Boris Johnson on Churchill and history 2014-2020. The Times They Are A Changin’
Boris Johnson has been opining on history, and Churchill, in a piece for the Daily Telegraph (15th June). In 2014 he published a book on Churchill.
I’ve looked at both so you don’t have to.
His 2014 volume as he more or less admits is not a serious history- indeed he makes it clear that he is not an historian-but simply an attempt to re-cement Churchill’s status as a national hero in a Britain that might either have forgotten about or simply doesn’t agree this is the case if it does recall him.
Johnson is much better at journalism than he is at being a politician, so his writing is always entertaining in a sort of full on BS way.
In 2014 he agrees that Churchill’s reputation cannot be taken for granted. He also notes that understanding history can be a matter of dispute. He argues that:
‘he is the resounding human rebuttal to all Marxist historians who think history is the story of vast and impersonal economic forces. The point of the Churchill Factor is that one man can make all the difference’
However by 2020 in the Telegraph non-historian Johnson has changed his mind that history can be a matter of dispute:
‘we need to address the present, not attempt to rewrite the past- and that means we cannot and must not get sucked into never-ending debate about which well-known historical figure is sufficiently pure or politically correct to remain in public view’.
That of course was precisely what is his 2014 book on Churchill was doing.
Because history while fact based is also the subject of interpretation and debate Johnson has also changed his view on Churchill and agrees that in a long career he expressed all kinds of views that are ‘totally unacceptable to modern ears’. That sounds a bit like Johnson making a reference to racism. At least he fought the Nazis, Johnson notes.
There are think we can agree…
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