Winston Churchill and the Civil War: Why an Iconic Statesman Was Fascinated by America’s Greatest Conflict and What He Thought About It
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Winston Churchill was one of the greatest statesmen of modern times, famous for his leadership of Britain in the Second World War and for forging its victorious alliance with the United States. Churchill was also a renowned orator, writer and historian. Half American himself, he was fascinated from childhood with our greatest conflict, the Civil War. During his long life, he traveled widely, visiting the War’s battlefields and analyzing its main events and leading personalities, from Abraham Lincoln to Robert E. Lee.
Churchill’s understanding of the Civil War deeply influenced his view of the United States and its people and of the nature of war itself. And always interested in the “what might have been” of history, one of his most intriguing articles was entitled “If Lee Had NOT Won the Battle of Gettysburg.”
Join Lee Pollock, Trustee and Advisor to the Board of The International Churchill Society, as he explores Churchill’s fascination with the Civil War and what it reveals both about his own view of history and about the War itself.
Lee Pollock is a Chicago-based writer and public speaker on the life and times of Winston
Churchill. He has served as a Trustee and Advisor to the Board and Executive Director of The
International Churchill Society, founded in 1968 to preserve Churchill’s legacy for future
generations.
During his tenure with the Society, Lee spearheaded the development of the National Churchill Library in Washington, DC, the leading center for Churchill scholarship in the United States. His responsibilities also included publishing the Journal of Winston Churchill Finest Hour, organizing the annual International Churchill Conference and supporting work by leading historians. He also initiated the annual Winston Churchill National Leadership Award with the U.S. House of Representatives.
A native of Montreal, Lee graduated from McGill University and holds a master’s degree from
the University of Chicago. He is a Fellow of the National Churchill Museum and a Director of
The Chicago Architecture Foundation. Lee is also a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed contributor on
Winston Churchill.
Lee has spoken about the life and times of Winston Churchill at museums, universities,
government agencies, clubs and other organizations throughout the United States, Canada and Britain.
