Rating: 
Summary: The Best Biography I've Read
Review: This is the Churchill biography to read if you either don't have time or aren't looking to read several volumes. The official Churchill biography by Martin Gilbert was condensed by the author into this one volume, 1000+ page, wonderful book (released in 1991). Gilbert is direct, never overdramatic and as objective as possible for an official biographer. Also, this book is very factual and historical. For anyone looking for witty Churchill quips and anecdotes, I recommend James Humes's, "The Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill", or Stephen Mansfield's, "Never Give In." This book is a strictly condensed biography that strays very infrequently into humorous side stories and quotes, of which Churchill obviously had many. It can be very frustrating to waste time reading an unenjoyable, lengthy book, especially for the busy, nighttime only reader (like myself). This book is not one of those. Gilbert does a great job of handling one of the most (I believe "The" most) captivating men of the 20th Century. At the end of the book, whether one loves Churchill or hates him, any reader will, thanks to the masterful writing of Marting Gilbert, be sad at Churchill's passing and the book's ending.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Churchill was a role-model
Review: This really was an excellent book. It tells the true story of a British politician standing up to violence and belieeving in the Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, unlike the present mob of politicians who appease IRA/Sinn Fein and are prepared sacrafice Ulster for England's peace.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF MR. GILBERT'S BEST
Review: THIS WAS ONE ONF THE MOST DETAILED OF MR GILBERT'S FINE BOOKS. IT ALSO TURNED OUT TO BE ONE OF THE MOST ENJOYABLE AS WELL. THE AUTHOR HAS A KNACK FOR GETTING THE READER CLOSER TO NOT ONLY THE PERSONALITY OF SIR WINSTON BUT ALSO THE DECISION MAKER. I WOULD ENCOURAGE NOT ONY HISTORY BUFFS TO READ THIS BOOK, BUT ALSO THOSE INTERESTED IN INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, AS THE PROFESSIONAL LIFE OF CHURCHILL COVERS OVER A HALF CENTURY. EVERY PART OF THIS BOOK WAS ENJOYABLE.
Rating:
Summary: An Indispensable Biography of the Indispensable Man
Review: Throughout the fin-de-siecle excess and Y2K irrationality, the man most often mentioned on the various Man of the Century lists was a paunchy politician who was for most of his career distrusted, despised, and detested by elites the world over. He was a Victorian imperialist at the dawn of the Democratic Age, he opposed women's suffrage with as great a zeal as the Americans embraced it, he tried to strangle Bolshevism in its crib just as Europe drew it to its breast and the United States cooed over it. Worse yet, he died in 1963, which might as well have been a millenium ago for our history-challenged populace. How then to explain his appeal? Simple. Winston Spencer Churchill saved the world from the twin 20th century cancers of Communism and Nazism. Martin Gilbert is the official biographer of this great man, and as such had access to an unprecedented collection of material concerning his life. I suggest anyone serious about his Churchill studies to read the 8-volume biography (and the additional appendices of correspondence and source material) in its entirety; it will take some time, but you won't regret a minute of it. For the rest of you, this astounding abridgement will do just fine. How on earth Gilbert distilled his magesterial biography down into one volume while not turning it into Cliff's Notes, I don't know; but this book, while large, is well-written, brisk, and comprehensive in scope. You'll follow Winston's path from neglected child to ambitious young adventurer to gifted orator to brilliant strategist to disgraced politician to indomitable warlord to elder statesman. You will learn things about this man you had never dreamed, and gain new appreciation for the largeness of spirit which characterized him. Most of all, you'll realize how rare such a man is, and how our contemporary heroes pale in comparison to Mr. Churchill. Man of the Century? How about Man of the Milennium?
Rating: 
Summary: What would Churchill have said!
Review: What would Churchill have made of Martin Gilbert's book on his life? For a start, Gilbert did not have to make too many editorial contributions. Churchill loved writing and speaking and much of his own literature has survived. Gilbert uses it to such an extent, that this book has an autobiographical feel about it. Churchill himself, rather than Gilbert, seems to be the narrator. Gilbert's real job was to bring balance and perspective to the task. This he does well. The distant father, the loving but equally distant mother, the devoted nanny all get parts in this many-act play. Then there's Brighton, Harrow, patriotic songs and cranky old school masters. The army follows leading to stories that seem to fall straight from a Boys Own album. With Queen Victoria still on the throne, there are brushes with death in India, the cavalry charge in the Sudan, that escape from the Boers in South Africa. Had his life ended at this point there would have been plenty for the biography. But somehow Churchill found time to go on to numerous British cabinet posts and two stints as prime minister. Gilbert's mighty work has it all with good treatment of Churchill's greatest moment as his country's leader with Hitler's forces a goose-step from the front door. From Churchill's naive early years, readers can closely follow the threads of Winston's life as they weave through triumph and setback, reflection and wisdom, culminating in a tapestry of the grandest proportions. The intimacy of the book is such that readers can share the fears, tears and cheers of Churchill's life. This all sounds a little pompous. Churchill loved plain words and the good life. What would he have made of Gilbert's work? He might have searched for some ringing phrase: "so much written about some one with so little", "this was his finest hour", "he was a modest man but then again he had much to be modest about", or "he was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". But from Victoria to the Atomic age, Churchill was a man for all seasons. As a lover of life's pleasures, I suspect he would have lit another cigar, reached for a brandy, and considered...a review for Amazon.com Gilbert has done a marvellous job on a complex and gifted man.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent. An exemplary life
Review: Wonderful reading. I recommend reading this in parallel with Manchester's two-volume biography. And since Manchester doesn't appear likely to produce his planned third volume, Gilbert's book covers the years from 1940 on very well.
| 
