his contribution was heroic and the result of his charisma, leadership and unwavering valour. More than that it was a case in point of the old adage, "History is written by the victors."
Quite soon after the defeat of the 3rd Reich, Churchill set out to write his memoirs, a masterful piece of self-propaganda where he conveniently overlooks his mistakes, screw ups and deep racist arrogance and contempt for others ("I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion"), white washing war crimes, like the role his army played in the 1943 Bengal famine. He basically writes his story and calls it history.
Now why do I even mention him? Because there's a new bio, reviewed by the Head Butler. It made me wonder how much does the reviewer know about that cigar chomping chump. Like Gallipoli? Regarding people's opinions of Churchill, the rule of thumb is if you believe that empires have rights, you like him. If you believe in the self-determination of nations, you despise him. Having said that, there's the element of sheer competence. And he scores pretty low here: an undeniable fact is that when he was elected to power, Britain ruled the waves. By the time he left office, the British lion was almost irrelevant in the world stage.
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