The life and crimes of the last, great Imperialist
Tariq Ali has written more than two-dozen books on world history and politics-the most recent of which are The Dilemmas of Lenin, The Obama Syndrome and The Extreme Centre-as well as the novels of his Islam Quintet and scripts for the stage and screen. He is a long-standing member of the editorial committee of New Left Review and lives in London.
In Ali's telling, which draws on more honest existing historical
scholarship than most popular biographies of Churchill, the
two-times prime minister emerges not so much as deeply racist -
some of his contemporaries remarked on it in shock - as profoundly
authoritarian, with a soft spot for fascist strongmen, and a
hostility to working-class assertion.
*Prospect*
For Tariq Ali, Churchill debunking, like Churchill worship, is a
political act.
*The Times*
Ali portrays Churchill as cruel, incompetent and blinded by
prejudice
*Spectator*
A Marxist insult to history.
*The Telegraph*
A powerful corrective...shining a light on the nasty parts of the
Churchill story that his supporters conveniently ignore. This book
is an unreserved polemic against the man usually celebrated for
standing up to Hitler
*Independent*
An essential antidote to the Churchill myth...This book could not
be more timely.
*Counterfire*
A counter to popular mythology; an effort to peel back the curtain
of propaganda and locate truth ... a worthy contribution in a
crowded field
*Talal Hangari*
[Ali] seeks not so much to flush WC down the toilet of history, but
to reassign him to his rightful place as one of history's most
over-rated figures ... [a] highly readable book
*Political Quarterly*
The important thing about Ali's book, even after a thousand on the
same subject, is that it is primarily interested in Churchill's
years in service to British imperialism, and only secondarily
interested in World War II, inverting the usual balance...a vital
corrective.
*Current Affairs*
Ali's book is a helpful corrective to the cult of Churchill that
has come to dominate British culture. His study makes one thing
clear: there is ultimately no path to a socialist and
internationalist future without challenging this legacy.
*Jacobin*
Ali's examination remains an important corrective to the
hagiographic praise that Churchill receives to this day.
*Foreign Affairs*
Ali has produced a searing critique full of little known detail, of
a long and powerful British life which did untold damage at home
and abroad.
*Review of African Political Economy*
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