LLOYD GEORGE AND CHURCHILL

If as the author claims, ``friendship is distinctly underdeveloped'' as a field of study, this weak account of the relationship between David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill is unlikely to promote the concept. It is a pity, because Rintala (Western European Politics/Boston College) has some potentially intriguing material. British politics in the 20th century produced no more impressive figures than Lloyd George, leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister during WW I, and Churchill. Though one was born in relatively humble circumstances in Wales, and the other in Blenheim Castle, they had a surprising amount in common and their friendship lasted for 40 years. Neither went to university; both were adventurers; both were great orators; both led their country in great wars; both escaped the more dire consequences of misjudgment- -in each case, partly through the friendship of the other. The Marconi scandal, an imprudent investment in shares in the American Marconi Company while he was chancellor of the exchequer, might have brought Lloyd George down but for Churchill's help. Lloyd George brought Churchill into his cabinet after the disaster at Gallipoli, for which the latter was blamed by many Conservatives. Unfortunately, Rintala's account is permeated with the obvious (``Hatred is certainly present in politics, but people act out of love, as well''); with error (``Baldwin also hated Churchill''—in fact Stanley Baldwin made Churchill chancellor of the exchequer in the 1920s when he was at the nadir of his fortunes); with obscurity (``Even if a particular friendship were angelic, much humility, as C.S. Lewis saw, is needed if one is to eat the bread of angels without risk''); with gratuitous tastelessness (``There is no evidence that Lloyd George and Churchill had in any respect a sexual relationship with each other''); and with judgments of staggering incomprehension (``[Churchill] loved war more than he loved Lloyd George''). This book, unlike the friendship it chronicles, can't be saved.