Churchill part 1: Rebel Without A Cause

Origin Story

Podmasters

Society & Culture, News, News Commentary, History

4.8 • 655 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New Series! Explaining the most misunderstood ideas and people in politics. This time: Winston Churchill is caricatured as either a bigoted villain or a stainless hero. Is he neither… or both? Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt take on a Churchillian task: to avoid reducing the legacy of Britain’s war leader into a simple binary. In part one they look at Churchill’s complicated childhood, his military adventures, his surprisingly progressive time as Home Secretary, his role in the Gallipoli disaster and his journey from the Tories to the Liberals and back again, leaving him on the brink of the 1930s. And they weigh up the allegations against him, from racism to sending troops to fire on striking miners at Tonypandy. Between the myths and the countermyths there’s a fascinating mess of a man. Get Part Two of our Churchill exploration right now – and all of our episodes a week early – when you support Origin Story on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/originstorypod “Yes, he is a racist imperialist warmonger. He’s also the most important antifascist of human history.” – Ian Dunt “He had no followers. No ‘Churchillites’. Nobody in politics would sacrifice a thing for him.” – Dorian Lynskey “At this point he’s Woke Winston. He's a liberal, supports votes for women, nationalising the railways and restrictions on monopolies.” – Dorian Lynskey Reading List: Churchill by Roy Jenkins Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts The Churchill Factor by Boris Johnson Churchill: Military Genius or Menace? By Stephen Napier Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks Oblivion or Glory: 1921 and the Making of Winston Churchill by David Stafford Churchill’s Shadow by Geoffrey Wheatcroft Free Thinking: Churchill's Reputation – BBC Radio 3 Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production and music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.6	Season C's apply. Hello and welcome to season three of origin story. We are very glad to be back. In each episode,
0:45.0	we take a word, idea or figure from history, explain its origins and talk about how it influences
0:50.1	political discourse today and hopefully pick apart some of the misunderstandings that cluster around
0:55.5	them. I'm Dorian Linsky, author of 33 revolutions per minute and the Ministry of Truth.
1:00.0	And I am Ian Dunn. I am the author of How Wospitz to Work and Why Doesn't, and I am a columnist for the Iron
1:04.2	Newspaper. And we're starting this season with a person who has become an idea. So Winston-Lennard,
1:09.0	Spencer Churchill, born 1874, died in 1965,
1:12.8	a life so long and so eventful that is going to be our first two-part episode. Now, Ian, this
1:18.5	will probably be the shortest episode of the season, because there's really just one question.
1:22.3	The one John McDonald was asked in 2019, Churchill, hero, or villain?
1:27.4	Now, that's the kind of level of moral complexity we like to deal with on this programme. That makes sense. Yeah. last in 2019. Churchill, hero or villain?
1:29.3	Now that's the kind of level of moral complexity we like to deal with on this program.
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