Winston Spencer Churchill (1874-1965) was Time Magazine's Man of the Half Century in 1950, in recognition of his crucial role as Britain's great war leader when that nation stood alone against the high tide of Nazi Germany's conquests. His complex and magnificent career reached from the glory days of the British Empire at its height to his last Prime Ministership of a cold war England confronting the Soviet Union in the 50's. 

Churchill is the only person to have held high government office through thecataclysms of two world wars, taking part in world shaping and world saving decisions.He is also the only politician to have won a Noble Prize in literature, for his mastery of historical narrative and superb prose style.

We will read Volume I of Churchill's World War II memoirs, The Gathering Storm (1948), written at the height of his powers.  We will pay especial attention to the first half  of this work, "From War to War, 1919-1939," and augment these readings with episodes of the excellent BBC-TV dramatic production, "The Wilderness Years," which brings to life Churchill,  his supporters, and the political figures who sought to accommodate Hitler’s Germany during the 1930’s decade when Churchill was out of  cabinet office.  As a Member of Parliament, however, Churchill criticized and warned with all the power of his renowned oratory against  the disastrous appeasement  policies of the British government even as Hitler's Germany  grew in might.

Churchill organized about him a group of civil servants, military officers, journalists, and scientists who shared his alarm. Some risked their careers to bring him the essential information on which he based those prophetic warnings.Their undeniable cogency helped, in the end, to restore him to power.

Churchill's personal account of this period, with its access to documents, situations, and individuals uniquely available to him, remains an authoritative and gripping description of great powers and persons on the road to war that has impacted public memory and future decision makers.  We will have an opportunity both to understand the man and the years that determined the fateful conflict of World War II.

Assignments:  Class attendance essential;  submit weekly brief investigatory reports, via  e-list, comments due by 9 pm Tuesday evening before next day’s seminar meeting

Week I  Aug 27, introductions 

Week II Sep 3  Gathering Storm, title page and prefaces pp. vii-xv, Chapters 1-3, pp. 3-46

In class discussion and start of Episode 1 of Wilderness Years, to be followed each week by succeeding passages from the TV docudrama.

Week III Sep 10 Gathering Storm Chapters 4-5, pp. 47-80

Week IV Sep 17  No class, I will be in Washington, D.C. for meeting of Secretary of State’s Historical Advisory Committee.  

Week V   Sep 24 have read Chapters 6-8, pp 81-131 and  Chapters 9-11, pp. 132-185

Week VI  Oct 1  have read  Chapters 12-14, pp.186-231 and Chapters 15-17, pp. 232-288

Week VII Oct 8  Chapters 18-19, pp. 289-321

Week VIII Oct 15 Chapters 20-21, pp. 322-358

Week  IX   Oct 22   for final discussion and conclusion of The Wilderness Years

Expectations :  We will start with introductions and some of the initial section of the BBC docudrama, The Wilderness Years.    By the 2^nd meeting we will have begun reading the war memoirs in Churchill’s The Gathering Storm whose later chapters will match the material in the docudrama The Wilderness Years with an increasing closer fit as we progress.

Class Format: We are primarily a discussion group, relying on Churchill’s memoirs, the weekly shown BBC docudrama pertaining to the memoir chapters we are reading, and class members’ additional research for the substance of our seminar experience.  You will work towards forming a picture of Churchill’s extraordinary life and contextualizing his memoirs.  To do this, please use your Churchill volume, and/or the library, and/or Internet resources to investigate a particular aspect of Churchill’s life and/or elucidation of events and personalities specifically presented in The Gathering Storm or presented in The Wilderness Years.  I will make some specific suggestions based on chapter readings and the TV docudrama.   Each week  e-mail to the class e-mail list (h24seminar@socrates.berkeley.edu) or write in hard copy to hand in several paragraphs recording your involvement in uncovering such Churchill factoids that you selected from that week’s reading and particularly caught your attention and interest, inspiring you to work to know more. Come to class prepared to present your findings: e.g., what was Churchill doing at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan in 1898? who was Stanley Baldwin?  Who was “Clemmie?” “the Professor?” Why was Churchill’s son named Randolph and why did Randolph drink so much?  In other words I want class members to come prepared to help generate general discussion, based on each member’s  particular interest she/he can share.

Some suggested Churchill websites
http://www.winstonchurchill.org
http://history1900s.about.com/cs/churchillwinston/index.htm

Highly recommended:  Churchill’s charming personal memoirs:  My Early Life and the quite excellent movie based on them, Young Winston.

ATTENDANCE:  You must be present at all class meetings to receive credit.  If illness or serious circumstances prevent your attending, let me know beforehand or as soon as possible, present a valid excuse, and arrange to make up the missed session.

General Class website:   My course(s) website, full of varied information and material for US history and foreign relations is:   http://www.mip.Berkeley.EDU/classes/history16/

For H24:  www.mip.Berkeley.EDU/classes/history16/Churchill/ (not visible on homepage)

E-mail:  For life in general at UC Berkeley you need to have an e-mail address at which you can be reached.   For many course including this one class announcements and assignments are distributed by e-mail and class websites and you are responsible for checking your mail on a timely basis. 

UClink accounts good: Yahoo,  Hotmail, bad.   External ISP’s (hotmail, msn.com, yahoo, aol, etc) are sometimes down, slow, kick back mail, suffer from overflow, and are not as reliable as a UCB account.   Whether or not you have a computer with a modem, you are strongly urged to obtain a computer account which will give you access to local university networks and the Internet.    UCB is making an increasing number of terminals available in dormitory and micro-lab locations. 

See information and map at http://facility.berkeley.edu/facilities.html or my website file at
http://www.mip.Berkeley.EDU/classes/history16/briefings/ComputerLabs.gif

To obtain a student e-mail account, go to http://uclink.berkeley.edu

BBC Docudrama  The Wilderness Years.  So called because the period roughly from 1928-1939 saw an eclipse in Churchill’s political fortunes that drove him from party office.  He was considered brilliant but erratic, suspect for his changing of party sides, for his personal attack on Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald (“The Boneless Wonder’), for his vehement opposition to independent status for India, for his misplaced loyalty to King Edward VIII in the abdication crisis, and for his perceived as bellicose oratory, informed by precise intelligence of British military weakness, prophesying war with Germany and decrying British policies.  In the end, when Hitler’s invasion of Poland vindicated Churchill’s predictions, he was the only potential leader untainted by the disastrous appeasement policies of the Baldwin and Chamberlain governments.  The years in the wilderness had led to the top of the mountain.