The World Crisis: 1911-1914

London: Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1923. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is the British first edition, first printing, of the first volume of Winston Churchill's monumental history of The First World War. A quarter of a century before the Second World War endowed him with lasting fame, Winston Churchill played a uniquely critical, controversial, and varied role in the “War to end all wars”. Then, being Churchill, he wrote about it.

The World Crisis was originally published in six volumes between 1923 and 1931, with the first four volumes spanning the war years 1911-1918 and the final two volumes covering the postwar years 1918-1928 (The Aftermath) and the Eastern theatre (The Eastern Front). This first volume (1911-1914) covers the first four years Churchill spent as First Lord of the Admiralty, as well as the beginning of the war.

Though the U.S. first edition of The World Crisis preceded the British, many consider the British edition aesthetically superior, with its larger volumes and shoulder notes summarizing the subject of each page. Unfortunately, the smooth navy cloth of the British first editions proved quite susceptible to wear, the contents prone to spotting and toning. This is a very good overall copy of the first volume, suitable for populating a British first edition set. The blue cloth binding retains superior shelf presentation, with a nicely rounded spine and bright spine gilt, and the binding remains square with sharp corners. We note minor scuffing to the lower front cover, light wear to extremities and the lower rear hinge, and just a hint of outward warp to the front cover fore edge. We find no previous ownership marks apart from a tiny, vintage Croydon bookseller’s sticker affixed to the lower left rear pastedown. Spotting is noted to the page edges and prelims, only occasionally intruding into the blank inner margins of the balance of the text. The errata slip at page 1 confirms second state of the first printing.

In October 1911, aged 36, Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. He entered the post with the brief to change war strategy and ensure the readiness of the world’s most powerful navy. He did both. Even Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener, with whom Churchill had been variously at odds for nearly two decades, told Churchill on his final day as First Lord “Well, there is one thing at any rate they cannot take from you. The Fleet was ready." (The World Crisis: 1915, p.391)

Nonetheless, when Churchill advocated successfully for a naval campaign in the Dardanelles that ultimately proved disastrous, a convergence of factors sealed his political fate. Churchill was scapegoated and forced to resign, leaving the Admiralty in May 1915. Years later, Churchill’s wife, Clementine, recalled to Churchill’s official biographer “I thought he would never get over the Dardanelles; I thought he would die of grief.” (Gilbert, Vol. III, p.473)

By November 1915, Churchill resigned even his nominal Cabinet posts to spend the rest of his political exile as a lieutenant colonel leading a battalion in the trenches at the Front. Before war's end, Churchill was exonerated by the Dardanelles Commission and rejoined the Government, foreshadowing the political isolation and restoration he would experience two decades later leading up to the Second World War. And, of course, Churchill famously returned to the Admiralty in September 1939. Despite Churchill's political recovery, the stigma of the Dardanelles lingered. Hence Churchill had more than just literary and financial compulsion to write his history.

References: Cohen A69.2(I).b, Woods/ICS A31(ab), Langworth p.105