On Arthur Herman

When you read history or biography books, They are usually focusing on one historical figures

It is very hard to write about two or more figures in a biography, unless war history, ancient history etc


“Bully Pupit” -Doris Goodwin
TR and Taft, both became president , but TR was first, Taft was later
Did a great job


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Arthur Herman is my favorite

He writes about historical figures that are in the same time period and usually oppose each other


1917: Lenin and Wilson
• founding of communist movement
• Wilson ->academicidealist ,14 points

Both are perfectionist, both are working for their belief of an ideal, but one has a negative impact, one has a positive impact



Gandhi and Churchill
• India was under UK rule in late 1800s, early 1900s
• The progression of events lead to these two colliade
• How Gandhi want to do the nonviolence movement , how Churchill (if in power) would not let go of India

Churchill’ s belief (1933)
• India was “unsuited to democracy” because of its cultural backwardness and wide spread illiteracy
• Many suspect the real driver is “racial”




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Stark contrast between the two and very impactful



The ending of “Gandhi and Churchill”

Two men, born five years and four thousands miles apart. Meet once, when they were both unknown

One goes to save his country
One goes to win a world war


Winston Churchill spent his life trying to re-create the imperial grandeur that had been he touchstone of his father’s generation

Gandhi too lived a dream. He had conceived a dream that he saw as a law student in London. An India as the spiritual home of the mankind , creating a world of spiritual harmony and growth . He did free India from UK, but he left for India was in pieces

Gandhi’s death did more to bring peace in India compare to when he was alive



It does not matter how hard Winston tries, he could not restore Britain’s pride and self-confidence in the world



Above all
• they believed that personal and political were inseparable
• Gandhi spent his life insisting that Indian self-rule and the rule of the self were the same thing , that people who could not do the one where incapable of the other
• Churchill believed that a strong nation was the necessary product of strong people,
◦ As a nation or a race


To Churchill and Ghandi (late Victorian
Nation=Race

Both men failed to realize that “sheer will” is not enough to change how others see the world
• Gandhi in prison
• Winston with speech


In their 40 years of battle, both men enjoyed victories and defeat

The world did not progress to either of these two men’s dreams