Harry V. Jaffa on Young Winston s Wars

The Truth about War

In My Early Life, published in 1930, Churchill wrote that “the years 1895 to 1900 exceed in vividness, variety, and exertion anything I have known—except of course the opening months of the Great War.” Here are the wars of those early years, as Young Winston experienced them, in all the vigor of youthful consummation. All the great Churchillian themes are present: war and peace, barbarism and civilization, empire and freedom. There was in Churchill, even from his early years, a Shakespearean response to life in its totality. He wanted to be where the action was, but he was no jingo or romanticizer. War was a part of life. It was that part in which the fates of empires, nations, and heroes— good and bad—were determined. And Churchill was determined to learn about it at first-hand

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Harry V. Jaffa

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The Truth about War

In My Early Life, published in 1930, Churchill wrote that “the years 1895 to 1900 exceed in vividness, variety, and exertion anything I have known—except of course the opening months of the Great War.” Here are the wars of those early years, as Young Winston experienced them, in all the vigor of youthful consummation. All the great Churchillian themes are present: war and peace, barbarism and civilization, empire and freedom. There was in Churchill, even from his early years, a Shakespearean response to life in its totality. He wanted to be where the action was, but he was no jingo or romanticizer. War was a part of life. It was that part in which the fates of empires, nations, and heroes— good and bad—were determined. And Churchill was determined to learn about it at first-hand