Winston Churchill became an idealized figure to the British public in his first two years as Prime Minister. The Battle of Britain and German blitzkrieg enabled Churchill to exercise his oratory skills through speeches that encouraged the suffering masses. Through an analysis of contemporary diary entries and public opinion polls, this essay reveals that British citizens connected with Churchill’s inclusive language and admired his recurring public visits to the streets of Britain. Churchill contributed to his mythmaking as he manipulated the media to prohibit criticisms of his wartime policies. He also utilized emerging technologies, mainly the radio, to speak to the masses and cement his reputation as a humble servant of the people. Despite a few detractors, most British people revered Churchill for his preservation of morale in the beginning of WWII, owing largely to the Prime Minister’s careful control over the creation of his own myth.

Between 1845 to 1852, Ireland underwent a historical crisis known as the Great Irish Famine, afflicting the Irish population with disease and starvation, and leading to the death of roughly one million people. This paper seeks to discuss the causes and impacts of this detrimental event, whilst analyzing and comparing the various social, economic, and political debates surrounding the resulting death toll of the Irish Famine. The principal debates within this paper regard the failure of the potato crop due to blight, the British Whig governments adherence to laissez faire ideology, and the role of anti-Irish racial hatred. In explaining the influence and significance of these debates, historic subjects such as the public works projects, and terms such as “non-intervention,” “moralism,” and “divine providence” are detailed. By comparing these debates, this paper ultimately seeks to argue that racial hatred was most significant in causing mass death during the Great Irish Famine.

On the night of December 16, 1773, American colonists demonstrated their opposition to the British Tea Act by storming ships carrying East India Company tea and dumping hundreds of tea crates into the Boston Harbor, earning the name the Boston Tea Party. Since then, this event has become one of, if not, the most memorable acts of protest that led to the outbreak of the American Revolution. With that status comes public inquiry into the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the event and its role in setting independence in motion. The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum provides the answers to these questions and allows the public to step back in time and witness this historic event. The museum is informative and entertaining for all ages no matter their familiarity with the Boston Tea Party and its impact on American history.