Winston Churchill as historian The British statesman Winston Churchill was a prolific writer throughout his life , and many of his works were historical . His better - known historical works include : " " , " The World Crisis " ( a history of World War I ) , " The Second World War " , which earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature , and " A History of the English - Speaking Peoples " . Churchill ' s view of history . Churchill was an exponent of the view that the British and American people had a unique greatness and destiny and that all British history should be seen as progress towards fulfilling that destiny . This belief inspired his political career as well as his historical writing . Although Churchill was not a trained historian , the influences on his historical thought and prose style , were likely Clarendon ' s history of the English Civil War , Gibbon ' s " Decline and Fall " and Macaulay ' s " History of England " . Family history . Churchill ' s historical works fall into three categories . The first is works of family history , the biographies of his father , " Lord Randolph Churchill " ( two volumes , 1906 ) , and of his great ancestor , " " ( four volumes , 1933 – 38 ) . Autobiography . The second category is Churchill ' s autobiographical works , including his early journalistic compilations " The Story of the Malakand Field Force " ( 1898 ) , " The River War " ( 1899 ) , " London to Ladysmith via Pretoria " ( 1900 ) and " Ian Hamilton ' s March " ( 1900 ) . These latter two were issued in a re - edited form as " My Early Life " ( 1930 ) . All of these books contain information about Britain ' s imperial wars in India , Sudan and South Africa . The works on South Africa contain elements of self - promotion , since Churchill was a candidate for Parliament in 1900 . These four books were republished as " Frontiers and Wars : His Four Early Books Covering His Life As Soldier and War Correspondent " , New York : Harcourt , Brace & World , Inc . , 1962 . Narrative history . Churchill ' s reputation as a writer , however , rests on his multi - volume works of narrative history : " The World Crisis " ( six volumes , 1923 – 31 ) , and of " The Second World War " ( six volumes , 1948 – 53 ) , and his " A History of the English - Speaking Peoples " ( four volumes , 1956 – 58 , much of which had been written as journalism in the 1930s ) . These are among the longest works of history ever published ( " The Second World War " runs to more than two million words ) , and earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature . Churchill ' s histories of the two world wars were based on the author ' s status as a central participant in both stories . Although both are memoirs as well as histories , Churchill was careful to broaden their scope to include events in which he played no part — the war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union , for example . Inevitably , however , Churchill placed Britain , and therefore himself , at the centre of his narrative . Arthur Balfour described " The World Crisis " as " Winston ' s brilliant autobiography , disguised as a history of the universe . " In any case he had far fewer documentary sources for matters not involving Britain . Access to documents . As a Cabinet minister for part of the First World War and as Prime Minister for nearly all of the Second , Churchill had unique access to official documents , military plans , official secrets and correspondence between world leaders . After the First War , when there were few rules governing these documents , Churchill simply took many of them with him when he left office , and used them freely in his books — as did other wartime ministers such as David Lloyd George . Following the First World War , stricter rules were put in place regarding Cabinet documents . " The World Crisis " began as a response to Lord Esher ' s attack on his reputation in his memoirs , but it soon broadened out into a general multi - volume history . The volumes are a mix of military history , written with Churchill ' s usual narrative flair , diplomatic and political history , portraits of other political and military figures , and personal memoir , written in a colourful manner . When he resumed office in 1939 , Churchill fully intended to write a history of the war then beginning . He said several times : " I will leave judgements on this matter to history — but I will be one of the historians . " To circumvent the rules against the use of official documents , he took the precaution throughout the war of having a weekly summary of correspondence , minutes , memoranda and other documents printed in galleys and headed " Prime Minister ' s personal minutes " . As well , Churchill actually wrote or dictated a number of letters and memoranda with the specific intention of placing his views on the record for later use as a historian . Controversy . This all became a source of great controversy when " The Second World War " began appearing in 1948 . Churchill was not an academic historian , he was a politician , and was in fact Leader of the Opposition , still intending to return to office . By what right , it was asked , did he have access to Cabinet , military and diplomatic records which were denied to other historians ? What was unknown at the time was that Prime Minister Clement Attlee agreed to allow him ( or rather his research assistants ) free access to all documents , provided that ( a ) no official secrets were revealed ( b ) the documents were not used for party political purposes and ( c ) the typescript was vetted by the Cabinet Secretary , Sir Norman Brook . Brook took a close interest in the books and rewrote some sections himself to ensure that nothing was said which might harm British interests or embarrass the government . Churchill ' s history thus became a semi - official one .