Peter Clarke’s book *The English-Speaking peoples before Churchill* I assume that Clarke has included Theodore Roosevelt’s observations about English-Speaking peoples. Theodore Roosevelt’s magnum opus *The Winning of the West *— a history of the American frontier from 1763 to 1807 — was published in four volumes between 1889 and 1896. The first two paragraphs of the opening chapter of the first volume:
CHAPTER I THE SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES DURING the past three centuries the spread of the English-speaking peoples over the world’s waste spaces has been not only the most striking feature in the world’s history, but also the event of all others most far-reaching in its effects and its importance. The tongue which Bacon feared to use in his writings, lest they should remain forever unknown to all but the inhabitants of a relatively unimportant insular kingdom, is now the speech of two continents. The Common Law which Coke jealously upheld in the southern half of a single European island, is now the law of the land throughout the vast regions of Australasia, and of America north of the Rio Grande. The names of the plays that Shakespeare wrote are household words in the mouths of mighty nations, whose wide domains were to him more unreal than the realm of Prester John. Over half the descendants of their fellow countrymen of that day now dwell in lands which, when these three Englishmen were born, held not a single white inhabitant; the race which, when they were in their prime, was hemmed in between the North and the Irish seas, to-day holds sway over worlds whose endless coasts are washed by the waves of the three great oceans. On 10 December 1900, Churchill was invited by Theodore Roosevelt to dine with him in Albany, New York. The fourth and final volume of Theodore Roosevelt’s *The Winning of the West* had been published four years earlier; Theodore Roosevelt was now the hero of San Juan Hill, the Governor of New York, and the vice-president elect of the United States. He had already read Churchill’s first book *The Story of the Malakand Field Force*, and we have his comments about this book. Sadly we have no comments by Churchill on Theodore Roosevelt’s *The Winning of the West*. So one can only conjecture as to whether the title of the first volume inspired the title of Churchill’s own four-volume opus *A History of the English-Speaking Peoples*. Yours, Jim Lancaster [email protected] -- Jim Lancaster [email protected] 00 33 2 33 43 52 48 (France) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en.
