Thursday, December 16, 2010

Nowadays, World War II Needs a Reasoned Defense




Christopher Hitchen interviews academic and author Victor Davis Hanson for the Hoover Institution.

5 comments:

  1. I watched the whole thing (slow day at work!) and really, really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing. :-)

    So sad, though, that revisionist history has made such inroads in the historical narrative.

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  2. Hi, Melissa. Do you think that there has been revisionism? It's one of my main themes about WW2 today. But, since there are the sons and daughters of veterans who remember the war narrative, I don't think that revision can succeed in the end.

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  4. I definitely think there has been revisionism - Patrick Buchanan's book is a perfect example.

    I sincerely hope the daughters and sons of WW2 veterans (and their sons and daughters) will keep the true history of WW2 alive. What I fear, though, is the liberal reach of the universities. This seems to be where revisionism comes from, and one of the reasons I stopped with only my MA in history as opposed to continuing on to get my PhD.

    Frankly, some of Buchanan's arguments were so fundamentally flawed that I am amazed they published the book. Yet a publisher doesn't look at that so much as they look at sales. :-)

    A prime example of this would be Daniel Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners." His premise was faulty, too, and scholars roundly condemned him for it, yet it sold a ton of copies.

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  5. I'll have to look at that book.

    Yes, I feel that the basic message of the allies prevailing against evil is, unfortunately, not very attractive to academics today.

    I just read 2 articles today in an academic quarterly (different field) and the authors failed to make their arguments. They pretty much dithered and spun.

    It's been too long since I heard Buchanan speak - I think his premises on WW II were boilerplate isolationist opinions.

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