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Thursday, June 12, 2008

A great debate shaping up here: VDH and Pat Buchannan

Victor Davis Hanson reviews - unfavorably, Pat Buchannan's book Churchill, Hitler and 'The Unnecessary War': How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World here: http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson060908.html

Buchanan responds here: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PatrickJBuchanan/2008/06/13/the_good_war_and_the_terrible_peace?page=2

I haven't read Buchannan's book, however you can find his summary of the thesis here: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PatrickJBuchanan/2008/05/27/how_the_west_lost_the_world

My take on the argument is, Buchanan has some interesting notions - but he's doing allohistory, Hanson is doing history.

Allohistory is the history of the "parallel universe" where X happened instead of Y.

Allohistory is a useful exercise sometimes and a lot of fun, but you cannot prove anything with it. Or rather, you can prove anything you like with it.

posted by Steve @ 6:08 PM  

4 Comments:

  • At 5:56 AM, Blogger TheWayfarer said…

    "You cannot prove anything with it, or rather you can prove anything you want with it."
    Sounds like you're talking about academic atheism and it's ongoing inquisition to expell theistic "heretics".

    Buchanan's position is simple: Europe would've been a lot better off under The Pope's Boy, Hitler. What he fails to grok is what Hitler was doing with tanks and Messerschmitts, the EU is now accomplishing with banks and well-placed traitors.

    You're right: I don't trust ANY of the system lords. Why? For an answer to that, who said "All this power will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."?

     

  • At 11:29 AM, Blogger Joseph Sixpack said…

    In his rebuttal, Buchanan decries the Soviet domination of eastern Europe, and points out that Hitler was not as bad as Stalin. But, what he conveniently omits is that we also eventually defeated the Soviets. Does he think that there would be fewer dead if we defeated the Soviets first, and then took on Germany? I highly doubt it. 50 million unnecessary dead is better than 100 million unnecessary dead.

     

  • At 4:00 PM, Blogger LordSomber said…

    Hitchens is doing a similar takedown of the book here:

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/141501/page/1

     

  • At 5:14 AM, Blogger Steve said…

    Buchanan replies here: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PatrickJBuchanan/2008/06/20/was_the_holocaust_inevitable

    Interesting, but I think the title is misleading, perhaps deliberately so. Nothing men chose to do is "inevitable" - you can chose not to do it.

     

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