Epilogue

Abstract

Abstract I undertook this book from a desire to satisfy my curiosity about Winston Churchill. Now that I’ve finished, it seems reasonable to summarise what I’ve found and to acknowledge that it has been worth the effort. I found the great man I had always supposed to be there; less great in some respects that were new to me, and with many more idiosyncracies than I could have thought possible, but with a title to a place in any pantheon not wholly reserved for stars of screen, song and stadium; and, besides all that, an extraordinary many-sided human being whom it has been exhilarating to study. What sort of a great man was he? Greatness, as commonly attributed, comes in such a variety of colours and contexts that it is as well to state at the start that his title to greatness rests on achievements in the fields of war and politics. It is of the kind that often accompanies dramatic episodes in the histories of nations and peoples, episodes almost always of armed struggle, sacrifice and heroism. Every nation has (or should one say, in our unprecedentedly demilitarised society, has had?) its warrior heroes and champions, accorded greatness for their embodiment of qualities collectively most admired. Biographers and historians who wish to recognise the existence of Great Men in history have to meet the challenge of critics who insist that who these alleged great men were, and what they did, must be explained by the hard historical work of ascertaining whom they represented, what they stood for, and what irresistible movements were sweeping humanity along at the time when they were part of it. Much indeed can be done along those lines, and should be. But there often comes a point at which these lines of explanation part from reality, the point where inner-directed elements of individual thought and action defy explanation in terms of social context.