The Reverend Dr James Woodward

The Revd Dr James W Woodward

Books reviewed by James Woodward

Easter Holiday Reading 2004

Andrew Roberts is one of the most intelligent of modern historians. He's the author of the prize-winning biography of Lord Salisbury and more recently, the highly acclaimed book, which looks at Napoleon and Wellington. In this book Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership Roberts is part of the revival of the practice of writing history by studying the lives of great men. His clever and intriguing choice of two contemporaries who lived their public lives in opposition to each other is a stimulating and enriching read. It is extraordinary to consider two utterly contrasting politicians and human beings who, between 1940 and 1945, were both national icons during the world's bloodiest of conflicts.

The first half of the book takes the lives of the two men up to 1939, showing how both had a strong sense of destiny and mission. Both men also had compelling powers of oratory and a carefully contrived political persona built around props (Churchill's cigar and homburg hat, Hitler's plain uniform); hide-away homes (Chartwell and the Berghof) and careful public relations. The second half of the book brings out their major differences during the war. Inevitably, Churchill's people management skills and ability to listen to advice won out over Hitler's control-freakery and over reliance on sycophants.

However, don't expect too much of this book. Robert's lets himself down with some strange and intemperate judgments. Of course it's a style, which makes for a lively read, but he (and us) need to be very careful about sweeping judgements. For example, he describes vegetarianism as a perversion and is sometime too dismissive of the real and significant criticisms of Churchill.

I had hoped for a more sophisticated analysis of the dynamics of leadership, but Roberts tells this story in a way, which is relevant and important for politics, economics and Europe. In an age where there are serious threats to peace Roberts argues that in order to combat hostile leaders and terrorists we in the West must understand their appeal - and draw on Churchill's example to find strength to defeat them. And for our own leaders we need always, surely, to examine and re-examine the way that they take decisions for us.

And lessons for those of us who find ourselves in very minor positions of heading up an organisation? Here are a few. First, getting the balance between the detail of work and the wider picture is a constant struggle. Attention to both is necessary. Second, people of different shapes and kinds project onto leaders a range of fears, insecurities and utterly unrealistic expectations. Third, and a reality familiar to us all, communication is a complex business! Whenever one speaks the process of hearing, interpretation and judgment is a wonderful mixture of the objective and subjective.

I finally got round to reading Jenny Uglow's history of the 18th century inventors The Lunar Men, the friends who made the future. It's a long book of over 520 pages but well worth persevering with. In the mid 18th century, three men - Erasmus Darwin, a doctor, Matthew Boulton, a Birmingham metal-goods manufacturer and the porcelain man Josiah Wedgwood - were at the centre of a society that met in Birmingham on the Monday nearest to each full moon (so they had enough light to get home by in the evening) for, as Darwin put it "A little philosophical laughing".

The group included James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen, and many others. Together, they classified plants and isolated gases, they built clocks and telescopes, they flew in hot air balloons and invented machines that could speak, performed tricks with magnets and dreamt up recipes for disappearing ink. Many of them were self-taught, some were dissenters and radicals - all were ingenious.

Jenny Uglow packs every page of this wonderful book with riveting information about this group of titans who together precipitated 18th century Britain into the modern world. Their qualities of vision were allied to a cool and practical determination to succeed in all their undertakings and a triumphant entrepreneurial talent. Life was a constant progression, which, in Wedgwood's words, they found joyful, as one after another they pushed back boundaries in their quest for perfection.

The emergence of Birmingham as the centre of the industrial enlightenment was no coincidence. It had been strong for Parliament against the King in the civil wars, and remained a haven for Quakers, non-conformists and dissenters, men who felt none of the constraints that limited thought and action in the established Church. Part of the strength of Jenny Uglow's narrative is the way it which it demonstrates that the Lunar men were able to combine a thirst for knowledge with an enthusiasm to put their new discoveries to commercial use.

The quality of this book is breathtaking. Uglow manages her material with wonderful skill. Read it - I promise - you will not be disappointed.

James Woodward