Review of
Visual Summary of Key Events From the Book Hero of the Empire, by Candace Millard
One out of five stars
The public life
of Winston Churchill is both long and extremely complex, ill-suited to be
explained in a few words and pictures. His role as British Prime Minister
during World War II would take several thick volumes to explain.
While his early
years in India and what was to become South Africa were not as complex, they
are still significant, as they thrust him into the public eye and propelled him
to a seat in Parliament. Therefore, it is almost impossible for any short book
to adequately the events to the reader.
This summary is
constructed from a set of images with short sentences of explanatory text and
fails to deliver a miracle of explanation. There is mention of the First and
Second Boer War, but no explanation as to the reason for the two wars. If the
reader does not know history, they will be in the dark as to what they were
about.
For example,
there is a page where the image is of an artillery piece and a tree and the
caption is “1880-81 First Boer War.” No mention as to where it took place or
who the protagonists were. It would have been a dramatic improvement if the
image would have been of Southern Africa with the zone of fighting colored. A
second sentence giving the cause would have dramatically improved the
understanding.
A lot of the history of Churchill was made in the
years between 1910 and 1940, yet the gap between those years is complete in
this summary. The entry for 1910 is about the creation of the Union of South
Africa and the entry for 1940 is about Churchill being named British Prime
Minister for World War II.
The caption for
this entry is incorrect. It says, “ May 1940, Churchill becomes Prime Minister
of the UK on the eve of World War II.” In fact, World War II in Europe started
on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and Great Britain declared war
on Germany two days later. Churchill was named Prime Minister as a consequence
of the collapse of the western front in France and Belgium. Therefore, the
caption is off by nine eventful months. This is an inexcusable error.
This visual summary
gives very little of the history of Churchill, what the reader sees is
generally his successes. There is nothing about his failures during World War I
or the interwar years where he was often considered a crank outsider.
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