A History of the English-Speaking Peoples

Product Information

Thick 8vos, beautifully rebound in 3/4 crimson morocco; spine panels with gilt-stamped lion emblems, raised bands. In the case of the Canadian editions, these are delineated by an extra leaf before the title page printed, "with the best wishes and compliments of the season from myself and my associates" and hand-signed by John McClelland.

S. first edition is very similar in appearance to the concurrent Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC) edition. This set is simply magnificent in both the quality and aesthetic effect of the full navy Morocco goatskin bindings. The books are all slightly damp-stained, with cloth-fading along the board edges and scattered foxing to the fore-edges and prelims.

I couldn’t stop laughing for quite some manner of time when reading this – Churchill humor is something that quietly hits you after you have read the words – this description is one of those laughing moments. Finely bound by Asprey in three-quarter red morocco over cloth boards, with gilt to spines, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. A very personal association for Churchill and a marvelous multiple-signed set, even with the slightly later editions.

Clement Atlee - who replaced Churchill as premier in 1945 and who Churchill would in turn defeat in 1951 - concisely jabbed with the comment that the work might have been titled "Things in History Which Interested Me. First Printings of all four books in this four volume set with "First Published" to the reverse of each title page with no further impression noted, maps and genealogical tables.The reinforcement and constructive application of these common conceptions - upon which so much of 20th Century history hinged - would continue to the very end of Churchill's life and career. Sir WSC breaks for a spell – but maintains a link to the History of English Speaking Peoples by providing occasional references to what other matters are going on globally at the time. Churchill has been rightfully penned as the “Last Lion” (William Manchester) and if this is the case then certainly the “First Lion” would have to be King Henry II (the “Coeur de Lion” is King Richard I). Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, and again from 1951 to 1955.

By reading this 4-volume book, one gets a glimpse of Winston Churchill's intricate thinking pattern. How the Parlament came to be, the back and forth of powerful earls and lords the resulting wars occurring, both civil and abroad. A prolific author, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his own historical writings, "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values. These jackets, so conspicuously prone to spine fading, show only the slightest sunning of the spines; shelf presentation is excellent. In 3 years-time the work was finished when the supervisory committee then reviewed the final draft version – 12 persons on this committee completed the task within 9 months-time.There were publisher presentation sets of the first edition, so noted on the copyright pages, but such sets were not specially bound. Another fascinating point is that by the time we move from King George I who could speak no English to his grandson George III we are witness Hanoverian methodology of the throne that is never quite authentic “British”.

Easily spotted because of their thinner bulk, these are nevertheless true first editions" (Langworth, p. It’s certainly not the fault of the author, the reader’s (my fault) because readers of books such as this, should have some background and knowledge of the subject. Prior to this however was the brilliance in the plan of King James I and the creation of the full English reading bible – for the time and with no copy ability and next to nothing of a British Postal Service; the Committees located at Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster (comprised of 50+ scholars and divines. The Chartwell Edition: the first illustrated edition of Churchill's grand history of Britain, the British Empire, and the United States, and the second overall. King Henry V is of course the first King after Agincourt to send correspondence in English – acknowledging this at the time was quite a dare and the English from French becomes the main language of England – the lower classes of people of the time were already speaking English regularly.Perhaps not coincidentally, this is the very year that saw Churchill conclude his first North American lecture tour, take his first seat in Parliament, and begin to make history himself. This is naturally a British history, but it is also very much an American, Canadian, New Zealand, Australian, Indian, South African history, the greatest story of our centuries told by the master storyteller of our time. After the war ended in 1945, Churchill was busy, first writing his history of that conflict and then as Prime Minister again between 1951 and 1955, so it was not until the mid-1950s, when Churchill was in his early eighties, that he was able to finish his work . A smugness of sorts seems to have existed – this is my American interpretation of course and is not designed to infuriate national feelings of any sort – these are after all Sir WSC’s words that I interpret.