THE GREAT AMATEUR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 889, 17 August 1956, Page 14

THE GREAT AMATEUR

A HISTORY’ OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES, Vol. 1, the Birth of Britain, by Winston S. Churchill; Cassell and Co., English price 30/-.

(Reviewed by

R. M.

Burdon

HIS volume takes us from earliest times up to the end of the Barons’ war. It is the first of four, all of which were finished by 1939, when the additional fields of knowledge | embraced by research and the wealth of fresh facts disclosed by specialising | scholars had already combined to pre_sent the surveyor of a vast historical eceas with an intimidating amount o |" material to manipulate. Sir Winston ' Churchill, however, accepts certain self‘imposed limitations by disclaiming any attempt "to rival the works of professional historians,’ and aiming "rather to present. a personal view on the processes whereby English-speaking peoples throughout the world have achieved their distinctive position and character." ; | The personal view that colours his _work might well have derived from Car- | lyle’s assertion that "the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked there." But this theme is not pursued ‘to extravagant conclusions. Sir Winston can turn aside to | summarise the origin and evolution of | English Common Law with the same facility that he applies to an essay on the long-bow, its efficacy in battle, the shift it caused in the balance of European power, and the minor social revolution for which its continued supremacy | as a weapon could have been respons- | ible. "If cannon‘had not been invented | the English mastery of the long-bow ; alae have carried them even_ farther in their Continental domination, We | know no reason why the yeoman archer should not have established a class position similar in authority to that of the |armoured knights, but upon a_ far | broader foundation." Yet generally speaking Sir Winston _is far less interested in social trends or economic pressures than in individual | actions. Heroes are hailed, belauded, and also sometimes arraigned for faults that | qualified their greatness. Attempts to |explode the legendary anecdotes that cling to their names rouse the author’s |impatience. "Tiresome investigators have undermined this excellent tale," he complains after relating the story of Queen Eleanor and "Fair Rosamond." Not if he can prevent it shall the romance of history be dissipated by destructive research or sordid rationalisation. If King Alfred did not really burn the cakes, if Robert Bruce was not really "heartened by the persistent efforts of the most celebrated spider known to history," it is still a good thing that the stories should be remembered. The miraculous features of Joan of Arc’s career may as well be accepted for want of a better or more credible explanation. An acknowledged amateur among scholars, Sir Winstgn has professional qualifications of another kind. He has taken a leading part in so many events that have their parallels in ancient history that personal experience has bred familiarity with the distant past. After conquering Mercia the Danes "set up a local puppet, in a fashion which has often been imitated since." No doubt

he thought of Quisling when writing that sentence, and doubtless, too, he saw a forerunner of the "appeasers" in one of the Saxon kings who "used money instead of arms. He used it in everincreasing quantities, with ever-dimin-ishing returns." The revelations of scholarly research seldom penetrate far beyond the confines of a narrow academic circle until transmuted into palatable form by the pen of a Gibbon, a Trevelyan, a Churchill. Sir Winston is master of a style that will help his "personal view’ to compete on terms of advantage with views backed by greater erudition but less happily expressed; for the average reader is prone to fight shy of history that is not also literature, and the average reader, when all is said and done, inherits the earth.