The stories on this website involve some of the controversies associated with Churchill. Any descriptions are not intended to defend or to criticise, but to use a storytelling approach to provide contexts for readers to make their own assessments.
The website’s focus is not on Churchill, but on selected people with whom he was connected, so the controversies raised are not necessarily representative or comprehensive in relation to Churchill himself.
Mythologising has resulted in Churchill often being viewed as either a hero or a villain. Similarly, his well-known adversaries and other connections have often been portrayed in a one-dimensional manner, caricaturing their public personae. The reality is usually far more complex and intriguing.
Below is a summary of the main controversies regarding Churchill arising from stories on this website.
| Controversy | Key Issues/Allegations | See | Reading |
| General | Link | ||
| Abdication crisis | Defence of Edward VIII’s ability to marry Wallis Simpson, then stalling for time in the hope that Edward would end the relationship | Baldwin, Beaverbrook, Edward VIII, George VI | Link |
| Anti-appeasement | Opposition to making concessions to Hitler and his urging for British re-armament to be prepared for war | Baldwin, de Valera, Goebbels, Hitler, Mussolini, Pétain, UK fascist groups | |
| Arab and Kurdish self-determination | Involvement in ambiguous British reassurances to Arabs and Kurds regarding self-determination | Al-Gaylani, Al-Husseini, Atatürk, Lawrence | |
| Attack on French fleet | Decision to attack the Vichy French fleet in Algeria in 1940 to prevent it being used on behalf of Nazi Germany | Pétain | |
| Bengal famine | Alleged contribution to the deaths of up to three million people in north-east India in 1943-44 through British government policy in India and failure to send relief supplies | Aung San, Bose, Mountbatten | |
| Bombing (conventional) | Bombing of civilians in World War II | Al-Gaylani, Harris, Lindemann | |
| Bombing (nuclear) | Support for the development of nuclear weapons and his authorisation of nuclear attacks on Japan in 1945 | Roosevelt, Soviet spies, Tojo, Truman | |
| Chemical weapons | Support for the use of chemical weapons in the late 1910s, early 1920s and potentially during World War II | Al-Gaylani, Harris, Trotsky | |
| Dardanelles/Gallipoli | Initiation and continuing support for the unsuccessful Dardanelles campaign in Turkey during World War I | Aga Khan III, Atatürk, Attlee, Hamilton, Turkey | |
| Distortion of history | Writing of history to portray himself in a good light and to disparage certain others | Baldwin | |
| Eugenics | Support of eugenics in the early 1900s and his contribution to the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 | Lindemann, Wells | |
| Excessive force | Use of excessive force against UK strikers, Irish home rule activists and suffragettes | De Valera, Suffragettes, UK strikers | |
| Financial affairs | High spending, tax avoidance and acceptance of high value hospitality, debt cancellation and gifts | Baruch, Bracken, Camrose, Korda, Onassis | |
| Gold standard | Decision as chancellor of the exchequer to return Britain to the gold standard at the pre-World War I rate of exchange, causing economic hardship and industrial unrest | Keynes, UK strikers | |
| Health | Alcohol and tobacco consumption, his depressive moods and the cover-up of his 1953 stroke | Beaverbrook, Birkenhead, Bracken, Camrose, Goebbels, Leigh, Moran, Pol-Roger, Rothermere | |
| Imperialism | Devotion to the continuation of the British Empire in the face of independence movements and declining support for colonialism in the UK | Numerous adversaries; Aga Khan III; Smuts; Wells. | |
| Mau Mau | Ultimate responsibility for British atrocities during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950s | Kenyatta | |
| Middle East borders | Responsibility for long-term conflicts resulting from his involvement in decision-making about the post-Ottoman reshaping of the Middle East | Al-Gaylani, Al-Husseini, Atatürk, Lawrence, Zionist paramilitary groups | |
| Norway invasion | Involvement in the 1940 Norwegian campaign failures that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Chamberlain | Pound | |
| Race | Worldview of a hierarchy of peoples, using ‘civilisation’ as a key criterion | Aga Khan III, Al-Gaylani, Gandhi, Jinnah, Smuts, Wells | |
| Radical Liberalism | Support for the radical Liberal programme for improved work and social conditions in the early 1900s, opposed by most Conservatives, particularly in the House of Lords | Bonham Carter, Budget Protest League, Lloyd George | |
| Religion | Disparaging comments about Hindus/Hinduism and mixed comments about Muslims/Islam | Gandhi, Jinnah | |
| Self-promotion | Motivations for fighting as a soldier, switching parties and engaging unnecessarily in high-profile events like the Siege of Sidney Street in 1911 | Budget Protest League, Harriman, Korda, Lloyd George, Murrow, UK strikers | |
| Sexual allegations | Alleged affair with Doris Castlerosse | Elliott, Marsh | |
| Singapore defeat | Lack of strategic military support for Singapore and failure to ensure its defence in the north | Bose, Yamashita | |
| Warmongering | Support for military aggression | Al-Gaylani, Atatürk, Goebbels, Mao, Pétain, Shah, Trotsky | |
| Women’s political participation | Lack of early support for women’s votes and women members of parliament | Bonham Carter, Suffragettes | |
| Zionism | Support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, opposed by Arab nationalists; later restriction of Jewish immigration into Palestine (a prior government policy), opposed by Zionists | Al-Husseini, Zionist paramilitary groups |
General
- Heyden, Tom, ‘The 10 Greatest Controversies of Winston Churchill’s Career’, BBC News, 2015
- Langworth, Richard M., Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality: What He Actually Did and Said (McFarland, 2017)
- Roberts, Andrew, ‘The State of Churchill’s Reputation Today’, YouTube: International Churchill Society Channel, 2020
- Wynn, Stephen, Churchill’s Flawed Decisions: Errors in Office of the Greatest Briton (Pen and Sword Military, 2020)
Abdication crisis
- Freeman, David, ‘The Uncrowned King: Edward VIII’, The International Churchill Society, 2019
- Larman, Alexander, The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication (Hachette UK, 2020)
- Phillips, Adrian, The King Who Had to Go: Edward VIII, Mrs Simpson and the Hidden Politics of the Abdication Crisis (Biteback Publishing, 2016)
Anti-appeasement
- Bouverie, Tim, Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War (Crown, 2019)
- Faber, David, Munich: The 1938 Appeasement Crisis (Simon & Schuster UK, 2009)
- Parker, R.A.C., Churchill & Appeasement (Pan Macmillan, 2012)
- Phillips, Adrian, Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler: How a British Civil Servant Helped Cause the Second World War (Biteback Publishing, 2019)
- Smith, Colin, England’s Last War Against France: Fighting Vichy 1940-42 (Orion, 2010)
Arab and Kurdish self-determination
- Faulkner, Neil, Lawrence of Arabia’s War: The Arabs, the British and the Remaking of the Middle East in WWI (Yale University Press, 2016)
- Hourani, Albert, A History of the Arab Peoples (Faber & Faber, 2013)
- McDowall, David, A Modern History of the Kurds (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021)
- Paris, Timothy J., Britain, the Hashemites and Arab Rule: The Sherifian Solution (Taylor & Francis, 2004)
Attack on French fleet
- Melton, George, From Versailles to Mers El-Kébir: The Promise of Anglo-French Naval Cooperation, 1919-40 (Naval Institute Press, 2015)
- Smith, Colin, England’s Last War Against France: Fighting Vichy 1940-42 (Orion, 2010)
- Tute, Warren, The Deadly Stroke (Pen & Sword Maritime, 2007)
Bengal famine
- Herman, Arthur, ‘“Churchill’s Secret War”, by Madhusree Mukerjee – The Churchill Project’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, (2017)
- Masani, Zareer, ‘Churchill and the Genocide Myth: Last Word on the Bengal Famine’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2021
- Mukherjee, Janam, Hungry Bengal (Oxford University Press, 2015)
- Stevenson, Richard, Bengal Tiger and British Lion: An Account of the Bengal Famine of 1943 (iUniverse, 2005)
Bombing (non-nuclear)
- Gilbert, Martin, ‘Churchill and Bombing Policy’, International Churchill Society, 2008
- Harmon, Christopher C., ‘“Are We Beasts?” Churchill and the Moral Question of World War II “Area Bombing”’, US Naval War College (U.S. Naval War College Press, 1991)
- Hastings, Max, Bomber Command, Zenith Military Classics (MBI Publishing Company, 2013)
- Overy, Richard, The Bombing War: Europe, 1939-1945 (Penguin Books Limited, 2013)
- Probert, Henry, Bomber Harris: His Life and Times (Pen & Sword Books, 2016)
- Siebert, Detlef, ‘British Bombing Strategy in World War Two’, BBC
Bombing (nuclear)
- Farmelo, Graham, Churchill’s Bomb: How the United States Overtook Britain in the First Nuclear Arms Race (Faber & Faber, 2013)
- Langworth, Richard M., ‘Bombing Japan: Churchill’s View’, RML, 2016
- Rhodes, Richard, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Simon & Schuster, 2012)
- Ruane, Kevin, Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War (Bloomsbury, 2016)
Chemical weapons
- Langworth, Richard M., ‘Churchill and Chemical Warfare’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2015
- Legro, Jeffrey W., Cooperation under Fire: Anglo-German Restraint during World War II (Cornell University Press, 2013)
- Paxman, Jeremy, and Robert Harris, A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare (Random House, 2011)
Dardanelles/Gallipoli
- Bell, Christopher M., Churchill and the Dardanelles (Oxford University Press, 2017)
- Clews, Graham T., Churchill’s Dilemma: The Real Story Behind the Origins of the 1915 Dardanelles Campaign (Praeger, 2010)
- Dockter, Warren, ‘Winston Churchill – Inspired Plan or Tragic Blunder?’, Gallipoli Association, undated
- Gilbert, Martin, ‘What About the Dardanelles?’, The International Churchill Society, 2005
- Ives, William C., ‘The Dardanelles and Gallipoli‘, The International Churchill Society, 2005
Distortion of history
- Clarke, Peter, Mr Churchill’s Profession: Statesman, Orator, Writer (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2013)
- Reynolds, D., In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (Penguin Books Limited, 2005)
Eugenics
- Addison, Paul, ‘Churchill and the Sterilisation Issue’, The International Churchill Society, 2006
- Gilbert, Martin, ‘Churchill and Eugenics’, The International Churchill Society, 2009
- Levine, Philippa, Eugenics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Excessive force
- Addison, Paul, Churchill on the Home Front, 1900–1955 (Faber & Faber, 2013)
- Barclay, Gordon J., ‘Glasgow, 1919: “Churchill Rolled the Tanks” – What Really Happened’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2019
- Langworth, Richard M., ‘Churchill, Women’s Suffrage, and “Black Friday,” November 1910’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2018
- Langworth, Richard M., ‘Tonypandy and Llanelli: Myth or Reality’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2016
- Leeson, D.M., The Black and Tans: British Police and Auxiliaries in the Irish War of Independence, 1920-1921 (OUP Oxford, 2011)
- Shelden, Michael, Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill (Simon & Schuster, 2013)
- Ward, Alan J., ‘Churchill Proceedings – Churchill and the Anglo-Irish War 1919-1922’, The International Churchill Society, 2009
Financial affairs
- Lough, David, No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money (Head of Zeus, 2015)
- Singer, Barry, Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill (ABRAMS, 2012)
Gold standard
- Brown, Ryan, ‘The Burden of Statesmanship: Churchill as Chancellor 1924-1929’, International Churchill Society, 2011
- Catterall, Peter, ‘Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1924–9) and the Return to the Gold Standard’, University of Westminster (Bloomsbury, 2013)
- Keynes, J.M., ‘The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill’, The Economics Network, 1925
Health
- Breckenridge, Carol, ‘Leading Churchill Myths: The Myth of the “Black Dog”’, The International Churchill Society, 2012
- Daniels, Anthony M, and J Allister Vale, ‘Did Sir Winston Churchill Suffer from the “Black Dog”?’, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (SAGE Publications, 2018)
- IMDb, ‘Churchill’s Secret (TV Movie)’, IMDb, 2016 [1953 stroke]
- Mather, John H., ‘“Winston Churchill and the ‘Black Dog’ of Depression” by Wilfred Attenborough’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2016
- McMenamin, Michael, ‘The Myth of Churchill and Alcohol: A Distortion of the Record’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2018
- Vale, Allister, and John Scadding, Winston Churchill’s Illnesses, 1886-1965 (Frontline Books, 2020)
Imperialism
- Jackson, Ashley, The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction (OUP Oxford, 2013)
- James, Lawrence, Churchill and Empire: A Portrait of an Imperialist (Pegasus, 2017)
- Sanghera, Sathnam, Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain (Penguin Books Limited, 2021)
- Toye, Richard, Churchill’s Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made (Pan Macmillan, 2011)
Mau Mau
- Bennett, Huw, Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Kenya Emergency, Cambridge Military Histories (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
- Toye, Richard, Churchill’s Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made (Pan Macmillan, 2011) [see index for Kenya entries]
- Van der Bijl, Nicholas, Mau Mau Rebellion: The Emergency in Kenya, 1952–1956 (Pen & Sword Books, 2017)
Middle East Borders
- Barr, James, A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East (Simon & Schuster UK, 2011)
- Dockter, Warren, Churchill and the Islamic World: Orientalism, Empire and Diplomacy in the Middle East (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015)
- Freeman, David, ‘Midwife to an “Ungrateful Volcano”: Churchill and the Making of Iraq’, The International Churchill Society, 2006
- Meyer, Karl E., and Shareen Blair Brysac, Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East (W. W. Norton, 2009)
- Reguer, Sara, Winston S. Churchill and the Shaping of the Middle East, 1919-1922 (Academic Studies Press, 2020)
- Reid, Walter, Empire of Sand: How Britain Made the Middle East (Birlinn, 2011)
Norway invasion
- Dix, Anthony, The Norway Campaign and the Rise of Churchill 1940 (Pen & Sword Military, 2014)
- Kiszely, John, Anatomy of a Campaign: The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
- Lunde, Henrik O., Hitler’s Pre-Emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940 (Casemate Publishers, 2009)
Race
Remarkably, given the current high-profile nature of the topic of race, there is currently no book dedicated to examining Churchill’s overall views on this.
- Churchill, Winston S., My African Journey (Hodder and Stoughton, 1908)
- Dockter, Warren, Churchill and the Islamic World: Orientalism, Empire and Diplomacy in the Middle East (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015)
- Herman, Arthur, Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age (Arrow, 2009)
- Langworth, Richard M., ‘Hearsay Doesn’t Count: The Truth About Churchill’s “Racist” Epithets’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2020
- Rattansi, Ali, Racism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP Oxford, 2007)
- Toye, Richard, Churchill’s Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made (Pan Macmillan, 2011) [see index entries for ‘race’]
Radical Liberalism
- Addison, Paul, Churchill on the Home Front, 1900–1955 (Faber & Faber, 2013)
- Hill, Malcolm, Churchill, His Radical Decade (Othila Press, 1999)
- Powell, David, The Edwardian Crisis: Britain 1901–14 (Macmillan Education, Limited, 1996)
- Shelden, Michael, Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill (Simon & Schuster, 2013)
Religion
As with race, there is currently no book dedicated to examining Churchill’s overall views of religion.
- Dockter, Warren, Churchill and the Islamic World: Orientalism, Empire and Diplomacy in the Middle East (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015)
- Herman, Arthur, Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age (Arrow, 2009)
- Hillsdale College Churchill Project, ‘Churchill on Islam’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2016
- Sandys, Jonathan, and Wallace Henley, God & Churchill: How the Great Leader’s Sense of Divine Destiny Changed His Troubled World and Offers Hope for Ours (Tyndale House, 2015) [homily by Churchill’s great-grandson]
Self-promotion
- Addison, Paul, Churchill: The Unexpected Hero (Oxford University Press, 2006)
- Toye, Richard, Winston Churchill: A Life in the News (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Sexual allegations
- Brendon, Piers, ‘Churchill’s Secret Mistress?’, Churchill College Cambridge, 2018
- Churchill, Randolph S., Winston S. Churchill: Volume 1: Youth, 1874–1900 (Houghton Mifflin, 1966) [see index entries for ‘Bruce’ and ‘Bruce Pryce’]
- Langworth, Richard M., ‘“Too Easy to Be Good”: The Churchill Marriage and Lady Castlerosse’, Richard M. Langworth, 2018
- Roberts, Andrew, ‘Don’t Fall for It: Churchill Had No Affair with Lady Castlerosse’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2018
Singapore defeat
- Glueckstein, Fred, ‘Churchill and the Fall of Singapore’, International Churchill Society, 2015
- Leasor, James, Singapore: The Battle That Changed the World (House of Stratus, 2001)
- Smith, Colin, Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II (Penguin Books Limited, 2006)
- Thompson, Peter, The Battle for Singapore: The True Story of the Greatest Catastrophe of World War II (Little, Brown Book Group, 2010)
- Warren, Alan, Britain’s Greatest Defeat: Singapore 1942 (Hambledon Continuum, 2007)
Warmongering
- Best, Geoffrey, Churchill and War (Bloomsbury Academic, 2006)
- Lavery, Brian, Churchill Warrior: How a Military Life Guided Winston’s Finest Hours (Casemate Publishers (Ignition), 2017)
- Muller, James W., ed., Churchill as Peacemaker (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Women’s political participation
- BBC, ‘Late Night Line-Up – The Suffragettes’, BBC iPlayer, 1968 [interview with Violet Bonham Carter]
- Langworth, Richard M., ‘Churchill, Women’s Suffrage, and “Black Friday,” November 1910’, The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2018
- Smith, Harold L., The British Women’s Suffrage Campaign 1866-1928 (Taylor & Francis, 2014)
- Van Wingerden, Sophia A., The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866-1928 (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016)
Zionism
- Cohen, Michael J., Churchill and the Jews, 1900-1948 (Taylor & Francis, 2013)
- Gilbert, Martin, Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship (Holt, 2008) [Churchill’s biographer Gilbert was Jewish]
- Makovsky, David, and Michael Makovsky, Churchill’s Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft (Yale University Press, 2007)
- Patterson, David, ‘“A Crime Without a Name” – Churchill, Zionism, & the Holocaust’, The International Churchill Society, 2015