SOURCE: A review of Marlborough: His Life and Times, Vol. V, in American Historical Review, Vol. 43, No. 2, January 1938, pp. 376-77.

In the following review, Barbour asserts that while Churchill's biography of Marlborough cannot be considered a great historical accomplishment, it is enjoyable and highly readable.

Now that this biography has reached its penultimate volume [Marlborough: His Life and Times, Volume V, 1705-1708], its merits and shortcomings may be weighed with greater presumption of fairness than when the work was in its earlier stages. There is still to come the severest test of objectivity, the story of Marlborough's fall from power and the peace with France, but even in this volume, with Marlborough triumphing at Ramillies and Oudenarde, objectivity does not seem to be Mr. Churchill's peculiar virtue. It is, perhaps, something of which he holds no high opinion. Accuracy by all means, but not the mildew of indifference...