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• Travesty!

  'Fraid! I see Winston Churchill got the prize in '53, and I'm not sure what for, because that 6 volume set is awful, as is his River War, a biased and inaccurate one sided account of colonialism. I was wondering if there are other recepients who did not desrve this so-called honour. In my humble Churchill only got it coz of the war, which is tantamount to state (international) sucking up to.

  A-Z started this discussion 1 year ago. ( reply )

• 

  Dr. J. G. (edited)

  While it was probably true that he received the award due to his towering achievement during the war, the said achievement was highly non trivial and to be derogatory of it is to be unable to appreciate not only the dangers to human civilisation that then had risen but being unappreciative of human civilisation and all its achievements.

  After all what reward could be bestowed on him post wwII? It might have been questionable if it were the Nobel Peace prize, although it would have been not incorrect since it was due to his unfailingly correct leadership of a brave nation standing out against the onslaught when all else either fell or were not yet involved - at least not on the right side - in considerable part that humanity did not go irrevocably on the path to extinction.

  The only better candidate for that - the Nobel Peace prize - was Gandhi. The real travesty is that he never was given the Nobel Peace prize perhaps due to political considerations. That remains a glaring blot on the Nobel prize escutcheon forever, since they could have nominated and awarded this one any time posthumously as well.

  But Nobel Peace prize for Churchill would not have gone without much criticism such as above post either.

  And the last sentence in the post above is highly offensive and uncalled for.

  posted 9 months ago. ( reply )

  show 4 replies

  • 

    tapbirds 

    Dr. J. G:
    Thanks for your excellent thought-through analysis and response. I found it quite informative!

    posted 9 months ago. ( reply )

  • 

    Dr. J. G. 

    Oh, wow! What a balm for a recently much battered spirit, what with so much abuse from anonymous and strange members for no reason one can see! - thanks, sincerely.

    Not being sarcastic, but entirely sincere.

    I see that this post is quite old, but am glad I saw it now, when such balm was much needed. Just as well I didn't look at the group all this time, what with thinking along the lines of "Nobel prize winners are eternal classics, one will see it in a moment, no urgency there".

    posted 2 months ago. ( reply )

  • 

    Jonas D 

    Sure he was a great leader during the ww2, but really, that does not really make him a candidate for the literature prize in my eyes. Might as well have given him an olympic gold medal in pole vault with that argument. At least a peace prize would have been relevant, but I guess it would have been difficult to give it to him and not Roosevelt and Stalin. And a peace prize to Stalin would have been a difficult pill to swallow.

    posted 2 months ago. ( reply )

  • 

    tapbirds (edited)

    The Nobel committee officially noted that Churchill's selection was based "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values." I have long-wanted to read his 6 volume set, "The Second World War" - - has anyone read these books?

    Also, here is a list of books Churchill penned during his lifetime (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/churchil.htm):
    The Story of Malakand Field Force, 1898
    The River War, 1899
    Savrola, A Tale Of The Revolution In Laurania, 1900
    London To Ladysmith via Pretoria, 1900
    In Hamilton's March, 1900
    Mr. Brodrick's Army, 1903
    Lord Randolph Churchill, 1906
    My African Journey, 1908
    Liberalism and The Social Problem, 1909
    The People's Rights, 1909
    Irish Home Rule, 1912
    The World Crisis 1911-1918, 1923-31 (6 vols.)
    The World Crisis: The Aftermath (Volume 5), 1929
    My Early Life, 1930
    India, 1931
    The Unknown War, 1931
    Amid These Storms, 1932
    The Great War, 1933-34 (3 vols.)
    Great Contemporaries, 1937
    While England Slept, 1938
    Marlborough: His Life and Times, 1933-38
    Step by Step, 1939
    Britain's Strength, 1940
    Blood, Sweat, and Tears, 1941
    On Human Rights, 1941
    The Unrelenting Struggle, 1942
    The End of the Beginning, 1943
    Onwards to Victory, 1944
    Foreign Policy, 1944
    The Dawn of Liberation, 1945
    Into Battle, 1945
    Secret Session Speeches, 1946
    Victory, 1946
    Painting as Pastime, 1948
    The Sinews of Peace, 1948
    The Second World War, 1948-53 (6 vols.)
    Europe Unite, 1950
    Into the Balance, 1951
    Stemming the Tide, 1953
    A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, 1956-58 (4 vols.)
    The Unwritten Alliance, 1961
    Heroes of History, 1968
    The Roar of the Lion, 1969
    Young Winston's Wars, 1972
    The Collected Works of Sir Winston Churchill, 1973-74 (34 vols.)
    If I Lived My Life Again, 1974
    Winston Spencer Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1987-1963 (8 vols.)
    The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, 1976 (4 vols.)
    Churchill and Roosevelt, 1984 (3 vols., with Franklin D. Roosevelt)
    The Churchill-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1953-1955, 1990
    The Churchill War Papers: At The Admiralty: September 1939-May 1940, 1993

    posted 2 months ago. ( reply )

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