"Lukacs convincingly portrays a leader of an empire in irreversible decline and a towering, if flawed, hero of our time."—Publishers Weekly

In previous works, John Lukacs told the story of Winston Churchill's titanic struggle with Adolf Hitler in the early days of World War II. Now, he turns his attention to the man himself, the workings of his historical imagination, and his successes and failures as a visionary statesman.

Chapter by chapter, Lukacs assesses Churchill's vital relationships with Stalin, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower; his complex, farsighted political vision concerning the coming of WWII and the Cold War; his abilities as a historian looking backward into the origins of the conflicts of which he was so much a part; and the often contradictory ways in which he has been perceived by critics and admirers alike. In addition, Lukacs describes his three days spent in London attending Churchill's funeral in 1965.

"Superb…[a] tour de force."—Foreign Affairs

"Lukacs' ability to meld the scholarly with the popular is much in evidence here."—Booklist