![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The words also trace a vital arch underpinning Churchill's political thought and character and spanning his public life. The "Moral" testifies to both Churchill's own statecraft and to the failures of statecraft that precipitated the Second World War and would unfortunately persist in its wake. Precisely "because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations" did he recognize the vital role of purposeful resolve, reasoned defiance, and generous decency in public affairs, and of "rectitude and sincerity" in personal conduct (from Churchill's gracious wartime eulogy of his great pre-WWII political nemesis, Neville Chamberlain). Likely better than most, he well understood the often senseless and bloody chaos and vagaries inherent to the human condition. In a cynical post-war world slipping inexorably into a new Cold War, perhaps some considered it banal or at least overly simplistic to ascribe any moral to the greatest conflict the world had yet seen. The words appear prominently and alone on the page immediately following the author's Acknowledgements. The "Moral of the Work" was first published in 1948 in Volume I of Churchill's six-volume history, The Second World War. In Peace: Goodwill" (The "Moral of the Work" for Churchill's The Second World War) First published between 19 by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston ![]()
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