The Birth of Britain is the first volume of A History of the English Speaking Peoples, the immensely popular and eminently readable four-volume work by Winston Churchill. A rousing account of the early history of Britain, the work describes the great men and women of the past and their impact on the development of the legal and political institutions of the English. Indeed, Churchill celebrates the creation of the constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system and the kings, queens, and leading nobles who helped create English democracy.

One of the greatest figures of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill is best known for his leadership of Britain during the Second World War. After a period of political exile that was part of a storied career in public life that included great successes and dramatic failures, Churchill was called to power and led Britain during its finest hour. As prime minister, Churchill joined with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin to defeat Hitler and the Axis powers of Italy and Japan. Although voted out of office following the end of World War II, Churchill helped shape the post-war world and returned to the prime minister’s office in 1951. His famed “Iron Curtain” speech offered the best description of the world order following the defeat of the Nazis and the subsequent spread of communism. But Churchill was not simply one of the most important political leaders of his time. He was also the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953, and his many works include fiction, biography, and history as well as collections of essays and speeches. His memoirs, speeches, and other works during his long career remain essential documents for the history of his time. More popular with non-scholars than with academic historians, Churchill’s works of history, nonetheless, reveal the keen grasp of history by an author who not only witnessed history but made it himself.

Reviews

Powerful History, Great Reading
Opinionated, superbly written and deeply felt history of Britain from the darkest beginnings of prehistory to the end of medieval times. Modern historians have diverged from Churchill’s views in many cases, but not nearly as much as one might suppose. Although it is still a little surprising to read how much WSC empathized (for instance) with King Henry II’s elimination of THomas a Becket. It’s a ruler’s-eye perspective, but CHurchill was, of course, one of the leading rulers of the last century. And he does make more than a stab at being fair–even with leaders he likes: he usually gives a contrary opinion, sometimes a very harsh one (King Canute, for instance).
If you happen to want a brisk, fast paced, and elegant review of early history, you probably couldn’t do better than this, And if you went a great read that will teach a lot and even make you feel better about mankind, you probably couldn’t do better either.

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