Letters
May 03, 2021
1 minute
Email: info@winstonchurchill.org
Finest Hour 191 “Churchill, Race, and Religion”
PENDER ISLAND, BC—I want to commend your achievement here in pulling off this tricky assignment—the right thing to do at the (“on historical principles”), and it duly confirms, with a whole column of references, that the historic use in Shakespeare, Milton, has the emphasis on ancestry, heredity, and propagation of a supposed “breed”—much more John of Gaunt’s “This blessed isle” speech in than the racial doctrines of our own day; and this historic usage, with its self-consciously elevated diction, is what Churchill usually meant—though he also lapsed sometimes in ways that we would now find offensive.—Peter Clarke
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days