Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874-1945

Churchill is a colossus of his time, a figure seemingly larger than life. Yet he was a man of both strengths and weaknesses, flaws and perfections. "Warlord" is a very detailed and effective rendition of the life of Churchill in all his warts and glory in his roles as soldier, commander-in-chief, politician, prophet and stalwart. He deserves all the accolades given to him in his time and in our own, but his life can function also as a cautionary tale for the narrow, self-absorbed focus that oft times brought him far short of the mark. The book is a good read, but its detail and focus on "A Life of Winston Churchill at War" is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it offers important insights that might well have been lost and show more are in fact lost in the broad strokes of more wide ranging biographies of his complete life. On the other hand, the detail is also wet plowing at times and can be wearying as the seven hundred page tome sometimes plods along. But, while one can learn much from Churchill's life, the overwhelming impression left after the book is done is this: Thank God there were men such as he in those times when great men were needed. We have, unfortunately, none such on the horizon of our present existence. show less

I cringed my way though this book because of the redundancies, mixed metaphors, and other varieties of clunky writing that crop up on just about every page. Oh, for an editor! When I got to the end, however, I had to recognize the value of d'Este's thorough research and mature judgment. A definite keeper despite itself.

In the dark days of 1940-1941, Churchill was all that stood between Hitler and his goal of subjugating Europe. Churchill seemed the only human being at the time to understand this and also to understand the necessity and possibility of resistance. He said in one of his speeches, "Upon this battle [the battle of Britain] depends the survival of Christian civilization." No matter how you feel about a statement like that, and it should be remembered that Churchill himself was not particularly religious, you have to admit that this world would be "a very different place today" without him.

And there is ample more here to learn about - about Churchill's weaknesses as a strategist, about his sacking the wrong generals, and about war in general show more and its "appreciation." show less

Overall, I did enjoy this book, but D'Este has a habit of superlative saturation -- e.g. how many times can Churchill face his most trying episode of the war (I'll give you a hint, it's more than once). Also, there were more than a handful of distracting technical errors: incorrect captions, repeated words, misdirecting index. There is even a line where all of the spaces have been removed to form one superword. But one the whole, a well-written and reasoned book.

I've never been that interested in reading about Churchill even though I eagerly consume most books about WWII... so I wasn't expecting to like this book. However, I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed listening to this book - well, at least the first half. The early life and WWI chapters were quite interesting - Churchills upbringing as basically a spoiled brat and his self-centered childhood explain a lot. The later chapters (WWII era) were somewhat repetitious, and repetitious on the most minor of details, and so I found myself struggling to keep interested.

Overall, I recommend this book for anyone looking to add breadth to their WWII knowledge; it actually is crucial to learn about Churchill to understand the war. It's not show more the best book, and it dragged in the later chapters, but even with all that I think it was a good overall book about W.C. show less

There are plenty of books dealing with Churchill, but this one, which concentrates on his military careers and involvements, is detailed, interesting, and a pleasant read. It gives a different perspective on one of the giants of the 20th century who was a multi-talented and complex individual.

Excellent review of this aspect of Churchill. At times it becomes a bit of a hagiography, btu there's also a degree of balance. Definitely worth a read.