Public History Essay Plan: Title: Winston Churchill: The Making of History's Greatest Briton Overview Winston Spencer Leonard Churchill is remembered by British history as our greatest wartime leader, the man who was called to action and led us to victory. Churchill was even voted in 2002 to be the "greatest Briton ever" with a massive 456,498 out of 1,622,247 votes. However, why do people believe this? How did this image get created? How did the narratives of public history cause us to believe this? British media since 1940 has cultivated a public image of Churchill which leads us to celebrate him as our greatest ever historical figure. In this essay I will investigate the way in which Churchill's historical narrative has been presented as public history across multiple forms of media. This essay will include the analysis of biographies written about Churchill, his image in film and television, beginning with the wartime propaganda of World War II. The famous quote which has been attributed to Churchill that "history will be kind to me, because I intend to write it" is considerable inspiration for pursuing this particular theme for the essay, because Churchill here seems to be suggesting the idea that his greatness in Britain's collective memory will directly flow from his own pen. This causes the question over to what extent a person can write their own legacy? Perhaps what has become public history about Winston Churchill is less factually accurate and more a re-telling of his life story as he wanted it. Otherwise, it might be that Churchill's history was in fact written by the British people, those who would prefer to remember him a certain way and therefore cultivate this ideal image of his leadership. The ultimate question is, how did this image of Churchill in public history get created, and how has it been maintained so effectively to mean that, even decades after his death, we still remember him as history's greatest Briton? BBC 2002 Poll: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/11 november/25/greatbriton s final.shtml
Victory for Churchill as he wins the battle of the Britons Winston Churchill was voted the greatest Briton ever in the much-awaited result of the BBC poll which has seen the nation engaged in passionate debate. In the last six weeks the great debate, which reached its climax in a live studio discussion broadcast on BBC TWO last night (Sunday 24 November), has generated more than one and a half million votes. The final breakdown of votes is as follows: Total votes: 1,622,248 1. Churchill 456,498 2. Brunel 398,526 3. Diana 225,584 4. Darwin 112,496 5. Shakespeare 109,919 Bibliography: - Addison, Paul, Churchill, The Unexpected Hero (Published 24th January 2005 by Oxford University Press, USA) - Best, Geoffrey, Churchill, A Study in Greatness (first published 1st January 2001 by Oxford University Press, USA) - Corrigan, Gordon, Blood Sweat and Arrogance and the Myths of Churchill's War (first published 1st January 2006 by Phoenix Press) - Jenkins, Roy, Churchill (first published 2001 by Pan Macmillan) - Knight, Nigel,