Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age
by: Arthur Herman
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In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of the most universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, and reveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India and the British Empire.
They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain’s most glamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a pious middle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet Arthur Herman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined as the twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead their nations through harrowing trials and two world wars—and become locked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fate of countries, continents, and ultimately an empire.
Gandhi & Churchill reveals how both men were more alike than different, and yet became bitter enemies over the future of India, a land of 250 million people with 147 languages and dialects and 15 distinct religions—the jewel in the crown of Britain’s overseas empire for 200 years.
Over the course of a long career, Churchill would do whatever was necessary to ensure that India remain British—including a fateful redrawing of the entire map of the Middle East and even risking his alliance with the United States during World War Two.
Mohandas Gandhi, by contrast, would dedicate his life to India’s liberation, defy death and imprisonment, and create an entirely new kind of political movement: satyagraha, or civil disobedience. His campaigns of nonviolence in defiance of Churchill and the British, including his famous Salt March, would become the blueprint not only for the independence of India but for the civil rights movement in the U.S. and struggles for freedom across the world.
Now master storyteller Arthur Herman cuts through the legends and myths about these two powerful, charismatic figures and reveals their flaws as well as their strengths. The result is a sweeping epic of empire and insurrection, war and political intrigue, with a fascinating supporting cast, including General Kitchener, Rabindranath Tagore, Franklin Roosevelt, Lord Mountbatten, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. It is also a brilliant narrative parable of two men whose great successes were always haunted by personal failure, and whose final moments of triumph were overshadowed by the loss of what they held most dear.
In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of the most universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, and reveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India and the British Empire.
They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain’s most glamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a pious middle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet Arthur Herman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined as the twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead their nations through harrowing trials and two world wars—and become locked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fate of countries, continents, and ultimately an empire.
Gandhi & Churchill reveals how both men were more alike than different, and yet became bitter enemies over the future of India, a land of 250 million people with 147 languages and dialects and 15 distinct religions—the jewel in the crown of Britain’s overseas empire for 200 years.
Over the course of a long career, Churchill would do whatever was necessary to ensure that India remain British—including a fateful redrawing of the entire map of the Middle East and even risking his alliance with the United States during World War Two.
Mohandas Gandhi, by contrast, would dedicate his life to India’s liberation, defy death and imprisonment, and create an entirely new kind of political movement: satyagraha, or civil disobedience. His campaigns of nonviolence in defiance of Churchill and the British, including his famous Salt March, would become the blueprint not only for the independence of India but for the civil rights movement in the U.S. and struggles for freedom across the world.
Now master storyteller Arthur Herman cuts through the legends and myths about these two powerful, charismatic figures and reveals their flaws as well as their strengths. The result is a sweeping epic of empire and insurrection, war and political intrigue, with a fascinating supporting cast, including General Kitchener, Rabindranath Tagore, Franklin Roosevelt, Lord Mountbatten, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. It is also a brilliant narrative parable of two men whose great successes were always haunted by personal failure, and whose final moments of triumph were overshadowed by the loss of what they held most dear.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Churchill, the racist and imperialist and Gadhi, the humanist
I know that Churchill has been voted the man of century (20th century) and the savior of western civilization. All this may be true but it is also true-and this book confirms it-that he was a racist and an imperialist of the first order. He did not think that the oriental races,as he called them, were capable of self-governance. His attitude seems somewhat similar to American slave owners. The author tries to draw parallels between lives and goals of Churchill and Gandhi. Parallels that do not always ... Read More
Rating: 
- Herman's whitewashing of the British record on famine
Ignore my rating--I didn't want to rate the entire book, but comment on one aspect of it that bothered me--the astonishingly benign attitude the author displays towards the record of famine under British rule during the late 1800's.That, of course, is not the subject of the book, but he does touch on it as he must.
First, I am comparing Herman's account to that of Mike Davis in "Late Victorian Holocausts".Davis paints a convincing and harrowing portrait of British callousness and blind ... Read More
Rating: - Good on facts but poor on repercussions
This is a fascinating account of the relationship between India and Britain for the first half of the twentieth century through the lives of these two countries greatest men. However, it failed to hit the mark in terms of truly explaining Gandhi's role in India's independence and on Indian psyche and also Churchill's imperialist legacy in our modern world.
The author has certainly done a good job in reconstructing the trials and tribulations of both men. He has proved without doubt that these ... Read More
Rating: - Interesting for another reason
Most people will read "Gandhi and Churchill" for the author's detailed study of how the two men compared and contrasted with each other. Remember the exam papers that asked you to compare and contrast two historical periods or two--whatever?Arthur Herman uses the compare and contrast framework to anchor hisview that under the skin, Gandhi and Churchill were more alike than you would expect if you put the skinny, bare-chested man and his rotund, English-dressed adversary side by side. Both men were products ... Read More
Rating: 
-"An Epic That Must Be Read"
"Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age", Arthur Herman, Bantam Books, NY2008. ISBN 978-0-553-80463-8, HC 609/722. Notes 50 pgs., Ref., 12 pgs., Index 34 pgs., Glossary 3 pgs., Dates 3 pgs.,9 ¼" x 6 ¼". Inveiglements include 35 glossy B/W photos and 3 schema maps of Africa & India.
This detailed, lengthy chronicle, thoughtfully divided into 31 chapters, is brilliantly written in fast-moving style by best-selling author Arthur Herman.It's a narrative ... Read More
- Churchill, the racist and imperialist and Gadhi, the humanistI know that Churchill has been voted the man of century (20th century) and the savior of western civilization. All this may be true but it is also true-and this book confirms it-that he was a racist and an imperialist of the first order. He did not think that the oriental races,as he called them, were capable of self-governance. His attitude seems somewhat similar to American slave owners. The author tries to draw parallels between lives and goals of Churchill and Gandhi. Parallels that do not always ... Read More
- Herman's whitewashing of the British record on famineIgnore my rating--I didn't want to rate the entire book, but comment on one aspect of it that bothered me--the astonishingly benign attitude the author displays towards the record of famine under British rule during the late 1800's.That, of course, is not the subject of the book, but he does touch on it as he must.
First, I am comparing Herman's account to that of Mike Davis in "Late Victorian Holocausts".Davis paints a convincing and harrowing portrait of British callousness and blind ... Read More
- Good on facts but poor on repercussionsThis is a fascinating account of the relationship between India and Britain for the first half of the twentieth century through the lives of these two countries greatest men. However, it failed to hit the mark in terms of truly explaining Gandhi's role in India's independence and on Indian psyche and also Churchill's imperialist legacy in our modern world.
The author has certainly done a good job in reconstructing the trials and tribulations of both men. He has proved without doubt that these ... Read More
- Interesting for another reasonMost people will read "Gandhi and Churchill" for the author's detailed study of how the two men compared and contrasted with each other. Remember the exam papers that asked you to compare and contrast two historical periods or two--whatever?Arthur Herman uses the compare and contrast framework to anchor hisview that under the skin, Gandhi and Churchill were more alike than you would expect if you put the skinny, bare-chested man and his rotund, English-dressed adversary side by side. Both men were products ... Read More
-"An Epic That Must Be Read""Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age", Arthur Herman, Bantam Books, NY2008. ISBN 978-0-553-80463-8, HC 609/722. Notes 50 pgs., Ref., 12 pgs., Index 34 pgs., Glossary 3 pgs., Dates 3 pgs.,9 ¼" x 6 ¼". Inveiglements include 35 glossy B/W photos and 3 schema maps of Africa & India.
This detailed, lengthy chronicle, thoughtfully divided into 31 chapters, is brilliantly written in fast-moving style by best-selling author Arthur Herman.It's a narrative ... Read More
