The Churchill Factor

How One Man made History By Boris Johnson

Prime Minister Johnson published this book back in 2014. This is probably the the third biography I’ve read about Churchill. PM Johnson describes his ups and downs and those calls he got exactly right, highlights his ability to visualize what was not so obvious at the time. In this book, I was as interested in Churchill as I was about understanding the mind about the author.

Churchill was a strong promoter of a united Europe as the best way to promote democracy and capitalism as the best way to deliver enduring peace and prosperity. Early in WWII, the UK stood lonely in a position of extreme weakness as the alternative to the then proven catastrophic alternatives of Nazism, Socialism and Communism. The author did a great job, vividly describing how the UK navigated through its darkest hour during WWII, totally alone without support from the USA while the USSR and Nazism swallowed Europe seeking to impose their system. It weighed heavily on the visionary Prime Minister and it cost dearly to the UK. But like many other tough decisions later in the 20th Century, the UK gets them right. 20-20 all decisions look easy.

Although the European Union wholeheartedly embraced Churchill’s view, PM Johnson surfaces a more ambivalent and less certain Churchill in trying to figure out what precise role the UK should play in a unified Europe.

Fast forward to the creation of the Euro, one again history proved that the UK once again got another critical decision right. It will take a few years to determine if the UK got their Brexit call right. Another critical decision that divided a nation. We are witnessing a new round of history in Europe.

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