At Full Flow: Winston Churchill’s The River War

Winston S. Churchill, The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan, James W. Muller (ed.), St. Augustine’s Press, 2021, 2 vols., cclxvi+432 & xxvi+846 pages, $150. ISBN 978–1587317002

With the possible exceptions of the Bible and the Constitution of the United States, it is doubtful that any text has ever been subject to the kind of sustained examination that Professor James W. Muller has devoted over the course of the years since 1989—a near-lifetime of scholarly perseverance of the most exacting sort—to this new two-volume edition of Winston Churchill’s The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan.

This definitive edition is a contribution of monumental significance to the preservation and understanding of Churchill’s life and work. No praise is too great for Professor Muller, St. Augustine’s Press, and the International Churchill Society for their labors in the production of these remarkable volumes. The patience many subscribers have shown in waiting for these volumes has been vindicated. There will never be a need for another edition of The River War.

Many of Churchill’s works, from his magisterial History of the English-Speaking Peoples to his masterly The Second World War, have been published in condensed editions. But in most cases, the existence of the cuts is no secret, and Churchill’s full text is readily available. Until now, The River was different. After its original publication in 1899, the book was republished three years later in a cheaper and much reduced second edition.