Thursday, October 28, 2021

Winston Churchill & British imperialism — Tony Norfield

Even patriotic Brits know that their hero Winston Churchill did not win World War 2 or fly a Spitfire. What they, and others, may not know is how his statements often shed a clear light on British imperialism. From Britain’s reliance on colonies, to the political rationale for giving the working class some welfare services, Churchill’s rhetorical flourishes in speeches, newspaper articles, and deliberations with his peers, illuminate things all too often absent from contemporary political consciousness.

The text cited below is in chronological order. Information is taken from many sources,1 including articles previously on this blog and from other material I have put onto Twitter and Facebook. But it should not overtax the modern attention span. I do not claim or aim to cover everything, and will give a few lines of context where these might be helpful.

When all of these statements were made, except one, Churchill had a senior position in the British government of the day, or had even been Prime Minister. They are not just the musings of a random reactionary and empire enthusiast....
MR Online
Winston Churchill & British imperialism
Tony Norfield
Originally published: Economics of Imperialism
https://mronline.org/2021/10/28/winston-churchill-british-imperialism

3 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Hero of the Bengal Famine that killed 10 million.

Marian Ruccius said...

Peter Pan -- right sentiment, wrong numbers. Most estimates, and the data is pretty good, put the numbers between 2.3 million and 3 million. Not that that is much better, but it does not do to keep inaccurate numbers.

Peter Pan said...

My bad, I mixed up the numbers with the 1770 Bengal Famine.