Perspective

The perspective of Winston Churchill: A Penguin Life is exclusively that of its author, John Keegan. Born in 1934, Keegan grows up, as he makes clear, thinking of Churchill as a reactionary Conservative who, while a great wartime leader, makes a poor peacetime Prime Minister. He notes that his perspective on Churchill changes substantially when he comes to the United States and starts to appreciate the United States' people's admiration for him, particularly when he hears a record of Churchill's wartime speeches.

In 1960, Keegan is made a lecturer in Military History at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where Churchill also attended school, and helps to educated officers for the British Army for twenty-six years, becoming a senior lecturer. After 1986, Keegan leaves the academy and becomes a Defense correspondent and writes for National Review Online in the 2000s. Keegan has written twenty-three books to date. Due to Keegan's background as...