Churchill and Gibbon

 

Ever since I started reading about World War II, probably going back to 2011 but gaining some steam during the initial days of Covid, I started finding Churchill everywhere. It was a weird instance of synchronicity. I’d read an article in Astronomy magazine about the space race and Churchill’s name would turn up. I’d thumb through a book on the Crusades and there would be old Winston. Watched a YouTube video on the 1947 UFO flap and they’d mention the British Prime Minister’s curiosity in the phenomenon. Pick three random self-help books off the B&N shelves and scan the index, and chances are you’ll find Churchill’s name there, and a nifty quote somewhere in the meat of the book in question.

 

So I found it very pleasing to discover the fact that young Winston was a huge fan of Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

 

[As you may know, my oldest daughter Little One is now in Italy for her college spring semester sophomore year, studying philosophy, theology, literature and art in Rome. I am reading through Gibbon’s late-18th century history of the Roman Empire in sympathetic solidarity with her – though I don’t believe that’s one of the works assigned to her. And as of this posting, I am 52 pages in … about 4 percent done …]

 

To quote a mature Churchill:

 

“I set out upon Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and was immediately dominated both by the story and the style. I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly though it from end to end and enjoyed it all.” Wikipedia states – I know, I know – that the British statesman “modeled much of his own literary style on Gibbon’s … like Gibbon, he dedicated himself to producing a ‘vivid historical narrative, ranging widely over period and place, enriched by analysis and reflection.’ ”

 

How awesome this is to a bookworm history buff like me!

 

I spent a month about a dozen years ago commuting to work listening to an audio book of the first volume of his World War II memoirs, The Gathering Storm. If I continue to enjoy Gibbon as much as I am so far – that is, the remaining 96 percent – perhaps I’ll revisit Winston later this fall.