Mr. Churchill in the White House

May 27, 2024
Historian Schmuhl (The Glory and the Burden) takes a novel approach to exploring mid-20th-century diplomatic relations between America and Britain in this winning history of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s many visits with presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. These frequent, weeks-long stays are without historical parallel, especially the 113 total number of days Churchill and FDR spent under the same roof. Schmuhl tracks how Churchill’s relentless but charming advocacy for America to align itself with British interests forged intimate, if complicated, friendships between the leaders that brought the two nations together into a “special relationship” (a phrase coined by Churchill, which he was also relentless in promulgating). The character portraits Schmuhl draws are vivid and transfixing as the leaders by turns cozy up and butt heads, especially FDR and Churchill, whom Schmuhl describes as each “a star of brightness which needed its own unimpeded orbit.” Both were storytellers (Churchill’s daughter Mary observed that this quality made FDR a perplexing combo of fun and tedious: “I must confess he makes me laugh & he rather bores me”), and Schmuhl effectively shows how yarn-spinning between friends and political myth-making blurred together in their relationship (both men particularly enjoyed recounting an anecdote about how FDR burst in on Churchill in the bath to tell him he’d come up with a name for the “United Nations”). WWII history buffs will be delighted.