In modern memory, Winston Churchill remains the man with the cigar and the equanimity among the ruins. Few can remember that at the age of 40, he was considered washed up, his best days behind him. In Young Titan, historian Michael Shelden has produced the first biography focused on Churchill’s early career, the years between 1901 and 1915 that both nearly undid him but also forged the character that would later triumph in the Second World War.
Between his rise and his fall, Churchill built a modern navy, experimented with radical social reforms, survived various threats on his life, made powerful enemies and a few good friends, annoyed and delighted two British monarchs, became a husband and father, took the measure of the German military machine, authorized executions of notorious murderers, and faced deadly artillery barrages on the Western front. Along the way, he learned how to outwit more experienced rivals, how to overcome bureaucratic obstacles, how to question the assumptions of his upbringing, how to be patient and avoid overconfidence, and how to value loyalty.
He also learned how to fall in love. Shelden gives us a portrait of Churchill as the dashing young suitor who pursued three great beauties of British society with his witty repartee, political f lair, and poetic letters. In one of many never-before-told episodes, Churchill is seen racing to a Scottish castle to prepare the heartbroken daughter of the prime minister for his impending marriage.
This was a time of high drama, intrigue, personal courage, and grave miscalculations. But as Shelden shows in this fresh and revealing biography, Churchill’s later success was predicated on his struggles to redeem the promise of his youth.
Michael Shelden is the author of four previous biographies. For twelve years he was a features writer for The Daily Telegraph (London) and a fiction critic for TheBaltimore Sun. He is currently a professor at Indiana State University.
Table of Contents
Prelude: The Prime Minister 1
Introduction: The Young Titan 5
Part I 1901-1905 13
I A New World 15
II A Family Affair 27
III Born for Opposition 39
IV The Duke's Smile 50
V Empire Dreams 61
VI The Great Rift 73
VII Departures 87
VIII The Bachelor and the Heiress 97
IX Fortunate Son 108
Part II 1906-1910 117
X Winners and Losers 119
XI The World at His Feet 129
XII Private Lives 140
XIII The Political Maiden 150
XIV A Place in the Sun 160
XV Best-Laid Plans 171
XVI The Castle 181
XVII Eminent Edwardian 192
XVIII Sound and Fury 206
XIX Life and Death 219
Part III 1910-1915 231
XX Valiant 233
XXI Storm Signals 245
XXII Armada 259
XXIII The Old Man and the Sea 271
XXIV Wings 285
XXV Countdown 295
XXVI Last Stand 306
Epilogue 323
Acknowledgments 325
Illustration Credits 326
Notes 327
Selected Books Winston S. Churchill 353
Bibliography 355
Index 365
What People are Saying About This
Jon Meacham
“Michael Shelden has done the nigh-impossible: he has found original things to say about the man Isaiah Berlin called ‘the largest human being of our time’—Winston Churchill. In this entertaining and deeply researched book, Shelden paints a memorable portrait of the young Churchill’s life and loves.”
Tom Brokaw
“For history buffs, Winston Churchill is the gift that keeps on giving, and in Young Titan Michael Shelden has given us the gift of Churchill’s fascinating formative years. It’s all here—the boy wonder, adventurer, romantic, orator, and eloquent man in the arena. I didn't want it to end.”
Chris Matthews
“Young Titan gives us an exciting, needed look at Winston Churchill in his years as a Liberal. Breaking with the Conservatives, he battled for better working conditions, for unemployment insurance, for improvements in education. He waged a two-front war: against the Tories on the right, the socialists on the left. It is the young Churchill at his best, a great foretelling of what was to come when Britain and the world needed him most.”
