In Churchill: The Unexpected Hero, Paul Addison, director of the Centre for Second World War Studies at the University of Edinburgh, tells the story of how Winston S. Churchill took his seat in the pantheon of historical heroes. That it was unexpected that he did so in light of his pre-World War II career is a point that can easily be lost in the selectiveness of historical memory. Addison has made his theme the battle over Churchill's reputation, a battle in which Churchill himself was one of the most energetic combatants, and a battle in which offensives and counteroffensives are launched even today. Addison's treatment of “the epic struggle between Churchill and his critics” (1) reminds us that in the fray of politics there are always multiple views, and no one has the benefit of a purely positive public image. Churchill was no exception. A political career of more than sixty years is bound to be marked, even in the best of circumstances, by ebbs and flows of fortune, jealousies, dislikes, and even hatreds. Churchill's career spanned a period of tremendous challenges both domestically and internationally. Such a career was bound to excite impassioned responses, especially when its author was a man possessed of such extraordinary qualities, a man who actively tried to remain at the forefront of political affairs and who was not afraid of giving offense when he thought he was right.

Addison notes that Churchill's reputation underwent a massive and surprising transformation: “How did a man who for decades had been written off as erratic and untrustworthy come to be acclaimed as the `saviour of his country’?” (246). Churchill, he writes, won two great victories in the Second World War: a victory over Nazi Germany and a victory over his critics. Churchill's reputation had charted a course from the crushing depths of Gallipoli to the breathtaking peaks of Britain's “finest hour” in 1940. Such a dramatic swing gave rise to competing portraits of the man: “there grew up in Churchill's lifetime two contrasting and incompatible mythologies. The personality depicted by the negative myths of 1900 to 1940 was remarkably different from the great man as he was generally perceived to be in the forties and fifties” (5). Yet, Addison notes, Churchill's victory over his reputation was never complete. Some remained who could not forget or forgive what they viewed as his past faults, mistakes, and even wickedness.

The first forty years of Churchill's political life were marked by much criticism. The list of grievances against him was extensive—that he was a bloody minded warmonger, a strategic bungler who had cost the lives of thousands, a cruel oppressor of the lower classes, a shameless self-promoter, and an unprincipled political opportunist, among others. Addison has done a very good job of marking off the boundaries of the disputed territories in Churchill's historical career. One great value of Addison's work is that it portrays the very real political difficulties Churchill faced, out of which no one could emerge unblemished. Churchill took fire from both the Left and the Right of the political spectrum, and sometimes from both directions at once. Yet it remains clear that even his fiercest enemies could hardly deny the irrepressible energy and broad genius he brought to bear on whatever issue came before him.

The unexpected turn in Churchill's reputation began in 1940, when a man thought to be thoroughly discredited and mired in political oblivion emerged as a national hero. But “Churchill did not suddenly turn into a different person at the age of 65” (5). Addison argues that Churchill himself changed little in the course of his long career. Perceptions of him were transformed, due both to historical circumstance and Churchill's own campaign, waged through oratory, journalism, and history, to replace old criticisms with his own understanding of himself as a man of destiny. But would Churchill's version endure? Addison observes that reputations such as his rarely go unchallenged: “The heroes of one generation can be unmade by the next, and it remained to be seen whether Churchill would win the battle of the history books” (2). The conflict over whether Churchill's exalted reputation is deserved or the result of self-promotion and loyalist mythology has continued long after his death. Addison suggests that what has emerged is a healthy middle position: one that recognizes that much of the Churchill legend is true but is willing to admit that he was not always right, that he had his share of frailties and flaws. While Churchill's image may have fallen slightly from the immense heights it once occupied, Addison believes that this has worked in his favor. He remains a hero, his heroism more real because it emerges from a life of both sun and shadow.

A question that has always surrounded Churchill is whether he was a man of conviction or was simply driven by his own egotism and ambition. Addison's treatment suggests that it is not easy to draw a hard line between these options. Churchill's sense of self was part of what drove him to both his greatest successes and his greatest failures. If he had not been possessed of such volcanic confidence, would he have been ready for the great trial of the war—either in terms of political position or personality? Yet, as Addison notes, Churchill's ambition never turned toward despotic rule. Even amid the stresses of the war, when Churchill's power was at it greatest, his action was tempered by a devotion to the principles of British government: “Churchill never succumbed to the illusion that he was bigger than the political system … he was perfectly serious in describing himself, during the Second World War, as a servant of Parliament” (246). Churchill's ambition to play a great role in history was clearly linked to a vision of himself, but his understanding of that role was inextricably linked to the defense of justice and freedom.

In January 1965, Churchill's funeral train passed through Oxford station before a hushed and reverent crowd. His death had been the occasion of an outpouring of national and worldwide sentiment, a “chorus of praise more prolonged than any other democratic statesman had ever received” (245). Perhaps Churchill's reputation was then at its peak, but it has not been relegated to the shelves of history. It has been constantly revisited, paged through, and reevaluated. It is right that it should be so: if the world has not fundamentally changed, Churchill's legacy is still worth considering; if the challenges he faced are still among the possibilities for us, it is valuable to reflect on the character of the man who overcame them. That Churchill was one of history's most remarkable figures there can be no doubt. Addison's reminder that his emergence as a hero was unexpected places Churchill back within the ebb and flow of real politics and hard choices, making the legend more approachable. Churchill: The Unexpected Hero is an excellent biography that makes a valuable contribution to Churchill scholarship as well as providing fruitful ground for the consideration of the mysteries of history and heroism.