In Churchill's Shadow

With In Churchill's Shadow, David Cannadine offers an intriguing look at ways in which perceptions of a glorious past have continued to haunt the British present, often crushing efforts to shake them off. The book centers on Churchill, a titanic figure whose influence spanned the century. Though he was the savior of modern Britain, Churchill was a creature of the Victorian age. Though he proclaimed he had not become Prime Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire, in effect he was doomed to do just that. And though he has gone down in history for his defiant orations during the crisis of World War II, Cannadine shows that for most of his career Churchill's love of rhetoric was his own worst enemy.
Cannadine turns an equally insightful gaze on the institutions and individuals that embodied the image of Britain in this period: Gilbert & Sullivan, Ian Fleming, Noel Coward, the National Trust, and the Palace of Westminster itself, the home and symbol of Britain's parliamentary government. This superb volume offers a wry, sympathetic, yet penetrating look at how national identity evolved in the era of the waning of an empire.


A shrewd choice of subjects that do, indeed, mark the passing of the Churchillian epoch.--The Washington Post Book World

Cannadine makes a number of worthwhile forays, and his best chapters display his well-earned reputation for lively writing and provocative thinking.--Boston Globe

Zestfully and gracefully written, compulsively readable, and full of sagacious insights about big questions.--Fred Leventhal

A group of sometimes provocative, always accessible and thoroughly researched essays that are sure to enlighten those devoted to British history.--Publishers Weekly

Apart from the solid good judgment, the expert marshalling of resources, the sheer professionalism, there is something special that does distinguish all of Cannadine's work and it's on magnificent display here.--Financial Times

Cannadine is actually presenting us with a selection of essays rather than a meditation on the Churchill legacy, but he justifies the notion by a shrewd choice of subjects that do, indeed, mark the passing of the Churchillian epoch....In an excellent analysis of his political rhetoric, Cannadine shows how often the old boy was rightly written off as a demagogue and an alarmist....Elsewhere in this enjoyable assemblage are solid background essays on the Chamberlain dynasty, and two particularly clever pieces on the contrasting careers and works of Ian Fleming and Noel Coward.--Christopher Hitchens, Washington Post Book World

It is a tribute to Cannadine's gifts that while mining a relatively small, well-dug territory, he can continue to turn up large, near-flawless gems....Apart from the solid good judgment, the expert marshalling of resources, the sheer professionalism, there is something special that does distinguish all of Cannadine's work and it's on magnificent display here. It is an almost anthropological feeling for the way in which people construct themselves and perceive their place in the world--their nation, region, city, class, gender--by reference to the past.--Financial Times

Veteran English historian Cannadine ranges freely over an eclectic selection of topics, from the design of the palace of Westminster to the differences between the cinematic and literary versions of James Bond....Twelve engaging, literate essays...provide Cannadine with an opportunity to display his mobile, well-equipped mind.--Kirkus Reviews

Cannadine makes a number of worthwhile forays, and his best chapters display his well-earned reputation for lively writing and provocative thinking.--Boston Globe