Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive and detailed - maybe too much so
Review: There is a reason why most biographies of Churchill either concentrate on only a portion of his life or are split into multiple volumes. Here, Jenkins goes against that trend and, for better or worse, demonstrates why his comprehensive, single-volume biography is the exception to the rule. For the most part, his change is for the better, although students of Churchill's early life and/or his late career are likely to be disappointed.Jenkins, himself a former Labour MP whose service overlapped with the tail end of his subject's, demonstrates a remarkable degree of firsthand knowledge of British politics during and just after World War II and an even more impressive collection of research on Churchill's early career as a politician, writer and adventurer. Anyone with an interest in any particular issue Churchill ever worked with is likely to find a wealth of information and analysis to work with here. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of information Jenkins wishes to impart sometimes becomes detrimental to the book's readability, as tangential analyses of a trip, an election, or even a single Parliamentary debate can drag on for pages at a time so that the reader is likely to have forgotten the chapter's primary subject by the time Jenkins returns to it. On the other hand, his dry English wit (he argues, for example, that Churchill's 1931 car accident in New York "cannot be too easily attributed to the perverse habit of the Americans of driving on the right") provides a good antidote to some of the slower passages. This shortcoming fades considerably as the book progresses; not surprisingly, Jenkins is far more articulate when discussing events of which he has a personal recollection, which he often shares in footnotes. The book's only other shortcoming is a degree of unevenness in the amount and focus of attention on different periods of Churchill's life. It is, of course, more than reasonable to devote more ink to the World War II years than to any other time, but seven chapters on the relatively uneventful (for Churchill) 1930s versus fourteen pages on the final decade of his life is less justifiable. Also, his childhood and education are barely touched upon at all, an odd omission for a book that features minutiae down to what Churchill ate on a particular flight to Washington or Moscow later in life. This is understandable in that the book is essentially a political biography that also includes more personal details when Jenkins has them and when they fit in well with the subject at hand, but it is unclear whether that was Jenkins' real intention. Those who are interested only in Churchill's life outside of his work (to the limited extent that he had one!) should look elsewhere. But for a sweeping assessment and critique of modern Britain's greatest leader, including his failures as well as his triumphs, this is as good as one is likely to find in fewer than 1,000 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: This book, while well researched, is a tedious read. Overwhelming detail in areas of limited relevance tend to clutter excellent underlying content and compromise big picture issues that demand broad based review. I had to shelve this book after every 150 pages and return to it weeks later. Which begs the question, Why is a biography on one of the most extraordinary characters of the 20th century not more captivating?
Rating:
Summary: A political biography: shows workings of Churchill's genius.
Review: This is a wonderful biography. Jenkins has an easygoing story style that is fun to read. He also opens the door and shows the internal workings of Churchill's greatness. So many "great man" biographies concentrate on great events and great decisions, to the exclusion of understanding the unique contributions of the man. This book examines the political and literary education which Churchill brought to the table in World War II, the great and small dramas which marked his long accomplished life. Writing a master work on Marlborough was a form of self-education, as was Churchill's history of the English Speaking Peoples. Both elevated his expectations for the British people in war, and he lead them to fulfill his elevated expectations. The historian as leader.... Endless parliamentary debates, including some very real humiliations, gave Churchill a tempered sense of what he could accomplish -- this idealist was probably only ready to lead at age 65, because this education broke against the prow of his stubborn sense of right and wrong. Jenkins captures these formative influences with nuance and drama. This book is an excellent one-volume biography, and provides a daunting argument that life's challenges educate a great leader in a rough and tumble; that self-education also plays a role; that meeting great challenges is the work of a lifetime; that losing and defeat play their role... By the way, this book is not bloated, as one review says, unless you prefer the comic book approach.
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