‘A highly imaginative and thought-provoking way of exploring the personality of a man who, like him or loathe him, left an indelible mark on our age’ ADAM ZAMOYSKI
Winston Churchill followed his own star. He yearned to be ‘great’, to gain historical immortality. And he did so through deeds and words: his actions as a soldier and politician, gilded by his writings as a journalist and historian.
But Churchill’s path to greatness was also defined by the leaders he encountered along the way – friends and foes, at home and abroad. Men of power such as Hitler and Mussolini, Roosevelt and Stalin, David Lloyd George, Neville Chamberlain and Charles de Gaulle. And the haunting presence of the adored father who had seen nothing of merit in his troublesome son. In these men Churchill discerned greatness, or its absence, in ways that influenced his own career.
This book includes some whom Churchill would not have deemed ‘great’, but who – in our own day – offer alternative mirrors of what that word might mean. Mahatma Gandhi, who infuriated Churchill by exploiting the power of powerlessness. Clement Attlee, whose heretical vision of ‘Great Britain’ was socialist and post-imperial. And his darling Clementine, channelling her ‘pinko’ sentiments to become Winston’s essential helpmate and most devoted critic.
Mirrors of Greatness offers vivid new perspectives on Churchill’s life and work, showing how this unique man – with dazzling gifts and jagged flaws – learned from his ‘great contemporaries’ and what they saw in him.
Travel across the United States with David Reynolds as he explores US Route 50, one of the few remaining two-lane highways running from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Driving as slowly as safety permits, stopping frequently and often going backwards to have a second look at something glimpsed in passing, Reynolds talks to people on the streets, in bars and cafes, motels and gas stations. They talk about everything from slavery and the traditional Indian sundance, to cannabis in Colorado and tornadoes in Kansas, and about everyone from George Washington and Aaron Burr to Marilyn Monroe and the Eagles, and everyone has something to say about Donald Trump - love him or hate him.'
'Ride shotgun with Reynolds as he pit-stops at diners and gas stations, and detours by way of legendary landmarks, where he reflectively enjoys cracker-barrel wisdom, saloon-bar wit, and good-ol' country wackiness' THE TIMES
'David Reynolds is a writer of calm, quiet brilliance.' DAILY EXPRESS
'Reynolds is the perfect man for the route.' OBSERVER
David Reynolds was one of the founding directors of Bloomsbury Publishing. His first job was on the legendary Oz magazine. He is the author of Swan River (shortlisted for the Pen/Ackerley Prize) and the critically acclaimed Slow Road to Brownsville.
What does Brexit mean to you?
For award-winning historian David Reynolds, it's neither a saga of British liberation nor a Westminster soap: it's a crisis of national identity a long time in the making.
Politicians like to extol 'our island story' as if there is just one island and one story. Island Stories takes a broader view, exploring the history of Britain's identity through the great defining narratives of its past, from rise and decline to engagement in Europe and the legacies of empire.
This is a book that resets our perspective on Britain and its place in the world. Traversing the centuries, Reynolds sheds fresh light on topics ranging from the slave trade to the heritage industry, from the 'Channel' to the 'special relationship', from India to the 'English problem'. He examines how other critical turning points have forged our history, including the Act of Union with Scotland and the political mishandling of post-1945 immigration. Island Stories also looks carefully across the Irish Sea, noting - as Brexit has shown again - that Ireland is the 'other island' the English have always been dangerously happy to forget.
Island Stories leads us on an exciting journey through history, investigating how Britain's sense of national identity has been shaped and contested, and how that saga has brought us to the era of Brexit. Combining sharp historical analysis with vivid human stories, this is big history with a light touch that will challenge and entertain anyone interested in where Britain has come from and where it is heading.
A penetrating account of the dynamics of World War II's Grand Alliance through the messages exchanged by the 'Big Three'
Stalin exchanged more than six hundred messages with Allied leaders Churchill and Roosevelt during the Second World War. In this riveting volume-the fruit of a unique British-Russian scholarly collaboration-the messages are published and also analyzed within their historical context. Ranging from intimate personal greetings to weighty salvos about diplomacy and strategy, this book offers fascinating new revelations of the political machinations and human stories behind the Allied triumvirate.
Edited by two of the world's leading scholars on World War II diplomacy and based on a decade of research in British, American, and newly available Russian archives, this crucial addition to wartime scholarship illuminates an alliance that really worked while exposing its fractious limits and the issues and egos that set the stage for the Cold War that followed.
David Reynolds’ major BBC Radio 4 series explores the origins of contemporary USA from its beginnings to the present dayThis epic narrative tells America’s story through the voices of those who lived it - presidents and farmers, mothers and children, settlers and soldiers, slaves and Indians. The series celebrates the country’s achievements but also examines its paradoxes by investigating three abiding themes of American life: empire, liberty and faith.Empire of Liberty: From the arrival of Native Americans from Asia, to the slave trade and the forced relocation of the Indians, the first series describes how the US expanded to cover a whole continent, laying the foundations of a superpower - if the country could remain united.Power & Progress: The second series depicts the tragedy and heroism of the Civil War (1861-65), which finally ended slavery - though not racial discrimination - and the dynamism of the reunited nation as it grew into an industrial giant. America’s role in the Second World War is also examined.Empire & Evil: The final series chronicles America’s long struggle with the Soviet Union, and examines the effect of that confrontation on American values, particularly in Vietnam and Watergate. The country’s struggle to overcome its racist past led from the Civil Rights Movement to its first black president. Also examined is the impact of Elvis on popular music, the battle over abortion and the story of the personal computer and the information revolution.
This epic narrative tells the saga of the United States through the voices of those who lived it, exploring three abiding national themes: empire, liberty and faith. Empire & Evil, the final series of thirty episodes, chronicles America’s long struggle with the Soviet Union through the Cuban missile crisis to the collapse of what Ronald Reagan dubbed the ‘evil empire’ and examines the corrosive effect of that confrontation on American values, particularly in Vietnam and Watergate. The country also struggled to overcome the evils of its own racist past, from the Civil Rights Movement to the election of its first black president. Woven into the tapestry are vivid threads from ordinary life, such as the impact of Elvis on popular music, the battle over abortion and the story of the personal computer and the information revolution. 'Reynolds's presentation combines enthusiasm with authority, and his insightful and far-ranging text is augmented by a wealth of archive voices, from speeches to people in the street' - The Oldie. 'Reynolds's vigorous presentation of his sweep of American history, and the interwoven voices and news reports of the time, make for striking immediacy' - Observer.
This epic narrative tells the saga of the United States through the voices of those who lived it - Presidents and farmers, mothers and children, settlers and soldiers, immigrants and native Americans. In Power & Progress, the second series of thirty episodes, Reynolds depicts the tragedy and heroism of the Civil War (1861-65), which finally ended slavery, though not racial discrimination; and the dynamism of the reunited nation as it grew into an industrial giant. World War One made America a force on the world stage but then the country lost its way, and its nerve, in the Depression, only for another World War to turn it into a nuclear superpower by 1945. This is also the story of how ordinary Americans lived, worked and had fun - with fascinating snapshots of H.J. Heinz, Buffalo Bill, skyscrapers, baseball, the Flappers and Gone With the Wind. 'Reynolds's presentation combines enthusiasm with authority, and his insightful and far-ranging text is augmented by a wealth of archive voices, from speeches to people in the street' - The Oldie. 'Reynolds's vigorous presentation of his sweep of American history, and the interwoven voices and news reports of the time, make for striking immediacy' - Observer.
This epic narrative tells America’s story through the voices of those who lived it – Presidents and farmers, mothers and children, settlers and soldiers, slaves and Indians. The series celebrates the country’s achievements but also examines its paradoxes by investigating three abiding themes of American life: empire, liberty and faith. These first thirty episodes start with the Native Americans, who arrived from Asia around 15,000 years ago. In a fascinating journey that takes in the impact of Columbus, the founding of Puritan New England, the Declaration of Independence, the slave trade and the forced relocation of the Indians, Reynolds shows how the U.S. expanded to cover a whole continent, laying the foundations of a superpower – if the country could stay united. And that seemed a big ‘if’ in 1861 as the conflicts over liberty and slavery brought America to the brink of Civil War.
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