HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2026-02-09DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.70086
Katherine Carter
{"title":"Churchill and Chartwell: Private Space, Political Influence and Diplomacy in the 1930s","authors":"Katherine Carter","doi":"10.1111/1468-229x.70086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.70086","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This special issue paper highlights the role of Chartwell – the country house purchased by Winston Churchill in 1922 – as a site of informal diplomacy. During the decade of his ‘wilderness years’ (1929–39), Churchill used Chartwell as a site to both cultivate and deploy international contacts. As the paper shows, these encounters could serve a variety of purposes for, from gaining information on ongoing international developments to exercising political influence in spite of the absence of a formal diplomatic role. Set against the backdrop of growing international tensions, the rise of Nazi Germany and the spectre of war, the article highlights a series of visits that involved guests from Germany, the United States, France, the Soviet Union and China. It shows that, at a point when he held no ministerial office, Churchill compensated for his political isolation at home by leveraging Chartwell as a resource to strengthen his connections with international elite networks.</p>","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"271-284"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147564244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2026-02-12DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.70090
EMILIO SÁENZ-FRANCÉS
{"title":"Churchill and Spain: More Sancho than Quixote?","authors":"EMILIO SÁENZ-FRANCÉS","doi":"10.1111/1468-229x.70090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.70090","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article offers a detailed analysis of Winston Churchill's relationship with Spain over the course of his long and eventful political and personal life. The article focuses on three key episodes: Churchill's ambivalent stance during the Spanish Civil War; his leadership and policy towards Spain during the crucial years of the Second World War; and the memory and legacy of Churchill in Spain, particularly in relation to his wartime role. The article argues that Churchill's engagement with Spain reveals a recurring tension between a quixotic impulse – rooted in his aristocratic and monarchist sensibilities, and in a sentimental view of Spanish history – and a more pragmatic, Sancho Panza-like realism, which became especially prominent during the Second World War.</p>","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"217-236"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1468-229x.70090","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147565236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2026-02-18DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.70091
ALLEN PACKWOOD, RICHARD TOYE, JAYNE GIFFORD
{"title":"‘Three Circles’: Winston Churchill's Approach to International Relations","authors":"ALLEN PACKWOOD, RICHARD TOYE, JAYNE GIFFORD","doi":"10.1111/1468-229x.70091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.70091","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article introduces a special issue that explores Winston Churchill's relationship with different countries. As its starting point, this piece takes Churchill's world view that Britain derived her status from its position at the focal point of three intersecting circles: Europe, the British Empire and the wider English-speaking world. Although there was a fair degree of consistency in his approach, he progressively adjusted his outlook as the comparative size of the three circles changed over the course of his lifetime. His Victorian youth was dominated by the empire, but by the time of his death in 1965, Europe was divided by the Cold War, and the United States, rather than Britain, dominated the English-speaking circle. The authors argue that modern representations of Churchill's world view have been further complicated by the impact of his own writings and by the debates on his contested legacy over empire and Europe. They conclude that detailed examinations of his approach towards different countries reveal a shifting, nuanced, pragmatic and political picture, with Churchill's views and actions evolving over time in response to Britain's relative position within the wider ‘three circles’ paradigm. In doing so, they introduce the overall premise of this special issue, namely, that exploring Churchill's attitude to a series of specific countries is a way of taking ‘core samples’ that illustrate his world view more generally.</p>","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"155-167"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1468-229x.70091","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147566587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2025-10-06DOI: 10.1111/1468-229X.70060
Paula Gonzalez Fons
{"title":"Skilled Immigrants in the Textile and Fashion Industries: Stories from a Globe-Spanning History. Edited by Nazanin Hedayat Munroe. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2024. xii + 248 pp. £85.","authors":"Paula Gonzalez Fons","doi":"10.1111/1468-229X.70060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.70060","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"297-298"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147563627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2025-10-07DOI: 10.1111/1468-229X.70059
Lucy Bland
{"title":"A History of British Eugenics since 1865: From Francis Galton to Designer Babies. By David Redvaldsen. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024, pp. xix, 331. £119.99.","authors":"Lucy Bland","doi":"10.1111/1468-229X.70059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.70059","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"290-291"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147563852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2026-01-08DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.70081
T. G. Otte
{"title":"Churchill and Germany: A ‘Special’ Relationship","authors":"T. G. Otte","doi":"10.1111/1468-229x.70081","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.70081","url":null,"abstract":"<p>No other country defined the trajectory of Churchill's political career more than Germany, a country of which he had little direct knowledge but which he either sought to emulate, accommodate or oppose throughout his time in politics. This article traces Churchill's relationship with Germany from his entry into politics at the beginning of the Edwardian era through to the end of his life, when a newly prosperous West Germany had become a fixture in Cold War international politics.</p>","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"237-254"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1468-229x.70081","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147564026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2026-02-10DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.70089
LUVUYO WOTSHELA
{"title":"Winston Churchill and South Africa: An Enduring, yet Debatable Connection, 1899–1955","authors":"LUVUYO WOTSHELA","doi":"10.1111/1468-229x.70089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.70089","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The article traces Churchill's engagement with South Africa, from his time as a newspaper correspondent during the Anglo-Boer War to his services in both Liberal and Conservative cabinets as well as, ultimately, his premiership. The discussion highlights three phases in this relationship. First, Churchill experienced South Africa as a site of imperial conflict and personal adventure, which reinforced his romantic imperialism. Second, in the years after the war, he adopted a pragmatic stance, accepting reconciliation with the Afrikaners and supporting self-government as a necessary means of stabilizing the empire. Third, in the interwar period and beyond, South Africa became a more peripheral concern for Churchill, and he viewed it chiefly in strategic and imperial terms as part of wider Commonwealth and global defence calculations. Nevertheless, his close personal relationship with Jan Smuts was important to many issues, beyond South Africa itself.</p>","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"168-182"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1468-229x.70089","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147564590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2025-12-22DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.70075
DAVID LEE
{"title":"Churchill and Australia: The Anxious Dominion","authors":"DAVID LEE","doi":"10.1111/1468-229x.70075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.70075","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article focuses on Winston Churchill's relations with three Australian prime ministers, Robert Menzies, Arthur Fadden and John Curtin, between 1940 and 1942. In doing so, the article reflects on the historiographical debate about Churchill and Australia during the Second World War and what Australia's dominion status meant at the time. In the interwar period, Australia generally resisted the efforts of Canada, South Africa and the Irish Free State to move quickly in the direction of greater autonomy. It is the argument of this article that Australia's outlook on its dominion status changed dramatically during the Second World War. Fear of invasion by Japan impelled its leaders to demand that it be treated as an equal with the right to a greater say in allied strategy and the disposition of its military forces. This outlook frequently placed the three Australian leaders at odds with Churchill, whom they resented as treating Australia like a colony. At the same time, Churchill's attitudes to Australia were paradoxical. Despite his firm views on imperial strategy and the proper role of Australia in supporting it, Churchill and his wartime government ultimately deferred to Australia's strongly expressed wishes and treated Australia as an independent country.</p>","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"255-270"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147567686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.70076
Richard Vinen
{"title":"Winston Churchill and France: A Certain Ideal","authors":"Richard Vinen","doi":"10.1111/1468-229x.70076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.70076","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article examines relations between Winston Churchill and France. It argues that Churchill was sympathetic to France and, in particular, unusual among Englishmen of his generation in being sympathetic to its political system, but also that this sympathy did not make Churchill consistent in his relations with France.</p>","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"183-200"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1468-229x.70076","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147568379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HistoryPub Date : 2026-03-12Epub Date: 2025-09-26DOI: 10.1111/1468-229X.70058
Leonardo Costantini
{"title":"Cicero: The Man and His Works. By Andrew R. Dyck. Cambridge University Press, 2025. 1117 pp. £150.","authors":"Leonardo Costantini","doi":"10.1111/1468-229X.70058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.70058","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13162,"journal":{"name":"History","volume":"111 395","pages":"285-286"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147569674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}