Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks is an intelligent and gripping dual biography of arguably the most important politician and writer of the twentieth century.
Orwell and Churchill were opposites in many ways: Orwell was a man of the Left, while Churchill was a Tory.
Orwell was one of the first to warn about Stalin and communism, and he often criticized the Left when he thought it was wrong. Churchill began as a Conservative in the House of Commons, then crossed over to become a Liberal, “supporting a minimum wage, unemployment, eight-hour work day, and public health insurance.”
Orwell knew what it was like to be down and out; he tramped with the homeless and experienced extreme poverty. Churchill later rejoined the Conservatives and remained a “pariah in his own party for some time.”
Both men were almost killed in the 1930s. Orwell was shot in the neck while fighting for the Left in the Spanish Civil War, and the bullet missed an artery by millimeters. After he recovered, he found that Stalin had turned on the Left, and he barely made it out of Spain alive.
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Churchill was captured during the Boer War in South Africa and made a daring escape that made him a hero in England. But it wasn’t on the battlefield that he nearly died; it was on the streets of New York, when he was hit by a car and seriously injured.
Orwell was not an important or well-known figure for most of his lifetime. Churchill, of course, was one of the most recognizable men in the world as prime minister.
Both men were fighters. It was Churchill’s indomitable personality that rallied the country’s spirit and courage in England’s darkest hour. Orwell shared that fierce resistance and volunteered to go to the front in the Spanish Civil War, but it was for his writing that he received acclaim, much of it after his death.
Orwell and Churchill never met, but Churchill read Nineteen Eighty-Four twice and reportedly called it “extraordinary.” Orwell praised Churchill in his diaries and essays and believed he was the right man for the job at the right time.
Neither man was perfect, and Ricks focuses more on Churchill’s personal issues and foibles than on Orwell’s. Still, Churchill and Orwell were the most powerful and enduring voices in helping to defeat fascism and resist totalitarianism.
What binds the two together most is their dedication to the truth. Orwell is now lauded as the ultimate truth teller, with the ability to face unpleasant facts. Facing unpleasant facts was also one of Churchill’s greatest gifts.
Ricks has eloquently documented one of the most important periods of the twentieth century. I’d like to think most U.S. leaders are familiar with Churchill’s and Orwell’s brutal honesty, and with the generation that created NATO in 1949, which has kept the peace for more than seventy-five years. But for many on the Right, it sure doesn’t seem like it. It’s obvious Trump has no clue. I think everyone should read this book.
Read review @ the NY Times.
See Churchill & Orwell by Thomas E. Ricks on Audiobooks, Amazon/Audible, and Bookstores who are not Amazon.
You might also like Inside Orwell and Other Stories by Joseph Raffetto as well as “The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer Review.“
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