Customer Reviews

Everything was on a grand scale - By: taking a rest, 12 Dec 2002
There is very little about Sir Churchill that can be considered routine, average, or some manner of standard he can be compared to. Everything he did was generally on a scale that helped to create the Legend he has become, & that he will remain. Even when he erred, it generally was not minor, however rare, but on balance we do not, nor will we have his kind again. He loved his Country, & he loved the US, for he was 50% American, so that evenin Washington D.C. today, a statue of him striding forward has one foot on British, & one on American soil.

His life was long, stretching past the 90-year mark, allowing him ample time to write & give speeches, which are routinely quoted to this day. He was a master at both disciplines, with his writing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literaturein 1953.

"Great Contemporaries", is a book that is more about the men & women he knew than about the Author. He is evident throughout the read, as the impressions of these people of History are his. The 21 profiles he shares with the reader are incrediblein their range, & that they were his "contemporaries" is one testament to the History he created & was a part of.

Contemporary people of fame are often identifiable by a first or last name alone. However, as we livein an age where you can chatin real time across the planet, fame does not require the same level of notoriety. Churchill's fame, & of those he writes of, is of a different character & caliber.

The Kaiser, Shaw, Chamberlain, Hindenburg, Foch, Trotsky, these are only a fraction of the essays this man of history will share. Too, there is Lawrence of Arabia who requires a bit more than a last name, but it is not due to his renown, rather the generic nature of the end of his sobriquet.

These reminiscences are different than those of today's leaders, there was very little distance between these people, they often met alone, & they did not bring an array of lackeys, translators, & gadflies.