Introduction

This second volume of The Words of Winston Churchill concentrates most on the second half of his career in the House of Commons from April 1933, following up on an early speech that year, as discussed in volume 1. The European situation and the crisis in and beyond Germany is the focus of this volume. This second volume, like the first, focuses on Churchill in Parliament, and his speeches in Hansard allow us to see how his fellow Members of Parliament react to his words. I examine context as well as text. He speaks amongst them. They respond to him and he to them. This book begins in 1933 in the House and ends there and in context in the first half of 1940, a time of crisis, from the ascension of Hitler to and just beyond the appointment of Churchill as Prime Minister. A third volume, Late Churchill: His Language from Crisis to Death, discusses the speeches from the second half of 1940 to 1965, including tributes to Churchill in Parliament concerning the retirement then the death of Churchill.