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krpalmerAt a library used book sale last fall, I decided to buy a complete set of Winston Churchill's "The Second World War" which, I seem to recall, had also been for sale the previous year. It did take me a while to read through all six volumes, but the sudden realisation I had finished them just in advance of the sixty-fifth anniversary of Victory in Europe left me with the thought of setting a few impressions down. The books were, perhaps, a little different than I had imagined they would be from having earlier read Churchill's "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples"; where I had envisioned a general history of the war, as they progressed they began to seem more focused on government decisions, high-level reports and messages sent back and forth, and conferences. This, though, was of course exactly what the author was involved in. Too, as the books continued I did get the unfortunate sense of Britain now having to follow along after the more significant decisions of the United States and the Soviet Union, which could be said to give a sort of circular structure to the narrative, as Churchill, who started off warning about Germany, grows more suspicious at the end of the Soviets' aims in Eastern Europe but can't get in their way, for whatever unimaginable alternative-historical consequences may have resulted...
In an odd way, one small theme throughout the books lent a little illumination to a rather less exalted narrative I've been following for a while now. The old comic strip "Steve Canyon" can be read online, and the strips from 1950 are now being reprinted. Somehow, reading Churchill mention how the Americans were more enthusiastic than him about China's potential gives me a better sense of what a blow the declaration of the People's Republic must have been to certain people, and I can get a sense of that in the comic strip as the various heroic expatriates keep sort-of leading assorted underground movements against "the puppets," as if naming "the Communists" might have given too much power to them. I can also wonder if the Korean War breaking out later in 1950 gave Milton Caniff a good way to back away from the particular version of the Cold War he had mixed his narrative up with. On the other hand and getting back to the books, though, I also took slight notice of Churchill appearing annoyed at how the Indians weren't properly grateful the British were defending them against the Japanese, just as flickers of annoyance against Ireland also keep cropping up. The Indians and Irish, of course, might have their own claims to make on the subject.
In an odd way, one small theme throughout the books lent a little illumination to a rather less exalted narrative I've been following for a while now. The old comic strip "Steve Canyon" can be read online, and the strips from 1950 are now being reprinted. Somehow, reading Churchill mention how the Americans were more enthusiastic than him about China's potential gives me a better sense of what a blow the declaration of the People's Republic must have been to certain people, and I can get a sense of that in the comic strip as the various heroic expatriates keep sort-of leading assorted underground movements against "the puppets," as if naming "the Communists" might have given too much power to them. I can also wonder if the Korean War breaking out later in 1950 gave Milton Caniff a good way to back away from the particular version of the Cold War he had mixed his narrative up with. On the other hand and getting back to the books, though, I also took slight notice of Churchill appearing annoyed at how the Indians weren't properly grateful the British were defending them against the Japanese, just as flickers of annoyance against Ireland also keep cropping up. The Indians and Irish, of course, might have their own claims to make on the subject.