An Art of Translation: Churchill’s Uses of Eighteenth-Century British History

• Main Author: Charles-Édouard Levillain
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Société d'Etudes Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles 2019-12-01
• Series: XVII-XVIII
• Subjects: Churchill; Marlborough; history writing; British politics; interwar period
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/1718/3779

The enduring myth of Churchill as the Prime Minister who saved Britain from Nazi invasion in 1940 tends to overshadow his reputation as a man of letters. Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. He was the author of an impressive number of history books, among which The Life and Times of Marlborough (1934-38), The History of the English-speaking Peoples (1956-58) or The Second World War (1948-53). Only recently have historians become interested in this particular aspect of Churchill’s life and career. There is a consensus to argue that Churchill wrote history as a politician, but the existing literature has not properly addressed the issue of his uses of eighteenth-century British history. Many aspects of eighteenth-century British national and international politics resonated with Churchill’s understanding of his own time. This essay will demonstrate that, beyond the obvious case of the Marlborough connection, references to the eighteenth century formed an essential aspect of Churchill’s historical culture and that he knew how to make good use of them when needed.