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  3. Historians and many members of the public already know that Winston Churchill

Historians and many members of the public already know that Winston Churchill

游客2023-12-28  23
问题    Historians and many members of the public already know that Winston Churchill often took high-stakes gambles in his political life. Some, like the disastrous Dardanelles campaign — an audacious attempt he masterminded at the Admiralty to seize the straits of Gallipoli and knock Turkey out of the first world war — he got wrong. Others, notably his decision as prime minister in 1940 to hold out against Nazi Germany until America came to rescue Britain, he got spectacularly right. But the extent to which Churchill was a gambler in other spheres of his life has tended not to catch his biographers’ attention.
   Two new books attempt to fill this gap. The first is "No More Champagne" by David Lough, a private-banker-turned-historian who looks at Churchill’s personal finances during the ups and downs of his career. Mr. Lough has trawled through Churchill’s personal accounts and found that he was as much a risk-taker when it came to his money as he was when he was making decisions at the Admiralty or in Downing Street.
   Although Churchill was descended from the Dukes of Marlborough, his parents had "very little money on either side" — though that never stopped them living the high life. Neither did it hamper the young Churchill; he spent wildly on everything from polo ponies to Havana cigars, a habit he picked up as a war correspondent in Cuba.
   It is no wonder, then, that Churchill spent most of his life leaping from one cash flow crisis to another, being perennially behind with his suppliers’ bills. Another new book, "Winston Churchill Reporting", by Simon Read, an American journalist, looks at one of the ways Churchill eventually paid some of them: writing. Mr. Read investigates how Churchill went from a young army officer cadet to being Britain’s highest-earning war correspondent by the age of 25. It was the extent to which the young reporter was willing to take risks on battlefields across the world that marked out his columns from those of his contemporaries.
   Both books manage to tell their tales of Churchill the adventurer and gambler elegantly. And for a financial biography, Mr. Lough’s is a surprising page-turner. But the two authors only briefly link their assessments of Churchill’s personality to the important decisions he made in office. Although their stories are worth telling, they have left bigger questions about Churchill to other historians.
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答案    温斯顿-丘吉尔(Winston Churchill)经常在政治生涯中冒险豪赌，这一点史学家和不少公众都有所了解。有些赌局，他押错了注。比如达达尼尔海峡(Dardanelles)战役，这是丘吉尔在海军部大胆策划的一次军事行动，目的是占领加利波利海峡(Gallipoli)，迫使土耳其退出第一次世界大战，结果损失惨重。有些赌局，他大获全胜。典型代表是在1940年作为英国首相坚持抵抗纳粹德国直到美国出手援助。但是，在生活的其他方面，丘吉尔赌博的成分有多大，却鲜有传记作家关注。
   最近的两部新书旨在填补这一空白。第一部是《莫饮香槟》(No More Champagne)，其作者是戴维-洛(David Lough)。这位私人银行家转行的历史学家分析了丘吉尔跌宕起伏的职业生涯中的个人财务状况。梳理丘吉尔的个人账户情况后，作者发现丘吉尔在财务方面和在海军部或唐宁街做决策时一样，敢于承担风险。
   虽然丘吉尔是马尔巴罗公爵后裔，双亲却“都没什么钱”，不过这从不妨碍他们享受上流社会的生活。年轻的丘吉尔也没受什么影响。他花起钱来大手大脚，无论是打马球的小马，还是哈瓦那雪茄，他都毫不吝啬。抽雪茄是他在古巴当战地记者时养成的习惯。
   这就难怪丘吉尔一生大部分时间都是刚摆脱现金危机，又陷入财务困境，常年无法偿付账单。在另一部新书《温斯顿-丘吉尔报告》 (Winston Churchill Reporting)中，美国记者西蒙-里德(Simon Read)找到了丘吉尔最终偿还部分债务的一个路径：写作。里德通过调查展现了丘吉尔如何在年仅25岁的时候，就从年轻的军校士官生成长为英国收入最高的战地记者。这位年轻记者甘愿以身犯险奔赴世界各地的战场，让自己的专栏在同行中脱颖而出。
   两部作品都精心讲述了丘吉尔作为冒险家和绅士赌徒的故事。就金融传记而言，戴维-洛的著作更为引人入胜，令人叹服。但是两位作者都仅是简单地把对丘吉尔个性的判断与其在政坛所做的重要决策联系起来。尽管故事颇为精彩，但也把有关丘吉尔的更多疑问留给了其他历史学家去评说。
解析    本文是选自《经济学人》(The Economist)的一篇书评，原文标题为“Winston Churchill’s Other Lives”(丘吉尔的多面人生)。文章旨在推介两部有关丘吉尔的传记《莫饮香槟：丘吉尔与金钱》和《温斯顿·丘吉尔报告：年轻战地记者历险记》。书评作者以大众熟知的丘吉尔政治豪赌为例，开篇点出其冒险家精神，并以此为主线串联两部传记的内容，包括丘吉尔在个人财务方面大进大出、敢于承担风险，作为战地记者敢于以身犯险、终于成名立万的传奇经历。文章结尾处对两部传记的优缺点进行了较为综合、客观的评价。
   《经济学人》是一本新闻和意见杂志，面向具有一定经济基础、受过良好教育的高端读者群体。《经济学人》的书评属于报刊书评，与专业书评有所区别，其功能主要是面向大众推介文学、社科、科普、经济类书籍，旨在激发读者的阅读欲望，风格往往兼具严肃性与通俗性、商业性与文化性、思想性与客观性。
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