Churchill's Greatness
EDITORIAL Churchill's Greatness The convention of selecting a man of the year, decade, or century is one of the more annoying features of the modern age. But one has to live in one's time. And in...
...Not a whit less important than his deeds and speeches are his writings, above all his Marlborough—the greatest historical work written in our century, an inexhaustible mine of political wisdom and understanding, which should be required reading for every student of political science...
...And in this case, we are happy to observe the convention, because it offers us the occasion to honor what deserves to be honored, and to recall what deserves to be recalled...
...No less enlightening is the lesson conveyed by Churchill's failure, which is too great to be called tragedy...
...Winston Churchill is the man of our century...
...The death of Churchill reminds us of the limitations of our craft, and therewith of our duty...
...Churchill did the utmost that a man could do to counter that threat—pub-licly and most visibly in Greece and in Fulton, Missouri...
...We have no higher duty, and no more pressing duty, than to remind ourselves and our students, of political greatness, human greatness, of the peaks of human excellence...
...The tyrant stood at the pinnacle of his power...
...The death of Churchill is a healthy reminder to students of political science of their limitations, the limitations of their craft...
...For we are supposed to train ourselves and others in seeing things as they are, and this means above all in seeing their greatness and their misery, their excellence and their vileness, their nobility and their triumphs, and therefore never to mistake mediocrity, however brilliant, for true greatness...
...Leo Strauss, for the Editors...
...I mean the fact that Churchill's heroic action on behalf of human freedom against Hitler only contributed, through no fault of Churchill's, to increase the threat to freedom which is posed by Stalin or his successors...
...The character of his greatness has never been more concisely limned than in these remarks by the political philosopher Leo Strauss to his class at the University of Chicago on January 25,1965, the day after Churchill's death...
...The contrast between the indomitable and magnanimous statesman and the insane tyrant—this spectacle in its clear simplicity was one of the greatest lessons which men can learn, at any time...
Vol. 5 • January 2000 • No. 16
