The Great Dominion
Winston Churchill in Canada, 1900-1954
by David Dilks
Available in book stores
Forward by The Lady Soames LG, DBE
David
Dilks, a leading British historian and guest speaker at the Churchill Dinner
in 1999, launched his new book, The
Great Dominion: Winston Churchill
in Canada, 1900-1954.
The book's publisher, Thomas Allen & Son Ltd., and the Churchill Society for
the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy invited all members
of the Society and friends to this exciting event.
Selected
as one of the Globe and Mail's
One Hundred Best and Most Influential Books of 2005
British
historian David Dilks has produced a thorough, careful chronicle of
Churchill and his relationship with Canada, built on material gleaned
from newspapers and magazines of the period. It is rich in
research, relaxed in pacing and unique in concept. Seeing a lacuna
in the literature, Dilks delves into the archives and single-handedly
turns a footnote into a focus. Woven together with his elegant
commentary and explanatory footnotes, it gives us our first full-dress
portrait of Winston Churchill's nine visits to Canada. - Andrew
Cohen, Globe and Mail
Synopsis
British historian David Dilks illuminates Churchill's visits to the Commonwealth country he knew best.
Winston Churchill's connection with "the Great Dominion," as he liked to call it, spanned more than half a century. At Winnipeg he heard the news of Queen Victoria's death. In Vancouver he caught a fine salmon. Near Banff he painted several pictures; at Halifax, he led a large crowd in singing on the quayside. At Niagara Falls in 1929 he regretted that he had not tried to buy a concession there in 1900; and when he took his daughter to Niagara in 1943, on their way to Roosevelt's home at Hyde Park, he rejoined, when asked whether he noticed any differences since his first visit, "The principle seems to be much the same; the water still falls over." At Toronto he acknowledged in 1932 his emancipation from the doctrines of free trade. At Ottawa in the dark days of 1941 he proclaimed his confidence in victory, and in 1952 had to concede that the result of victory had been far less satisfying than he had wished. At Quebec in 1943, and again in 1944, he met with Roosevelt and the two countries' Chiefs of Staff in the high strategy of the war.
Of no other Commonwealth country did Churchill have such a lifelong knowledge, but even those acquainted with Churchill's career are sometimes surprised to find that he travelled to Canada so often, and many works about him treat the fact as a mere appendix to his connections with the United States.
British historian David Dilks hopes The Great Dominion will prove that there was more to his time in Canada than that. He has selected excerpts from newspapers, speeches, letters, and diaries, to bring to life every one of those visits, giving preference wherever possible to Churchill's own voice – and what a voice it was.
This is a book for anyone interested in Canada's history or fascinated by the phenomenon that was Winston Churchill.
Respected British historian DAVID DILKS is the former vice-chancellor of Hull University, the official biographer of Neville Chamberlain, and the author of the two-volume Curzon in India. He lives in England.
History/Biography
6 " x 9 " | 512 pages, 2 8-page B&W photo sections
$45.00 Hardcover
ISBN 0-88762-162-7
Synopsis
courtesy of Thomas Allen & Sons, Ltd.
