I write that having just battled my way through the 'Introduction' - all 96 closely printed pages of it - of Fritz Fischer's superlative history "Germany's Aims in the First World War". In it, he provides detailed descriptions of all the main German and Austro-Hungarian players leading up to August 1914. Frankly, they should all have been shot! It is one long, very long, litany of utter, blind stupidity by men who considered themselves to be the elite thinkers and leading actors of their age. Needless to say, the vast majority of them were German!
They could hardly wait to open fire in 1914 and start a conflagration that would slaughter millions but, needless to say, very few of them! There is no reason that I can think off to suppose that our current crop of, er, 'world leaders' are any wiser or more intelligent than the dolts of 1914. However, there is one factor present today that was not around back then - the bomb! Back then, the majority of the dunderheads actually survived the mass slaughter they instigated but any contemporary actors must know, without a doubt, that in any future nuclear war, they will be amongst the first to go and even if they did manage to crawl out from their bunkers all they would find is a radiated, uninhabitable wasteland in which, eventually, they would starve to death. Like a hanging in the morning, that concentrates the mind wonderfully.
Yes, I know that a plethora of nukes makes for a dangerous environment in which accidents might happen but it is the only thing that will force the political loonies, who are no different from the 1914 variety, from imagining that with a quick war they can rule the world!
You'll now David, be buying that book I recommended on history of the US?
You know, the one you read the review of and observed you found the statement comparing Henry VIII to Barry Goldwater "intriguing"?
Well I'll give you another reason, last night's reading I discovered on page 122 the word "cockamamie." It was used in the context regarding how intellectuals (Democrats incidentally) in the pre Civil War south concluded they couldn't possibly lose owing to how Britain would never allow it because of cotton for its mills.
Admittedly that 1850's Democrat southern smart guy didn't use the word, the author of the book did. It seems, to me at least, the author infrequently opines himself - indeed very rarely does the fellow allow himself to employ "modern thinking" as it relates to 'people and events in their era' except for this one instance (so far) as I've seen.
Buy it David. You'll thank me.
Posted by: JK | Tuesday, 20 August 2019 at 12:18
David, that 'Intro' by itself seems to be unnerving for you? Beware the self anointed "elite thinkers" of any age. Some think thoroughly and some poorly.
Posted by: Whitewall | Tuesday, 20 August 2019 at 12:24
And some, Whiters, do not think at all!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 20 August 2019 at 13:07