John Charmley

How Churchill shaped our view of the second world war

From our UK edition

When Winston Churchill told Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at Tehran that history would treat them kindly, he spoke with the certainty of a man who would write that history. Churchill’s The Second World War has not only shaped our view of that war, but also of Britain’s place in the world that followed it. From Anglo-American relations, through to the role Britain ought to play as Greeks in the new Roman empire, Churchill set the tone for successive British prime ministers. It is only now, 80 years after VE Day and with the dawning of the age of Trump, that some aspects of his account are coming to be questioned. Churchill waxed lyrical about the 'special relationship' in his memoirs, setting a pattern followed by many of his successors.

The magical power of charisma – and why the Churches are ignoring it

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38 min listen

The subject of this week’s Holy Smoke is charisma, which you might think is one of the most hackneyed and devalued words in the language; only the other day I saw an advert for a ‘charismatic chartered accountant’. But its popularity is no accident. ‘Charisma’ is shorthand for one of the most revolutionary – and useful – concepts in intellectual history. Charisma refers to the personal magnetism that binds a leader to his or her followers. Our modern understanding of it is based on an idea, almost a revelation, by the great German social theorist Max Weber, who believed that the display of ‘extraordinary powers’ was one of the driving forces of history. Those powers didn't have to be supernatural.

New virtues for old

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It can be reliably predicated that few Spectator readers will disagree with the general thrust of the essays in this volume, which is that our society is a decadent one, in which an emphasis on personal virtue and responsibility is being replaced by the intrusive activities of the nanny state. In every sphere of our public and private lives, there has appeared an army of clip-boarded bureaucrats dedicated to ensuring that at no time does anyone act on their own initiative (this would lack ‘transparency’) or discretion.