In Churchill's Shadow: Confronting the Past in Modern BritainWith In Churchill's Shadow, David Cannadine offers an intriguing look at ways in which perceptions of a glorious past have continued to haunt the British present, often crushing efforts to shake them off. The book centers on Churchill, a titanic figure whose influence spanned the century. Though he was the savior of modern Britain, Churchill was a creature of the Victorian age. Though he proclaimed he had not become Prime Minister to "preside over the liquidation of the British Empire," in effect he was doomed to do just that. And though he has gone down in history for his defiant orations during the crisis of World War II, Cannadine shows that for most of his career Churchill's love of rhetoric was his own worst enemy. Cannadine turns an equally insightful gaze on the institutions and individuals that embodied the image of Britain in this period: Gilbert & Sullivan, Ian Fleming, Noel Coward, the National Trust, and the Palace of Westminster itself, the home and symbol of Britain's parliamentary government. This superb volume offers a wry, sympathetic, yet penetrating look at how national identity evolved in the era of the waning of an empire. |
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admired Aristocracy Austen Chamberlain became Biography Birmingham Britain BRL MSS Cannadine career celebrated century Chamberlain tradition Churchill viii Churchill's civic colonial Colville Conservative country houses critics decline Diaries Duke early election England English Fleming's Francis Brett Young freedom friends Fringes of Power G. M. Trevelyan Gilbert and Sullivan Henry Channon historians History of Parliament House of Commons Ian Fleming imperial increasingly inter-war Iolanthe John Joseph Chamberlain king Labour later Liberal living Lloyd George London Lord Moran Marlborough meant Memoirs Merriman monarchy Namier National Trust never Neville Chamberlain Noël Coward Notestein novels Oxford Palace of Westminster parliamentary patriotic political politicians Pollard Prime Minister Prince Pugin Queen Reform rhetoric Rhodes James royal Savoy Operas Second World seemed social sovereign Speeches vii Stanley Baldwin Struggle for Survival Study in Failure success Thatcher theatre Tory Trevelyan Victorian Wedgwood Winston Churchill Worcestershire words wrote