• DOI:10.1017/S0080440101000160
• Corpus ID: 153860359

CHURCHILL AND THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY

@article{Ball2001CHURCHILLAT,
  title={CHURCHILL AND THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY},
  author={Stuart R. Ball},
  journal={Transactions of the Royal Historical Society},
  year={2001},
  volume={11},
  pages={307 - 330}
}

• S. Ball
• Published 1 December 2001
• History
• Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

Abstract THE words ‘Churchill’ and ‘party’ lie in uneasy company. Winston Churchill is regarded as the least orthodox and party-minded of all those who stood in the front rank of British politics during the twentieth century, always navigating by his own compass. This view is shaped by Churchill’s remarkable egotism and the well-known incidents of his career: the two changes of party allegiance, the coalitionism of 1917–22, the rebellious ‘wilderness’ years of the 1930s, and the premiership almost above party in 1940–5. It has been reinforced by the preponderance of biography in the writing about Churchill, and especially by those which regard him as a ‘great man’. Churchill tends to be removed from his political context and separated from his peers, and there is a reluctance to see him in any conventional light. As a result, by far the most neglected aspect of Churchill’s life has been his party political role, and in particular his relationship with the Conservative party.