History of the English Speaking Peoples cover

A History of the English Speaking Peoples is a four-volume history of Britain and the other English speaking nations, written by Winston Churchill, covering the period from the Roman conquest of Britain (55 BC) to the beginning of World War I (1914). Image File history File links History of the English Speaking Peoples cover This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by the publisher of the book. ... Image File history File links History of the English Speaking Peoples cover This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by the publisher of the book. ... One of the most famous quotations about history and the value of studying history, by Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, reads: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ... The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an British statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... Roman invasion of Britain: Britain was the target of invasion by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire several times during its history. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 100s BC 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC - 50s BC - 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC 0s BC Years: 60 BC 59 BC 58 BC 57 BC 56 BC 55 BC 54 BC 53 BC 52... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Churchill was a great British patriot with a love of history and a firm belief in the trans-Atlantic alliance between Britain and the United States, so it was natural for him to turn his hand to a history of both nations. Churchill began the history during the 1930s, during his so-called "wilderness years" when he was not in government. Work was interrupted in 1939 when the Second World War broke out and Churchill was appointed Prime Minister. After the war finished in 1945, Churchill was busy, first writing his history of that conflict, and then as Prime Minister again between 1951 and 1955, and so it was not until the late 1950s, when Churchill was in his late 70s, that he was able to finish the work. // Events and trends The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... // Events January-March January 2 - End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... A prime minister may be either: chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events and trends This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. ...

The quality of the work deteriorates as it progresses. The early volumes provide a very readable and balanced coverage of history, but in the later volumes, only completed when he was over 80, Churchill concentrated more and more on subjects that interested him, notably devoting a full one third of the last volume to the military minutiae of the American Civil War. Social history, the agricultural revolution, and the industrial revolution hardly get a mention. Clement Attlee modestly suggested the work should have been titled "Things in history that interested me". The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the... Social history is an area of historical study considered by some to be a social science that attempts to view historical evidence from the point of view of developing social trends. ... In the Earths history there have been a number of agricultural revolutions. ... The Industrial Revolution was the major technological, socioeconomic and cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th century resulting from the replacement of an economy based on manual labour to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture. ... The Right Honourable Sir Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. ...

The four volumes are:

• The Birth of Britain
• The New World
• The Age of Revolution
• The Great Democracies

In the early 1970s, the BBC produced a series of twenty six fifty-minute plays loosely based around Churchill's work and entitled Churchill's People. The quality of the productions was judged to be so poor that Head of Drama Shaun Sutton declared them untransmittable. However, so much publicity had already been put in place surrounding the broadcasts that they were forced to go ahead, with much critical mauling and low viewing figures. Following this experience, the BBC rarely produced any drama series longer than thirteen episodes, to prevent such a long-running embarrassment being repeated. The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ... Corporate logo of the British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national public service broadcaster of the United Kingdom (see British television). ... Cathy Come Home, a 1966 entry into The Wednesday Play anthology series, voted the best drama and second highest programme overall in the British Film Institutes 2000 survey of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century. ... Shaun Alfred Graham Sutton OBE (born October 14, 1919 in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom; died May 14 2004 in Norfolk, England, United Kingdom) was a British television writer, director, producer and executive, who worked in the medium for nearly forty years from the 1950s to the 1990s. ...

See also

• History of England