Winston Churchill is known for saving the West from Hitler, yet his earlier years as a politician were more complicated. He was  relatively unpopular during WWI, then became a lone voice against Hitler in the 1930s. During this period of political exile, Churchill devoted the bulk of his energy towards writing Marlborough: His Life and Times, a biography of his illustrious ancestor, John Churchill Marlborough. 

In this episode, Ari discusses with Aaron MacLean how Churchill's writings informed his later political decisions. Marlborough easily could have been the work of an irrelevant ex-cabinet official was, in fact, a final act of contemplative preparation before Churchill’s own heroic phase. How did this investigation of the dilemmas of statesmanship inform Churchill’s own deeds and speeches during WWII? How did the world of the 17th and 18th centuries, driven by questions of dynastic succession and the European balance of power, speak to (or contrast with) the total war of ideologies and nations in which Churchill would wage his struggle?

Aaron MacLean serves as legislative director and foreign policy advisor to Senator Tom Cotton.