> > Does it have to be only two books? Let me add agreement that *In Search > of Churchill* is probably Sir Martin's best single book, but his slim and > eloquent *Churchill's Political Philosophy* is also a one-of-a-kind work, > though hard to come by now. (Try bookfinder.com.)
> Then there is.....but wait! Here are the top five from our 40th > anniversary issue (FH 140), which proposed the best fifty books of the past > fifty years.... * Gilbert, Martin. In Search of Churchill: A Historian’s Journey, 1994, 338 pages,Zoller A558. The answer to whingers over the years who accused Gilbert of being uncritical. Having examined more evidence than anyone in writing the official biography, Gilbert states that he came away even more impressed with Churchill’s intellect, generosity, statesmanship and humanity. Cited by Finest Hour as the best Churchill book of 1994, it is especially useful in showing how Gilbert found his primary source material and ferreted out information from often obscure witnesses to history. * *Gilbert, Martin. Churchill: A Photographic Portrait, 1974,* *354 photos, Zoller A383. * Complementing Lady Soames’s *Family Album* (page 27) as one of the two best photo-documentaries, this is less of a family photo collection than a catholic compilation with emphasis on the political side by the official biographer, whose captions are expert and extensive. Highly recommended, it has been reprinted frequently over the years and is readily available in paperback as well as hardback. Zoller A383. *Gilbert, Martin. Churchill: A Life, 1991, 1066 pages, Zoller A528. * Not an abridgment, as is often imagined, this is a ground-up biography designed to be read in much shorter time than the full-scale official biography. Gilbert includes much information which was not known when the original volumes were written, especially the early volumes. Chronological like the O.B., this is an indispensable trove of well-researched facts. *Gilbert, Martin. Churchill and America, 2005, 504 pages. * Churchill’s love of his Mother’s land was evident from an early age and stayed with him for life, but he was not an uncritical lover. He deploredU.S. reluctance to engage in world affairs after World War I, and with Russia after WW2, and hoped for more than he got from the “special relationship.” Here is the whole story, good, bad and ugly, with the fastidious maps that are among his hallmarks. Reading like a fast-paced novel, this book is now the standard work on the subject. *Gilbert, Martin. Churchill and the Jews, 2007, 384 pages.* The subject is traced individually and collectively, beginning with Churchill’s representing a heavily Jewish constituency and ending with his support for Israel, with vast detail on WSC’s involvement in the Jewish Homeland from the Balfour declaration to the 1937 Peel Commission and beyond. No one is better able to write such a history, which eclipses earlier works on the subject by Rabinowicz and Cohen. See also Makovsky, *Churchill's Promised Land,* below. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
