Charmed Life: the Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon

Download Charmed Life: the Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : William Collins
ISBN 13 : 9780008127633
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (276 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Charmed Life: the Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon by : Damian Collins

Download or read book Charmed Life: the Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon written by Damian Collins and published by William Collins. This book was released on 2017-02-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of a fascinating man who connected the great politicians, artists and thinkers at the height of British global power and influence. A famed aesthete, politician and patron of the arts, Philip Sassoon lived in a world of English elegance and oriental flair. Gathering a social set that would provide inspiration for Brideshead Revisited, Sassoon gave parties at which Winston Churchill argued with George Bernard Shaw, while Noël Coward and Lawrence of Arabia mingled with flamingos and Rex Whistler painted murals as the party carried on around them. Not merely a wealthy socialite, he worked at the right hand of Douglas Haig during the First World War and then for Prime Minister Lloyd George for the settlement of the peace. He was close to King Edward VIII during the abdication crisis, and Minister for the Air Force in the 1930s. And yet as the heir of wealthy Jewish traders from the souks of Baghdad, Philip craved acceptance from the English establishment. In Charmed Life, Damian Collins explores an extraordinary connected life at the heart of society during the height of British global power and influence.

The Sassoons

Download The Sassoons PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Pantheon
ISBN 13 : 0593316606
Total Pages : 431 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (933 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Sassoons by : Joseph Sassoon

Download or read book The Sassoons written by Joseph Sassoon and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spectacular generational saga of the making (and undoing) of a family dynasty: the riveting untold story of the gilded Jewish Bagdadi Sassoons, who built a vast empire through global finance and trade—cotton, opium, shipping, banking—that reached across three continents and ultimately changed the destinies of nations. With full access to rare family photographs and archives. “Engaging...compelling...well-paced and supremely satisfying. ”—The New York Times They were one of the richest families in the world for two hundred years, from the 19th century to the 20th, and were known as ‘the Rothschilds of the East.’ Mesopotamian in origin, and for more than forty years the chief treasurers to the pashas of Baghdad and Basra, they were forced to flee to Bushir on the Persian Gulf; David Sassoon and sons starting over with nothing, and beginning to trade in India in cotton and opium. The Sassoons soon were building textile mills and factories, and setting up branches in shipping in China, and expanding beyond, to Japan, and further west, to Paris and London. They became members of British parliament; were knighted; and owned and edited Britain’s leading newspapers, including The Sunday Times and The Observer. And in 1887, the exalted dynasty of Sassoon joined forces with the banking empire of Rothschild and were soon joined by marriage, fusing together two of the biggest Jewish commerce and banking families in the world. Against the monumental canvas of two centuries of the Ottoman Empire and the changing face of the Far East, across Europe and Great Britain during the time of its farthest reach, Joseph Sassoon gives us a riveting generational saga of the making of this magnificent family dynasty.

The Sassoons

Download The Sassoons PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300264305
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Sassoons by : Esther da Costa Meyer

Download or read book The Sassoons written by Esther da Costa Meyer and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-04-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing the global history of the Sassoon family, entrepreneurs and patrons of remarkable art and architecture, from Baghdad to Mumbai, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and London The Sassoons were prosperous as bankers and treasurers to the Ottoman sultans in nineteenth-century Baghdad, until they were driven out by religious persecution and economic pressures. Assuming the precarious status of stateless Jews, the family dispersed, establishing businesses in Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London. Their wealth enabled them to collect splendid works of art from the various cultures that welcomed them. This volume tells the sweeping global story of the Sassoon family through the works of art they collected. Lavishly illustrated with paintings, porcelain, manuscripts, Judaica, and architecture, it foregrounds family members who were patrons of art and sponsors of remarkable buildings, highlighting the role of the family's accomplished women. Rachel Sassoon was editor of both the Times and the Observer newspapers in London at the turn of the twentieth century. The renowned war poet Siegfried Sassoon was a cousin. Victor Sassoon hosted the glitterati of the 1920s and 1930s at his Cathay Hotel in Shanghai. This fascinating and elegant book--with gilt edges and a ribbon bookmark--features a family tree and explores generations of Sassoons for whom art was not only a mark of their arrival in the rarefied world of the upper class but a pleasure in itself. Published in association with the Jewish Museum, New York Exhibition Schedule: Jewish Museum, New York (March 3-August 13, 2023)

Five Days From Defeat

Download Five Days From Defeat PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Birlinn Ltd
ISBN 13 : 085790941X
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (579 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Five Days From Defeat by : Walter Reid

Download or read book Five Days From Defeat written by Walter Reid and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2017-11-02 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 21 March 1918 Germany initiated one of the most ferocious and offensives of the First World War. During the so-called Kaiserschlacht, German troops advanced on allied positions in a series of ferocious attacks which caused massive casualties, separated British and French forces and drove the British back towards the Channel ports. Five days later, as the German advance continued, one of the most dramatic summits of the war took place in Doullens. The outcome was to have extraordinary consequences. For the first time an allied supreme commander – the French General Foch – was appointed to command all the allied armies, while the statesmen realized that unity of purpose rather than national interest was ultimately the key to success. Within a few months a policy of defence became one of offence, and paved the way for British success at Amiens and the series of unbroken British victories that led Germany to plea for armistice. Victory in November 1918 was a matter for celebration; what was excised from history was how close Britain was to ignominious defeat just eight months earlier.

Sassoon

Download Sassoon PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300095470
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (954 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sassoon by : Peter Stansky

Download or read book Sassoon written by Peter Stansky and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the lives of the Sassoon siblings as a lens through which to view English life, particularly in its highest reaches, Stansky offers new insights into British attitudes toward power, politics, old versus new money, homosexuality, war, Jews, taste and style."--BOOK JACKET.

The Birth of British Airpower

Download The Birth of British Airpower PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1682478637
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (824 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Birth of British Airpower by : Peter John Dye

Download or read book The Birth of British Airpower written by Peter John Dye and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2024-10-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Birth of British Airpower describes how Hugh Trenchard, a man with few leadership skills, became a much-loved and inspirational commander who laid the foundation for British airpower on the Western Front in World War I and created the preconditions for the establishment of the world’s first independent air service, the Royal Air Force. Author Peter Dye explores how friendship can overcome significant personal and character deficiencies and how, by assembling the right senior leadership team, Trenchard achieved greatness. The book also examines how the development of airpower doctrine in World War I owed as much to chance as to careful planning and how air superiority was achieved only through sustained effort, underpinned by an effective and responsive logistic system. Finally, it explains how the ethos of the postwar air force was built around these experiences and the collective effort of all those involved in the air war.

The Square and the Tower

Download The Square and the Tower PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0735222916
Total Pages : 610 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (352 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Square and the Tower by : Niall Ferguson

Download or read book The Square and the Tower written by Niall Ferguson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reevaluation of history's turning points as collisions between old power hierarchies and new social networks explains how networks have always existed and have been responsible for key innovations and revolutionary ideas.

The Walls Have Ears

Download The Walls Have Ears PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300249012
Total Pages : 351 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Walls Have Ears by : Helen Fry

Download or read book The Walls Have Ears written by Helen Fry and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the elaborate and brilliantly sustained World War II intelligence operation by which Hitler’s generals were tricked into giving away vital Nazi secretsAt the outbreak of World War II, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to set up a top secret operation: German prisoners’ cells were to be bugged and listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations. This mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at three further sites—and provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology being developed by the Nazis.In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operation. On arrival at stately-homes-turned-prisons like Trent Park, high-ranking German generals and commanders were given a "phony" interrogation, then treated as "guests," wined and dined at exclusive clubs, and encouraged to talk. And so it was that the Allies got access to some of Hitler’s most closely guarded secrets—and from those most entrusted to protect them.

Longing and Belonging

Download Longing and Belonging PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 1512827126
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (128 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Longing and Belonging by : Nancy E. Berg

Download or read book Longing and Belonging written by Nancy E. Berg and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2025-02-25 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the history of Jewish life and experience in the modern Islamic world Longing and Belonging investigates the histories of Jews living among Muslims from 1900 until 1950, both inside and outside the Ottoman Empire and after its demise. Here, modern Jewish protagonists are revealed as active participants in an expansive Islamic civilization, reflecting a mutuality and cross-fertilization in the region that raises new lines of inquiry and which offers enduring lessons for the world today. This collection both foregrounds the experiences of Jewish communities that have long been relegated to the margins of historical and literary studies and, critically, uses these experiences to complicate prevailing narratives from both Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies. By following communities from the coffeeshops of Cairo to the villages of Yemen, from the local marriage market in Izmir to the global commerce of the Sassoons, readers gain intimate insight into a world that resists a simple understanding of the modern Islamic world and of the history of Judaism. Just as much as the Sephardi and Mizrahi experience complicates prevailing paradigms in the study of Jewish modernity, so too does it enrich understandings of modernity across Muslim societies. The volume tells a story of longing, belonging, and longing to belong, of multiple affinities in a world that no longer exists. Contributors: Esra Almas, Nancy E. Berg, Dina Danon, Keren Dotan, Annie Greene, Alma Rachel Heckman, Hadar Feldman Samet, Joseph Sassoon, Edwin Seroussi, Alon Tam, Alan Verskin, Mark Wagner.

The Man Who Built the Swordfish

Download The Man Who Built the Swordfish PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1838609490
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (386 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Man Who Built the Swordfish by : Adrian Smith

Download or read book The Man Who Built the Swordfish written by Adrian Smith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir Richard Fairey was one of the great aviation innovators of the twentieth century. His career as a plane maker stretched from the Edwardian period to the jet age - he lived long enough to see one of his aircraft be the first to break the 1000mph barrier; and at least one of his designs, the Swordfish, holds iconic status. A qualified engineer, party to the design, development, and construction of the Royal Navy's state-of-the-art sea planes, Sir Richard founded Fairey Aviation at the Admiralty's behest in 1915. His company survived post-war retrenchment to become one of Britain's largest aircraft manufacturers. The firm built a succession of front-line aircraft for the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm, including the iconic Swordfish. In addition, Fairey Aviation designed and built several cutting-edge experimental aircraft, including long-distance record-breakers between the wars and the stunningly beautiful Delta 2, which broke the world speed record on the eve of Sir Richard's death in 1956. Fairey also came to hold a privileged position in the British elite - courting politicians and policymakers. He became a figurehead of the British aviation industry and his successful running of the British Air Commission earned him a knighthood. A key player at a pivotal moment, Fairey's life tells us much about the exercise of power in early twentieth-century Britain and provides an insight into the nature of the British aviation manufacturing industry at its wartime peak and on the cusp of its twilight years.

General Lord Rawlinson

Download General Lord Rawlinson PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1474246990
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (742 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis General Lord Rawlinson by : Rodney Atwood

Download or read book General Lord Rawlinson written by Rodney Atwood and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-09 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this biography Rodney Atwood details the life of General Lord Rawlinson of Trent (1864-1925), a distinguished British soldier whose career culminated in decisive victories on the Western Front in 1918 and command of the Indian Army in the early 1920s. He served his soldier's apprenticeship in the Victorian colonial wars in Burma, the Sudan and South Africa. His career provides a lens through which to examine the British Army in the late-19th and early-20th century. In the South African War (1899-1902) Rawlinson's ideas aided the defence of Ladysmith, and he distinguished himself leading a mobile column in the guerrilla war. In the First World War he held an important command in most of the British Expeditionary Force's battles on the Western Front. He bears a heavy part-responsibility for the disastrous first day of the Somme, but later in the battle his successful tactics inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. His Western Front career culminated in a series of victories beginning at Amiens. He commanded the Indian Army between 1920 and 1925 at a time of military and political tension following the 3rd Afghan War and the Amritsar Massacre. He introduced necessary reforms, cut expenditure at a time of postwar retrenchment and began commissioning Indians to replace British officers. He would have taken up the post of CIGS (Chief of the Imperial General Staff), thus being the only British soldier to hold these two top posts. He died, however, four days after his sixty-first birthday. Drawing extensively on archival material including Rawlinson's own engagingly-written letters and diaries, this thorough examination of his life will be of great interest to those studying British military history, imperial history and the First World War.

Rigged

Download Rigged PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 059308196X
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (93 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rigged by : David Shimer

Download or read book Rigged written by David Shimer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive history of the covert struggle between Russia and America to influence elections, why the threat to American democracy is greater than ever, and what we can do about it. This is "the first book to put the story of Russian interference into a broader context.... Extraordinary and gripping" (The New York Times Book Review). Russia's interference in the 2016 elections marked only the latest chapter of a hidden and revelatory history. In Rigged, David Shimer tells the sweeping story of covert electoral interference past and present. He exposes decades of secret operations—by the KGB, the CIA, and Vladimir Putin's Russia—to shape electoral outcomes, melding deep historical research with groundbreaking interviews with more than 130 key players, from leading officials in both the Trump and Obama administrations to CIA and NSA directors to a former KGB general. Throughout history and in 2016, both Russian and American operations achieved their greatest success by influencing the way voters think, rather than tampering with actual vote tallies. Understanding 2016 as one battle in a much longer war is essential to comprehending the critical threat currently posed to America's electoral sovereignty and how to defend against it. Illuminating how the lessons of the past can be used to protect our democracy in the future, Rigged is an essential book for readers of every political persuasion.

The Imperial Aircraft Flotilla

Download The Imperial Aircraft Flotilla PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN 13 : 3838210212
Total Pages : 414 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (382 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Imperial Aircraft Flotilla by : Margaret Hall

Download or read book The Imperial Aircraft Flotilla written by Margaret Hall and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A great wave of fundraising ‘patriotic’ associations followed in the wake of Great Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914, at home but also right across the empire. The most successful public campaign of all was launched in London at the beginning of 1915. Known as the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla, the scheme aimed to attract contributions towards aircraft production costs from throughout the British Empire. Any country, locality, or community that provided sufficient funds for an entire ‘aeroplane’ could have it named after them. It was promised that when the machine crashed or was shot down, the name would be transferred to a new one of the same type. Margaret Hall examines the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla as a facet of imperial history. She analyzes the fundraising efforts in Canada and Newfoundland; the Zanzibar Protectorate; Fiji, Mauritius, and the Caribbean; Hong Kong; the Malay states and Straits Settlements; West Africa, especially Gold Coast; Southern Rhodesia; Basutoland; Swaziland and the Union of South Africa; the Indian empire and Burma; (British subjects in) independent Abyssinia and Siam; in the Shanghai International Settlement, and the British community of Argentina; Australia; and New Zealand. This remarkable and detailed book discusses the propaganda and counter-subversion usages of the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla—and what the support for the imperial war effort reveals about contemporary national and regional identities and aspirations.

Cairo 1921

Download Cairo 1921 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300262434
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cairo 1921 by : C. Brad Faught

Download or read book Cairo 1921 written by C. Brad Faught and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-26 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive history of the 1921 Cairo Conference which reveals its enduring impact on the modern Middle East Called by Winston Churchill in 1921, the Cairo Conference set out to redraw the map of the Middle East in the wake of the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The summit established the states of Iraq and Jordan as part of the Sherifian Solution and confirmed the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine—the future state of Israel. No other conference had such an enduring impact on the region. C. Brad Faught demonstrates how the conference, although dominated by the British with limited local participation, was an ambitious, if ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to move the Middle East into the world of modern nationalism. Faught reveals that many officials, including T. E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, were driven by the determination for state building in the area to succeed. Their prejudices, combined with their abilities, would profoundly alter the Middle East for decades to come.

The Spectre of War

Download The Spectre of War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691233764
Total Pages : 504 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Spectre of War by : Jonathan Haslam

Download or read book The Spectre of War written by Jonathan Haslam and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold new history showing that the fear of Communism was a major factor in the outbreak of World War II The Spectre of War looks at a subject we thought we knew—the roots of the Second World War—and upends our assumptions with a masterful new interpretation. Looking beyond traditional explanations based on diplomatic failures or military might, Jonathan Haslam explores the neglected thread connecting them all: the fear of Communism prevalent across continents during the interwar period. Marshalling an array of archival sources, including records from the Communist International, Haslam transforms our understanding of the deep-seated origins of World War II, its conflicts, and its legacy. Haslam offers a panoramic view of Europe and northeast Asia during the 1920s and 1930s, connecting fascism’s emergence with the impact of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. World War I had economically destabilized many nations, and the threat of Communist revolt loomed large in the ensuing social unrest. As Moscow supported Communist efforts in France, Spain, China, and beyond, opponents such as the British feared for the stability of their global empire, and viewed fascism as the only force standing between them and the Communist overthrow of the existing order. The appeasement and political misreading of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy that followed held back the spectre of rebellion—only to usher in the later advent of war. Illuminating ideological differences in the decades before World War II, and the continuous role of pre- and postwar Communism, The Spectre of War provides unprecedented context for one of the most momentous calamities of the twentieth century.

Portrait of a Muse

Download Portrait of a Muse PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bitter Lemon Press
ISBN 13 : 1913394417
Total Pages : 652 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (133 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Portrait of a Muse by : Gailey Andrew

Download or read book Portrait of a Muse written by Gailey Andrew and published by Bitter Lemon Press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first biography of Frances Graham, the muse of leading Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones for the last 25 years of his life. In a discreet, subtle, human way, her life is a study in power – artistic, social, political, familial, local – and all the more fascinating for being played out from a perennial position of weakness. 'The Portrait of a Muse' is the tale of a remarkable woman living in an age on the cusp of modernity. 75 illustrations.

The Prime Ministers

Download The Prime Ministers PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN 13 : 1529312175
Total Pages : 576 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (293 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Prime Ministers by : Iain Dale

Download or read book The Prime Ministers written by Iain Dale and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Winner of the 2020 PARLIAMENTARY BOOK AWARDS for Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian** A Times Political Book of the Year 'An entertaining, thorough and informative canter through the characters and stories of prime ministers past.' - New Statesman 'A wealth of enjoyable insights into three centuries of Westminster politics... It is a most elegant hardback volume, with a gilded cover that looks a little like the famous front door of No. 10 itself; the ideal Christmas gift.' - Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman 'This is a timely study of UK Prime Ministers and Iain Dale has done the subject a great service with this measured and thoughtful labour of love which offers a fascinating set of insights into the history of Britain, politics, the role of Prime Minister, and elite and establishment power... a superb guide to the times we have lived through and are living in.' - Gerry Hassan, Scottish Review *** 'Many of my predecessors were giants, some had feet of clay, all possessed human foibles.' - From the foreword by Boris Johnson It has almost been 300 years since Sir Robert Walpole arguably became the first holder of the office of Prime Minister in 1721 - an office which today is under scrutiny like never before. The Prime Ministers, edited by leading political commentator Iain Dale, brings to life all 55 of Britain's 'First Among Equals' with an essay for each office holder, written by key figures in British politics. From the obscure 18th-century figures like the Earl of Shelburne to 20th-century titans like Churchill and Thatcher, this book provides a much-needed reminder about their motivations, failures and achievements.