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CHURCHILL's POLITICS Tuesdays 1.00-2.30 Pm. Fall 2021. Midcoast

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CHURCHILL's POLITICS Tuesdays 1.00-2.30 Pm. Fall 2021. Midcoast CHURCHILL’S POLITICS Tuesdays 1.00-2.30 pm. Fall 2021. Midcoast Senior College Robert Bunselmeyer [email protected] Winston Churchill was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, famously and heroically from 1940 to 1945 and of less conseQuence from 1951 to 1955. We know him mainly as a wartime leader, but prior to that, and more fundamentally, he was a party politician and a Member of the House of Commons. He occasionally referred to himself as a “child of the House of Commons.” He finished his career as a Conservative, but for an important part of his younger years was a Liberal. Just as important, perhaps, he was freQuently a “loose cannon,” obedient to the party leadership when he could be, but outspoken on issues of the day regardless of party platforms. How this unpredictable man became a Cabinet minister and then Prime Minister will be one of our themes. We will read and discuss Churchill’s political life from 1874 to 1945 as narrated by Roy Jenkins in his biography of Churchill published in 2001. Roy Jenkins (1920-2003) was himself a Cabinet level officer in several Labour governments, and he wrote about the inner workings of party politics with a sure touch. Also, while our main focus will be on Churchill, I will comment on the overall political scene as background to our discussion of Churchill’s role and actions. MEETINGS AND TOPICS 1. September 14. An introduction to British political history. A constitutional monarchy. Expansion of the franchise in national elections, the reforms of 1832, 1867, 1884, 1918, and 1828. The House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Parliament Act of 1910. How general elections work; the role of by-elections. The political parties. Important leaders: Disraeli, Gladstone, Parnell, Joseph Chamberlain, Hardie, MacDonald, Balfour, AsQuith, Lloyd George. The newspapers and the news barons. 2. September 21. DISCUSSION: Jenkins, chapters 1-6. “A Brash Young Man.” BACKGROUND: The great battle between Tariff Reform and Free Trade. The Chamberlains of Birmingham. The Liberal apogee of 1906. The social and political crisis of 1909-1911. 3. September 28. DISCUSSION: Jenkins, chapters 7-12. “Liberal on the Rise.” BACKGROUND: Ireland and Home Rule. The Unionist split in the two major parties. Suffragists and Suffragettes. The formation and early struggle of the Labour Party. Foreign relations, the arms race, and the coming of the War of 1914. 2 4. October 5. DISCUSSION: Jenkins, chapters 13-18. The Great War. BACKGROUND: The diplomacy of the war: alliances, ententes, and the struggle to attract neutrals. The Western Front and peripheral strategies. The Dardanelles. The impact of the war on the British nation. Lieux des mémoires: Mons, the Dardanelles, the Somme, Passchendaele. The Lost Generation. 5. October 12. DISCUSSION: Jenkins, chapters 19-23. From War to Peace. The 1920’s. BACKGROUND: New responsibilities in the thankless role of a “great power.” The impact of the war on the British economy. Renewed class conflict, especially in coal mining. The General Strike of 1926. Most of Ireland secedes from the U.K. The rise of Labour and the decline of the Liberals. 6. October 19. DISCUSSION: Jenkins, chapters 24-28. The “low, dishonest” Decade –the 1930’s. BACKGROUND: The Conservative ascendancy. Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain. Preparing for Indian independence. The King’s abdication. Facing the dictators: pacifism and appeasement vs. realism and rearmament. 7. October 26. DISCUSSION: Jenkins, chapters 29-34. War Again. How Churchill became, again, First Lord of the Admiralty and then Prime Minister. BACKGROUND: Churchill’s early days as Prime Minister, 10 May – fall, 1940. His wartime coalition; his individual allies in Parliament. Churchill’s diplomacy, as one of the Big 3.5. Churchill as strategist, as champion of the peripheral. 8. November 2. DISCUSSION: Jenkins, chapters 35-40. Victory and Defeat. BACKGROUND: Britain’s contribution to Allied victory, Churchill’s contribution. How and why Labour won a clear majority in the 1945 general election. Why the Conservatives lost. Churchill’s final performance, 1945-55. [Note:--Nov. 2 is tentative. We’ll want to include other questions and themes that develop during the course.] .
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