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Enjoy 90 minutes each week in the company of a leading Churchill expert!
Accompany Allen Packwood as he travels back in time in search of the real Winston Churchill: the man behind the icon and the headlines. Follow in Sir Martin’s footsteps as you rediscover the evidence that underpinned the official biography. Each session in this six week course will look in detail at a different period in Churchill’s life, highlighting the main themes and discussing the big issues.
Week 1: Churchill’s Inheritance – how he was shaped by his background, family, upbringing and political/financial inheritance.
Week 2: Radical or Reactionary – the extent to which Churchill was a radical or a reactionary and whether he changed over time.
Week 3: The World Crisis and its Aftermath – the impact of the First World War on Churchill and the world in which he lived.
Week 4: Finest and Darkest Hour – an examination of Churchill’s War Leadership.
Week 5: Europe or the United States? – Can we reconcile Churchill’s belief in the Special Relationship with his campaign for greater European unity.
Week 6: Contested Legacies – A look at how Churchill has been seen since his death in 1965 and his place in history.
The dates for this course are as follows: 8, 15, 22, 29 June, 6, 13 July 2022.
Limited number of spaces, early booking is advised!
For US attendees, please note this event will take place on Zoom at 11am (PT)/ 2pm (ET).
Allen Packwood BA, MPhil (Cantab), is a Fellow of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was awarded an OBE for services to archives and scholarship in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours. His book, How Churchill Waged War, was published by Pen & Sword in 2018.
The Churchill Archives Centre is located in the grounds of Churchill College, and is home to the papers of Sir Winston Churchill, Baroness Thatcher, Sir John Major and almost seven hundred of their contemporaries: politicians, diplomats, civil servants, military leaders and scientists of the modern era. It is still collecting. Allen likes to joke that it is the equivalent of four American Presidential Libraries!