Introduction
The book Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks promises to be an interesting and useful reading experience. Reviewing the book requires more attention to the text and its components than ordinary reading, which allows one to develop a broader perspective on the information presented. Hence, I expect to obtain an original perspective on the topics discussed in the book, such as the fight against fascism, the role of Churchill in WWII, and Orwell’s influence on the independent and realistic thinking of European elites. This paper aims to provide a book review of the non-fiction biographical writing Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks.
Writing Style
The book is very interesting to read, although the language is a bit complicated, especially given the complex topics discussed by the author. However, the author’s style is very appealing, which makes reading easier. He uses plenty of successful comparisons and analogies and finds interesting facts about the lives of Orwell and Churchill that are unknown to the public. The author uses good titles to describe the chapters, which makes it easier to navigate the intricacies of the characters’ life paths.
It is interesting that Churchill and Orwell did not know each other but admired from a distance. The author cites an interesting fact that Orwell named the main character of the novel 1984 Winston (Ricks 9). In addition to careful work with facts, the author impresses the reader with the clarity of presentation of abstract historical statements. The author clearly and confidently gives the characteristics of his heroes. Journalist and writer Ricks finds interesting analogies in the character and life paths of the characters – a childhood with strict and almost absent parents, problems at school, originality of beliefs that contradict the general trends in society, denial of one’s class origin, fascination with language and means of verbal self-expression. The author shows no less skill in describing the historical events of the Second World War, covering in detail the period of 1934-1950.
Author’s Expertise
Thomas Ricks is a well-known author and journalist who covers the topics of defense and foreign policy. For more than seventeen years, he worked for the Wall Street Journal as a reporter and covered American military involvement in Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kuwait, Korea, Turkey, Haiti, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq. Ricks and his team received the Pulitzer Prize for the report about the changes in the American army facing challenges of the 21st century. Ricks later served as a magazine editor for Foreign Policy magazine and author of The Best Defense blog. The author was also a New America Senior Fellow at ASU’s Future of War. Therefore, Thomas Ricks has the widest possible experience in covering military actions and the role of Americans in the politics of other countries.
Author’s Biases
Thomas Ricks does not show biases, since, as a historian, he is used to presenting valid and trustworthy opinions. Orwell’s attitude to smells, his voyage to underground London and Paris, and the depiction of Orwell’s childhood can be a bit shocking, as well as Orwell’s condemnation of elites can be a bit overestimated. In other respects, the author has a clear style when determining the historical and political roles of his characters.
Sources Used
The author uses a whole variety of sources, and the reference list takes some 20 pages: personal letters, memoirs, parliamentary hearings, debates, noted conversations, published essays, and novels. These are all primary sources, which naturally constitute the plot of the text. Primary sources that can be considered reliable prevail, and in the scientific world such references are recognized as historical sources. Ricks uses quotations from Orwell’s early essays and novels – “Burmese Days, ” “Down and Out, ” “Shooting an Elephant, and Homage to Catalonia. Separate chapters are devoted to the analysis of Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and 1984 and Churchill’s War Memoirs.
The Book Thesis
The thesis of the work, presented in the first chapter, is particularly expressive. Ricks asserts “Orwell and Churchill recognized that the key question of their century was not who controlled the production, as Marx thought, or how human psyche functioned, as Freud taught, but rather how to preserve the liberty of the individual during an age when the state was becoming powerfully intrusive into private life” (9). Ricks presents a broader and more complete picture of the struggle of Europeans against fascism and communism, and proves that these two ideological positions were, firstly, false, and secondly, covered the excessive use of power over the individual in totalitarian states. Ricks describes Orwell and Churchill as the writer and politicians who defined the ‘true north’ for the future of European civilization.
The Main Themes
Given that both fascism and communism were designed for export, Orwell’s involvement in the war in Spain and the prominent role of Churchill are particularly revealing. Ricks traces Orwell’s development as a writer, looking at social influences such as working as a policeman in Burma, living among the London poor and coal miners in the north of England, being in the trenches in the Spanish War, participating in the POUM and watching the seizure of power first by the Stalinists and then by Franco regime. These events shaped the political and social views of the author, and during the war in 1943-1945, he wrote the anti-Stalinist novel Animal Farm, which today is internationally recognized.
Ricks also looks closely at Churchill’s influence on the course of the war, with each of his decisions and speeches, including his 1940 speech to Parliament, appeals for aid to Americans, relations with generals and the Conservative Party, and with President Franklin Roosevelt. The author also describes the lives of the heroes after the victory over Hitler, Churchill’s retreat into the shadows, and Orwell’s wide recognition in the 21st century.
Book Summary
In the book, Ricks describes the life path of George Orwell and Winston Churchill. In the first chapter, the author writes “Churchill helped give us the liberty we enjoy now. Orwell’s writing about liberty affects how we think about it now. Their lives and their works are worth better understanding in that context” (Ricks 9). In the second chapter, Ricks describes Churchill’s childhood, and youth – aristocratic mother, who was loving and a bit frivolous, the father who was cold, distant, and superior, Winston’s rebellious character, and problems with school discipline.
Churchill’s motives for entering the military school and his inclination to the humanities are also presented here. The chapter describes Churchill’s married life, and his love for comfort, delicious food, expensive cigars, and drinks, which did not prevent him from respecting fellow soldiers in Africa (Ricks 12). The author is impressed with Churchill changing political affiliation twice and going from the Conservatives to the Liberals and back to the Conservatives, who were never too sympathetic to the politician.
The third chapter is devoted to Orwell’s childhood, youth, and self-assertion as a writer. Ricks points “Orwell spent his own (youth) in pursuit of a core theme. Ultimately, he would find it: the abuse of power. It is the thread that runs through all his writings, from his early works to the very end” (16). The writer spent his childhood in India, at the age of eight he was sent to school in England. After entering and finishing Eton, Orwell was sent to work as a policeman in Burma, where he wrote his first essay, “Burmese Days, ” depicting the daily petty tyranny of the British over the local population.
The next stage of the writer’s development relates to writing a “Down and Out” essay about the life of poor men which he observed as a ‘poverty tourist,’ and the book The Road to Wigan Pier, which depicted life in a mining town. Ricks described the motivations that led Orwell to write about the suffering: his personal experience as a policeman in Burma and a tendency to rebel against the system.
Chapter 4 is dedicated to the years 1937-1939 in the political life of Great Britain and Churchill’s participation in the formation of the agenda. The political world understood that Germany was preparing for war, and Chamberlain, who was prime minister, insisted that peace with Germany on terms of neutrality was the only satisfactory solution. However, Churchill was against it and refused Ribbentrop who demanded neutrality during his visit to London (Ricks 25). Parliamentarians did not approve of the beliefs of Churchill, who was sure that Germany would not be satisfied with neutrality and would eventually attack not only Eastern but also Western Europe, which would be the end of the civilized world.
Chapter 5 is more voluminous than the previous ones and talks about Orwell’s life during the war in Spain. He accidentally receives a bullet in the neck – an event vividly described in Homage to Catalonia (30). Ricks contrasts Orwell with Hemingway in his “For Whom the Bell Tolls, ” saying that Hemingway is extremely infantile about the events in Spain. Importantly, Ricks says that Orwell left Spain “resolved to oppose the abuse of power at both ends of the political spectrum” (31). At the end of 1938, both Orwell and Churchill observed how the fascist and communist systems began to support each other, which was seen as a sort of collapse. Orwell was not charmed by communist ideas, and he condemned the crimes of that regime.
In chapter 6, the beginning of the war on September 1, 1939, which was predicted by Churchill back in August, is described. In his famous speech, Churchill declared “This is no war for domination or imperial aggrandizement or material gain; no war to shut any country out of its sunlight and means of progress. It is a war, to establish, on impregnable rocks, the rights of the individual, and revive the stature of man” (Ricks 33). At the same time, Orwell wrote “Intellectual freedom has been one of the distinguishing marks of western civilization. If this war is about anything at all, it is a war in favor of freedom of thought” (Ricks 33). When the war began, Churchill saw the only way to win in engaging the Americans and started a tight correspondence with Franklin Roosevelt.
In chapter 7, the years 1940-1941 are described, the chapter begins with the battle for London between the German and British Air Forces. Churchill, who was a commander-in-chief, among other important decisions, introduced a system of early warning of bombings and tracking of enemy aircraft, made decisions about Algeria and France and tried to attract America as an ally, which he eventually succeeded. Chapter 8 describes class warfare in Britain and Orwell’s role as a propagandist. Chapter 9 is about the entry of Americans, chapter 10 – presents visions of the postwar world, and chapter 11 is dedicated to the Animal Farm novel. Here Orwell’s observations of clear use of language are also presented. Chapter 12 is about Churchill’s decline and triumph, America overtaking Britain, and the end of the war that caused Churchill’s tears. Chapter 13 contains Churchill’s War Memoirs analysis, and in chapter 14 Orwell’s 1984 is presented. Chapter 15 is about Churchill’s ‘premature afterlife,’ and in chapter 16 Orwell’s unexpected celebration in the 21st century is discussed.
Conclusion
The greatest part of the book, in my opinion, is the description of Orwell’s participation in the Spanish battles, and his earlier acquaintance with the London slums. No less impressive is the description of the air battle for London, and life in London during the war. The young years of the writer and politician are also interesting, especially some aspects of Churchill’s aristocratic life, and Orwell’s experience of life in Burma. The negative side is the overly detailed description of all the events of the war, although this part includes interesting twists. In general, the book is extremely useful for understanding the transformation of social norms in European society after the Second World War.
Work Cited
Ricks, Thomas E. Churchill, and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom. Penguin Press, 2017.