Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
---George Orwell

This was an almost perfect read for me. It is concise and insightful and well written. It loses half a star because Ricks at times overstated his case. I loved the format which alternated chapters between these two very different men who have both left behind a legacy that is especially relevant in today's political climate. Ricks starts with a brief history of each man and then follows them into and through WWII. What is especially interesting is that Orwell kept a diary throughout his life, and so he commented on Churchill often. In fact:

"The last article George Orwell would ever complete and publish was a review of the show more second volume of Churchill's war memoirs, Their Finest Hour. He was appreciative of the politician, despite the vast difference in their political views:

"The political reminiscences which he has published from time to time have always been a great deal above average, in frankness as well as in literary quality. Churchill is among other things a journalist, with a real if not very discriminating feeling for literature, and he also has a restless, enquiring mind, interested in both concrete facts and in the analysis of motives, sometimes including his own motives. In general, Churchill's writings are more like those of a human being than of a public figure."

My favorite parts of the book were those that focused on Orwell, but then I have a thing for Orwell, and I have read a lot of his writing. Ricks does an excellent job of showing how Orwell'w writing grew with his life's experiences, and how Spain was a turning point for him:

"What he saw in the Spanish Civil War in 1937 would inform all his subsequent work. There is a direct line from the streets of Barcelona in 1937 to the torture chambers of 1984....Orwell, arriving home, had become the writer we know today from Animal Farm and 1984. Burma had made him an anti-imperialist, but it was his time in Spain that developed his political vision and with it the determination to criticize right and left with equal vigor. Before Spain, he had been a fairly conventional leftist, arguing that fascism and capitalism were essentially the same. Until this point, Orwell still clung to some of the views of the 1930s left. He would leave Spain resolved to oppose the abuse of power at both ends of the political spectrum."

The book is a mere 339 pages (with the last 60 of these being the notes and acknowledgements), but it packs a punch. Well worth your time if you are at all interested in the subject. Ricks has put together a unique and very interesting narrative that will pull you right into its pages. show less

Well-written and informative, this dual biography is a good introduction to both of these influential 20th Century figures. It motivates me to want to want to go beyond the essays and read Homage to Catalonia and the late novels for which Orwell is best known. And to pick up a full-length biography of Churchill.

A combined biography of Churchill and Orwell that is well worth reading. Like the author, both men were war correspondents: both left a lasting impact. I always thought it was a shame that Churchill was re-elected in 1951, although he craved the job, he was too old to have the same influence. Ricks agrees. Just as it was a pity that Orwell didn't live long enough to appreciate the tremendous legacy he handed down.

When the National Review, a conservative magazine, compiled a list of the most significant non-fiction books of the 20th century, Homage to Catalonia and The Collected Essays were in the top ten, Orwell being the only author to achieve the honour of having two books listed in the group. At the top of the list was Churchill's show more WWII memoirs. Ricks intentionally includes this significant information twice, at the beginning and again near the end.

Ricks, an American, is able to take an objective, cosmopolitan view of the two Britons, and writes with clarity and frankness - a style of which both his subjects would approve. Whether the reader is familiar with either man or not, it's an intensely interesting book and in fact difficult to put down. Highly recommended. show less

A fantastic dual biography that traces the disparate paths taken to a common anti-totalitarianism by these giants of the twentieth century, and also their reputations after death.

From the mid-1920s onward, aristocratic politician and writer Winston Churchill was a right-wing democratic capitalist. During the same period, little-known novelist and journalist George Orwell was a left-wing democratic socialist. Before, during, and after World War II, both Englishmen were convinced of the wrongs of Hitler's Nazism and Stalin's communism, and both fought them in their own ways through words and deeds.

For an earlier take on this topic, see The Two Winstons, the final episode of Simon Schama's great documentary, A History of Britain.

Writing a biography of two different people in the same book seems like a hard thing to do, but Thomas Ricks pulls it off in Churchill and Orwell:the Fight for Freedom. Both men were against totalitarianism and both were influential. While Churchill was more famous during his lifetime the legacy of Orwell's books may last longer. Both Churchill and Orwell almost died before their greatest accomplishments. Churchill was hit by a car while crossing a street in New York and spent weeks in the hospital with multiple broken bones. He looked to the right(which would have worked in England) and stepped in front of a car coming from the left. Orwell was shot through the neck while fighting in with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. The show more bullet missed his spine and his arteries by millimeters and he lived to write his greatest works.

Both men were persistent. Churchill encouraged England to fight when many of his Party wanted to surrender to the Nazis. Orwell, whose real name was Eric Blair, never gave up when his writing career when sales were few and publishers reluctant. Both fought for the freedom of the individual against totalitarianism. Both were ahead of their peers is seeing reality. show less

Like many others, I found Thomas Ricks' paired biography of statesman Winston Churchill and author George Orwell to be an odd pairing, given that they apparently never met and had no direct connection. There were some parallels which Ricks tried to draw, but even without that, I enjoyed reading and hearing about each man, in his own sphere of influence. Churchill we all know as a statesman and Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II, and Orwell as the author of "Animal Farm" and "1984". But Ricks goes beyond those points in his book, and points out how each man, in his own way, stood up to those who misused their power and oppressed others.

This an excellent joint biography of two of the most influential 20th-century figures. While certainly not exhaustive, this book provides an overview of the lives of both Winston Churchill and George Orwell, delving into each's careers as the themes of war, politics, and personal liberties are explored. This is a very timely book for those interested connecting current politics to history and I enjoyed the conclusion's connections of the book's themes to contemporary issues.