The defeats which they undoubtedly
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:18 am
Churchill was a master of language and it is David Irving's argument that Churchill's intoxication with the power of his own rhetoric goes a long way to explaining his psychology as well as his success. "He <> ventured forth across the slippery glaciers of the most tangled language with the surefootedness of a mountain goat." Unhappy at the microphone, his famous speech to the House of Commons ("we shall fight on the beaches...") was actually reread for wireless by an actor impersonating the Prime Minister! Apparently no one listening to "Churchill" speaking on the B.B.C. that evening was any the wiser. His dislike of speaking in a studio or over the wireless was shared by his arch-enemy, who was also a public speaker of genius: Adolph Hitler.
Churchill and Hitler both needed live audiences to bring out their rhetorical best. One wonders how either would have performed in modern style television "question time" programmes. For both phone number list men drama was of the essence and the television on studio would surely have made them all too human for the impression they strove to give- of being something more than human, something huge but representative, men chosen by destiny to fulfil a great task, superhuman beings who nevertheless had the common touch. This book brings out many other character traits of Britain's "grand old man" at war which uncannily recall those of the German Fuehrer -- his alternating bouts of energy and sudden depression and apathy, his astonishing grasp of detail, especially military detail, his prediliction for daring schemes of attack, which occasionally boarded on the hair-brained and led to several fiascos.
Gallipoli, Narvik, Dakar, now as then not widely known in Britain as were. Churchill's contempt in principle for the cautious or defensive approach in war, his impatience with criticism, his love of his own voice, his single-mindedness, his long-range ambition coupled with a shrewd sense of seizing opportunities, his nervous impatience and not least, his mastery of oratory which he used to enthuse his countrymen for the sacredness of a cause which for many would not bear rational scrutiny, all these traits were also Hitler's.
Churchill and Hitler both needed live audiences to bring out their rhetorical best. One wonders how either would have performed in modern style television "question time" programmes. For both phone number list men drama was of the essence and the television on studio would surely have made them all too human for the impression they strove to give- of being something more than human, something huge but representative, men chosen by destiny to fulfil a great task, superhuman beings who nevertheless had the common touch. This book brings out many other character traits of Britain's "grand old man" at war which uncannily recall those of the German Fuehrer -- his alternating bouts of energy and sudden depression and apathy, his astonishing grasp of detail, especially military detail, his prediliction for daring schemes of attack, which occasionally boarded on the hair-brained and led to several fiascos.
Gallipoli, Narvik, Dakar, now as then not widely known in Britain as were. Churchill's contempt in principle for the cautious or defensive approach in war, his impatience with criticism, his love of his own voice, his single-mindedness, his long-range ambition coupled with a shrewd sense of seizing opportunities, his nervous impatience and not least, his mastery of oratory which he used to enthuse his countrymen for the sacredness of a cause which for many would not bear rational scrutiny, all these traits were also Hitler's.