Thank you so much for putting this out here. I watched this broadcast when it was first aired, and am rewatching the day after the brilliant Brian Walden's passing was announced in the newspaper I take. These were an extraordinary series of lectures he did in than he was doing it unscripted, i.e. he wasn't reading from an autocue from the details given out at around that time. Quite amazing. Tony
I enjoyed this gab about old Churchill from the legend old Walden who I always thought asked lots of politicians the correct questions, my own personal view is 'the world is a far better place having had Churchill in it' God bless Walden & Winnies souls I say.
@@zara_h5174 That's a bad historian's hatchet job. The equivalent of tabloid journalism - especially the India bit here's the other point of view on the famine: winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/did-churchill-cause-the-bengal-famine/ It's very popular in some quarters to attack British history and paint it as uniquely vicious. It wasn't and this trend is simply another bias in history. Where such a bias exists it obscures the truth
Can you possibly upload the lecture on Mandela he gave in this series? I remember it being the best and most honest appraisal of Mandela I’ve ever heard.
He kept UK in the war because the chiefs of staff were confident to maintain air superiority, he asked their opinion - the Cabinet could be confident, and Chamberlain was, that the UK could survive.
Fantastic! Do you have the other Walden on Heroes/Villains? The villains series ought to be compulsory viewing - the one on Saddam was fascinating given the timing.
They didnt think Hitler could be beaton? Churchill said it was a jam. Insularity and lack of vision? Why think the speech tells us that? What tremendous gamble, he knew the RAF opinion that the UK was safe. What kept the UK in the war was the pre-war opinion of how necessary it was. Churchill advised that the people would not countenance defeat. What is meant by appeasement, an invitation to Churchill to show-off his warrior style and ability? Walden was a deeply flawed historian, it wasnt simply Churchill who kept the UK in the war.
Very good lecture and all the more impressive for being unscripted. However, I take issue with the fact that by September 1939 most British people still not resolved for war. I think the sea change started after the Kristallnacht of Nov 1938 and became more firmly accepted in March 1939 after Germany had invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia (See Richard Overy and Andrew Wheatcroft, The Road to War). A realisation existed, noticed by George Orwell amongst others, that a line had been crossed and a war was necessary. Not to save the Empire, which most people had little interest in, but to save themselves.
"To save themselves" From what? Germany was not going to invade Britain It did not even do so after Britain started the war! It was ALL about the Empire and destroying a potential peer competitor
5 лет назад
What followed Britain's "Victory" was 9 years of austerity and ration cards.
Excellent analysis of Churchill, so many myths about him that many still believe, most history programmes ignore his many bad points and tend to concentrate purely on his popular speeches
5 лет назад
What saved England was not Churchill, but the Channel!
"Ja, because vizout ze channel, ze third reich vould have triumphed and lasted for a 1000 yahren!" Is that what you're saying? because it sound like it.
