GREAT CONTEMPORARIES ~ Winston S Churchill. Illustrated 1947 HbDj HERE in MELB

ie They are  NOT coming from overseas !!

GREAT  CONTEMPORARIES 

By The RT. HON. Winston S. Churchill O.M, C.H, M.P.

ISBN:-

Publisher: Odhams Press Limited, Long Acre , London, UK 

Published: 1947

Binding: HARDcover with Dustjacket  309 pages  

Condition: Once read & displayed condition! HERE in MELBOURNE! A retired display copy as illustrated!

Edition:  FIRST Odhams EDITION: 1st printing 1947  

TIGHT,  SCARCE   HARDCOVER  WITH Dustjacket  ~  IN  MELBOURNE  ... 

WHY do ebayers buy from US?

Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item!!

Remains  once read - and then displayed in an academic's collection. It is Tight -  neat, no inscriptions or man-made marks within. Appears as in my photos - this is the exact copy!!  A nicely preserved copy - superb!

Some mild discernible shelf wear, the interior is tight and spotlessly clean with 309 pages. This title was first published in 1937 then enlarged in 1939 - THIS copy is the First Odhams Press Edition: Only printing from 1947 - the UK publishing by Odhams Press Limited, Long Acre, London. THIS title has back and white portrait illustrations of many of the contemporaries he writes about here.

We ALSO have another title  from this series "Thoughts and Adventures" by Winston S Churchill. 

SCARCE title - this is an  UNread VINTAGE copy!!

In original red decorative cloth boards HARDcover binding with black spine title plates, gilt autograph on front board    in publisher's dustcover which are in very good condition overall considering when they were published!!

(Stored with 2021!)

Measures approx.  9¾  x 6¾  inches or 25  x  17cms

SYNOPSIS ....

Great Contemporaries is a collection of 25 short biographical essays about famous people, written by Winston Churchill. The original collection was published in 1937 and included 21 essays mainly written between 1928 and 1931.

Great Contemporaries profiles towering figures ranging from Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Lawrence of Arabia and Leon Trotsky to Charlie Chaplin, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling and George Bernard Shaw. Written in the decade before Churchill became prime minister, the essays in Great Contemporaries focus on the challenges of statecraft at a time when the democratic revolution was toppling older regimes based on tradition and aristocratic privilege. 

Churchill's keen observations take on new importance in our own age of roiling political change. Ultimately, Great Contemporaries provides fascinating insight into the statesman's perspective. 

Churchill's objective is clear: he tries to learn from these giants what makes a man great. He approaches his subjects with a measuring eye, finding their limitations at least as revealing as their merits. This book Great Contemporaries brings back Churchill's unmatched insights and unforgettable prose for a new generation of listeners and leaders.

Twenty-five essays on the 'Great Men of Our Age' including Joseph Chamberlain, George Bernard Shaw, Hindenburg, Lawrence of Arabia, and Roosevelt. Illustrated with b/w photos.

Great Contemporaries is a collection of 25 short biographical essays about famous people, written by Winston Churchill. The original collection was published in 1937 and included 21 essays mainly written between 1928 and 1931. Four were added to the book in the 1939 edition, about Lord Fisher, Charles Stewart Parnell, Lord Baden-Powell and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1941 the essays on Boris Savinkov and Leon Trotsky were removed from editions published at that time, since they had been opponents of Joseph Stalin, who as leader of Russia was now officially an ally of Britain against Germany in World War II, and the article on Roosevelt was removed in 1942 when America also became officially an ally of Britain with Roosevelt as president. This Odhams edition of 1947 reinstated the three essays after the war. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA (1874 ? 1965) was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was instead a member of the Liberal Party. Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the UK and Western world, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending liberal democracy from the spread of fascism. Also praised as a social reformer and writer, among his many awards was the Nobel Prize in Literature. Conversely, his imperialist views and comments on race, as well as his sanctioning of human rights abuses in the suppression of anti-imperialist movements seeking independence from the British Empire, have generated considerable controversy.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 - 1965) was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was instead a member of the Liberal Party. Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the UK and Western world, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending liberal democracy from the spread of fascism. Also praised as a social reformer and writer, among his many awards was the Nobel Prize in Literature. Conversely, his imperialist views and comments on race, as well as his sanctioning of human rights abuses in the suppression of anti-imperialist movements seeking independence from the British Empire, have generated considerable controversy., Size : 8vo., Comprises essays on a vast array of subjects, such as Churchill’s musings on his own career – ‘A Second Choice’, ‘Personal Contacts’, ‘The Battle of Sidney Street’, ‘Election Memories’, ‘The Irish Treaty’, and then correspondingly the tools by which he made himself relax amid those political storms. 

Very  Interesting read!

Reviews

OUTSTANDING!!  …  I really enjoyed this book. The reasons are as follows:

1) Winston S. Churchill is one of my favorite historical figures—I enjoy studying him.

2) I enjoy Churchill’s command of the English language—both as a speaker and author. Churchill did a masterful job with this book.

3) As far this book specifically: I enjoyed it because it gave short vignettes of significant historical figures that I knew little if anything about—especially in the context of the late 19th and early 20th century. 

4) One of the things I particularly liked was that much of the book was written in the context of World War I. We in the 21st century have forgotten just how significant this war was, it radically and forever changed human civilization and we are dealing with the consequences to this day. I am afraid we are doomed to repeat some of the errors of that day simply because we have forgotten the underlying issues that caused that Armageddon war.

5) Bottom line, I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys history—especially Western Civilization. 

Incredibly interesting and in his own words … Contains several of Churchill's essays  - many are about war. Fascinating .

Amazing insight ..`Great Contemporaries' is a fascinating, informative and enjoyable series of 22 "essays on Great Men of our age" which Churchill wrote during the 1930s. To read them is to hear that unforgettable voice describing to you the people he knew and the critical events of three decades.

The majority of the subjects were political or military figures of the preceding thirty years, sometimes friends and colleagues, sometimes parliamentary opponents, and the book sparkles with personal insights gained from life both in Westminster and on the Western Front.

As the various anniversaries of events in the 1914-18 war are approaching, this book is also an excellent, concise briefing on many of the British and French leaders with whom Churchill served: Asquith, Balfour, Haig, French and Fisher for Britain, Clemenceau and Foch for France. Naturally, his profiles of the Kaiser and Hindenburg were written from (to say the least) a greater distance.

This is a diverse collection; among others encountered are George Bernard Shaw, Parnell, Philip Snowden, King George V, Lawrence of Arabia, Baden-Powell and, viewed from 1935 with the prescience that most people at that time still chose to ignore, Hitler.

The most personal contribution is the essay on his great friend Frederick `F.E.' Smith. The opening line illustrates one of the great strengths of this collection; written for busy readers of newspapers, each essay seizes your attention and holds it. "A hundred years ago, Thomas Smith was the best runner and the most redoubtable knuckle-fighter in the West Riding of Yorkshire." After such an introduction, could any reader not wish to read on and discover how his great-grandson "became Lord Chancellor of England."?

Churchill assumes his readers would be aware of the major issues of the day and so does not reiterate every detail of each referenced fact or person. However, with his explanation and analysis of significant events in the lives he is describing, and the many interactions between the "Great Contemporaries", it is not difficult to absorb the political intrigues of a century ago through the prose and the almost spoken presence of the very greatest of their contemporaries.

A  'MUST READ' ...  This book is a "must read" for three compelling reasons. 

Firstly, Churchill's writing style and his truly magnificent command of the English Language makes this a journey in and of itself. 

Secondly, he writes with such clarity in his short essays about twenty-five of  "His Contemporaries," each stands out and Churchill's book becomes an extraordinary "Study in Leadership." Lastly, the individuals he writes about were all contributors in their own time and place to much of the History of the 20th Century. The essays become living dramas with the power of Churchill's prose bringing to life these highly unusual individuals. An example is Churchill's closing sentences for his look at Lawrence of Arabia. He quotes what King George wrote to Lawrence's brother after his tragic death, 'His name will live in history.' Churchill writes, "That is true. It will live in English letters; it will live in the traditions of the Royal Air Force; it will live in the annals of war and in the legends of Arabia. 

The book was first published in 1937 just before one of Churchill's "Contemporaries", Adolf Hitler proved Churchill to be right in his doubts, concerns and lack of trust in the German Leader and his vision for the world. It was first published in the United States in 1991. You can probably find a copy on Amazon or in your library. I urge you to read it. You will enjoy ever minute.

Incredible collection of Churchill’s writings - reflection on his contemporaries! … Reading this book shows how so many problems we have now are the same as those of yesterday. Churchill's comments are particularly relevant for today.

Marvellous Reading!

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Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item & form part of my description!!

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