Churchill: Visionary. Statesman. Historian. Yale University Press Oct 2002 isbn: 0300097697 $21.95 buy

John Lukacs, October 29

Tuesday, 6pm
Boston Public Library, Rabb Lecture Hall
700 Boylston Street, Boston
No tickets are required.

We are in the presence of one of the most powerful, as well as one of the most learned, minds [of the] century.”--Conor Cruise O’Brien

A clear-eyed view of Winston Churchill, the workings of his historical imagination, and his successes and failures as a statesman, by the celebrated historian of World War II and best-selling author of Five Days in London, May 1940.

John Lukacs has spent a lifetime considering the complex personality and statesmanship of Winston Churchill. In previous books Lukacs has told the story of Churchill’s titanic struggle with Adolf Hitler in the early days of World War II. Now, in Churchill: Visionary. Statesman. Historian., he turns his attention to Churchill the man and visionary statesman.

Each chapter of this book provides an essential portrait of Churchill. Lukacs treats Churchill’s vital relationships with Stalin, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower, as well as his complex, farsighted political vision concerning the coming of World War II and the Cold War. Lukacs also assesses Churchill’s abilities as a historian looking backward into the origins of the conflicts of which he was so much a part. In addition, the author examines the often contradictory ways Churchill has been perceived by critics and admirers alike.

The last chapter is a powerful and deeply moving evocation of the three days Lukacs spent in London attending Churchill’s funeral in 1965. In Churchill: Visionary. Statesman. Historian., Lukacs deftly sets forth the essence of this towering figure of twentieth-century history with the consummate mastery of a great historian.

John Lukacs is the author of more than twenty books on history.

Also available by John Lukacs:

• Five Days in London
• The Duel: The Eighty-Day Struggle Between Churchill and Hitler
• At the End of an Age

Reviews

"Churchill's massive figure continues to attract our attention, many years after his death. John Lukacs's collection of essays, drawing on a lifetime of research, illuminates many aspects of the great man's personality and achievement."—P.M.H. Bell, Senior Research Fellow, University of Liverpool, England

Praise for the author:

“Lukacs convincingly portrays a leader of an empire in irreversible decline and a towering, if flawed, hero of our time.”—Publishers Weekly

"Lukacs' ability to meld the scholarly with the popular is much in evidence here. . . ."—Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

"Each chapter in this book is a tightly constructed essay based on a thorough familiarity with works by and about Churchill. . . . A good choice for academic and larger public libraries."—Library Journal