It seems impossible now to imagine Great Britain during World War Two being led by anyone other than Winston Churchill.  It was not impossible at the time, however, as Jonathan Schneer will show in this presentation.  Moreover, despite a legend to the contrary that has been burnished over many years, Churchill had to manage a War Cabinet most of whose members never ceased to snipe at one another and at him, even as they faced the common foe.

Jonathan Schneer is the modern British historian at Georgia Tech.  He has written seven books, including London 1900: the Imperial Metropolis, The Thames: England’s River, and The Balfour Declaration: the Origins of Arab Israeli Conflict (which won a 2010 National Jewish Book Award and was declared a book of the year by the New Statesman and the Irish Times), as well as many articles, essays and reviews in scholarly and popular publications.  His presentation at the Washington History Seminar will be based upon his most recent book, Ministers at War: Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet.

The Washington History Seminar is sponsored jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. See www.wilsoncenter.org/collection/washington-history-seminar for the schedule, speakers, topics, and dates as well as webcasts and podcasts. The seminar thanks the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for their support.