The great republic : a history of America

Annotations

Transcription of Annotations

Notes on front endpapers refer to Churchill's 15 visits to America, the first one in 1895, another one in 1929, when he visited Civil War battlefields, to several speeches made by Churchill, e.g. his Iron Curtain speech, his three addresses to Congress, to the close relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt and their lengthy meetings. Others point out that both the editor's mother and Churchill's mother were Americans, mention Churchill's critique of American food, travel and cities, and contain references to the Churchill's Fulton Speech, in which he laid out the great principles of freedom and the rights of man, to Churchill's proposal to adopt Basic English, and to the Atlantic Charter which was signed by Churchill and FDR in Newfoundland following a meeting there. Also included are notes on the American Civil War that state that both Napoleon III and Conservatives and Liberals looked with favor on the South. The following statement is part of the notes: "In 1938 he wrote: "We on this side of the Atlantic know too little of American history. It may correct [the] impression of America as a land of money grubbers and multiple divorces." -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book. -- Examples: p. 269: "The issue between Capital and Labor is far more cleanly cut today in the United States than in other communities or in any other age." -- p. 283: "I have not concealed my own views upon Prohibition, but candor compels me to say that, having been for two months for the first time in my life exposed to its full rigors, I have found the effects upon my constitution very much less disturbing than I had expected." -- p. 288: "A dangerous, yet almost universal, habit of the American people is the drinking of immense quantities of iced water." -- p. 290: "In America one resigns oneself easily to many hours of train, and tranquilly settles down to work or reading without any feeling of impatience." -- p. 313: "We are both democracies - and today our countries are, with France, the last great strongholds of Parliamentary government and individual liberty. It is the English-speaking nations who, almost alone, keep alight the torch of Freedom." -- p. 385: "Adhere to the Charter of the U.N." -- p. 412: "The jury system has come to stand for all we mean by English justice, because so long as a case has to be scrutinized by twelve honest men defendant and plaintiff alike have a safeguard from arbitrary perversion of the law."