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Grand Strategies
Dr David Starkey tells the story of the two greatest war leaders in British history., Dr David Starkey tells the story of the two greatest war leaders in British history, both of whom were called Churchill. Everyone knows Winston Churchill led Britain and her Allies against Hitler; less well known is John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, who led Britain and her Allies against an earlier would-be dictator of Europe, Louis XIV of France. John Churchill was Winston’s ancestor, his inspiration and his subject. Winston was a writer and historian before he was Prime Minister, and perhaps his greatest work is his million-word biography of John Churchill, Marlborough: His Life and Times. As David Starkey argues, the ten years Winston spent working on Marlborough turned him from a politician into a statesman-prophet, and prepared him for the immense task of leading the nation against Nazi Germany. The final programme, Grand Strategies, shows how Winston drew on the lessons of John Churchill to fight World War II. At two key moments in particular, Winston’s strategic sense averted disaster, and in both decisions, the influence of the Duke of Marlborough is apparent. Starkey argues that it was Winston the historian’s ability to control events by naming them and giving them a narrative meaning than enabled him to shape world history long after his own fall from power, right up to the present day;, Dr. David Starkey tells the story of the two greatest war leaders in British history., Dr David Starkey tells the story of the two greatest war leaders in British history, both of whom were called Churchill. Everyone knows Winston Churchill led Britain and her Allies against Hitler; less well known is John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, who led Britain and her Allies against an earlier would-be dictator of Europe, Louis XIV of France. John Churchill was Winston’s ancestor, his inspiration and the subject of a million-word biography he wrote before he became prime minister. The final programme of the series, Grand Strategies, shows how Winston drew on the lessons of his ancestor John Churchill to find the inspiration for his tactics to fight World War II.
