Churchill’s Summer of Destiny

Churchill’s Summer of Destiny

John P. Rossi Winston Churchill was the greatest orator of the twentieth century. His most famous speeches rank with those of giants like Lincoln and Martin Luther King. A master of rhetoric with a gift for the memorable phrase, six of his speeches were transformative...

A New Look at Benjamin Disraeli

Disraeli: The Novel Politician by David Cesarani. Yale University Press, 2016. Hardcover, 292 pages, $25. Reviewed by John P. Rossi Of the so-called “Victorian Giants”—William Ewart Gladstone, Lord Palmerston, Joseph Chamberlain—none have fascinated the public as much...

Fighting Cousins

Yanks and Limeys: Alliance Warfare in the Second World War. by Niall Barr. London: Jonathan Cape, 2015. Hardcover, 548 pages, $30. Reviewed by John P. Rossi It is generally agreed that World War II was a victory of Russian numbers and American industrial output. True...

Johnson’s Churchill: A Mythic Figure for Our Age

The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History. by Boris Johnson. New York: Riverhead Books, 2014. Hardcover, 400 pages, $28.Reviewed by John P. Rossi Is there a need for yet another book on Winston Churchill? My university library with a modest number of volumes has...

A New Look at George Orwell

George Orwell: English Rebel by Robert Colls. Oxford University Press, 2013. Hardcover, 330 pages, $34.95. Reviewed by John P. Rossi This is a curious book. It is not a traditional biography. Nor is it an intellectual biography. Instead it is an attempt, through a...