TechnoTV - Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World

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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5311 EAN: 9780307405159 ISBN: 030740515X Label: Crown Manufacturer: Crown Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 544 Publication Date: 2008-05-27 Publisher: Crown Release Date: 2008-05-27 Studio: Crown
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: A Different View of World War Two, Right Here in Print Comment: Buchanan does us all a service. He engages in measured speculation of what might have occurred if the world's leaders had made different decisions. He does not make the case that World War Two was of no interest to America. Rather, Pat argues that that war unfolded as a result of very poor decisions of the part of Europe's leaders. The scope and difficulty of the Second World War was compounded by further poor decisions. This is not to say that ole' Pat didn't want to fight this war because it would positively impact Jews. No, what he says is that it was the wrong time and style for a war that imperiled Western Civilization. So with that in mind, read it and enjoy. He also provides some very strong evidence that Churchill was the source of many poor decisions. Customer Rating: Summary: Magnificent. Comment: I just finished the book. It's a long read, perhaps too long, but it goes fairly quickly. The book is quite engrossing. It is, by far, the most thoroughly documented book I've ever seen. Buchanan painstakingly cites the world-shaping statesmen and diplomats of that era. It is absolute paranoid nonsense to suggest that Buchanan treats Hitler as a rational, even sympathetic, character in this book. (Such an accusation is usually leveled by Jewish intellectuals, and quasi-intellectuals, who incessantly whine that Buchanan is anti-semitic.) Buchanan has been slandered enough by such people. Buchanan's thesis is, and always has been, that Hitler is the greatest force of evil in the 20th century. He does show Hitler as an opportunistic and prescient leader, however....and that's no crime because it's true. You can reject this book's thesis. But you can't argue with the fact that Buchanan quotes, and quotes, and re-quotes, the most prominent leaders of the day to support his views. I don't know where Buchanan found the time to write this thing. It is so darned well-researched, it is utterly infallible. Customer Rating: Summary: British Blunders and the World Wars Comment: If your are looking for someone to name Winston Churchill a great man, do not approach Patrick J Buchanan. In his heavily researched tome, Buchanan indicates that World War II was more the product of a warmongering Churchill and a naive Neville Chamberlain than anything coming out of Berlin. Maintaining that Hitler sought neither world domination nor war with Britain, Buchanan explains the steps that led Europe to encounter both. The final fruit of this, which he lays in the lap of Winston Churchill is a divided Europe under Communist oppression and the loss of the British Empire. Buchanan, outside of the stereotype of the conservative, was never for the Iraq war. He contends that USA replaced the once great British Empire and is now walking down the same path. Buchanan acts as Monday Morning quarterback to the events of the 20th Century which he calls one European civil war. The book is a fascinating read and leads one to question what might have been had what he calls the great blunder not happened. This certainly is a great book to give a less western view of the Twentieth century and an alternative view to those whom many consider the hero of the Allied Forces--Winston Churchill. But further, what many may easily forget, Buchanan, a veteran of the Nixon administration and a conservative was vehemently against the Iraq war that continues to rage. He also warns of the problems with fighting a war on two fronts as the US now does. He clearly holds "W" in the same light as he holds Churchill. I am happy to have bought and read the book. Customer Rating: Summary: historical content Comment: Buchanan draws a distinct line between history as a science and politicians manipulation of historical facts in order to serve their aims. Customer Rating: Summary: He stirs the pot! Comment: From all of the other reviews I have read on this book it is certainly obvious that the author has hit a hot button issue and stirred the pot. This is the first book I have ever read by Pat Buchanan, and it has a very impressive premise. It is filled with over 1200 notes, and has a vast bibliography. Does the author have a point of view? Obviously, but then what author/historian does not wish to interpret history in their own way. While many reviewers give much time to WW II, the real issue is WW I and the resultant Treaty of Versailles. Such a pathetic war, such a pathetic treaty, one that was so bad even the US Senate refused to ratify it, and other diplomats knew all the Treaty did was ensure another war in 20 years. The dismantling of the old Empire/Monarchy system led to many of todays bastardized countries. Countries that contain people with no common language, culture or background. And, if you wish to criticize the premise, just look what recently happened with the Georgian invasion by Russia, and now we have US giving its own "Polish Guarantee" for missle defense. The book definitely shows that there were other views with regard to Churchill and the two World Wars, and Buchanan comes down on the side of those who feel that the wars were unnecessary. It has been over 60 years since the WW II has ended, we have seen the files, seen the paperwork and correspondence from that era, and people are now properly wondering if that war was fought for the wrong reasons. Buchanan certainly points out all the atrocities that Hitler and his Generals ordered to happen, but to me the basic premise was that Hitler could have been avoided had their been a better and more civilized peace to end WW I. The book did take me a long time to read, but that is due to the numerous details and notes that are in the book. The author makes a very fine defense of his premise, a premise that can never be proven correct or incorrect since those decisions are always subject to personal opinion. Being married to a woman who came from Romania I can tell you that the horrors and hardship that their country had to deal with under Communism, as well as other Eastern European countries that were dominated by Communism for over 40 years, were certainly not worth the sacrifices made to rid the world of Hitler. Again, these become personal reasons and are hard to quantify to someone who has not lived in those conditions. Definitely a stimulating read, and from all the comments I think the author has certainly brought a very relevant issue to the fore, the repercussions of which still need to be debated and studied. Blaine DeSantis More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: Were World Wars I and II—which can now be seen as a thirty-year paroxysm of slaughter and destruction—inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Were the bloodiest and most devastating conflicts ever suffered by mankind fated by forces beyond men’s control? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen—Winston Churchill first among them—the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins. Half a century of murderous oppression of scores of millions under the iron boot of Communist tyranny might never have happened, and Europe’s central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations. Among the British and Churchillian blunders were: • The secret decision of a tiny cabal in the inner Cabinet in 1906 to take Britain straight to war against Germany, should she invade France • The vengeful Treaty of Versailles that muti- lated Germany, leaving her bitter, betrayed, and receptive to the appeal of Adolf Hitler • Britain’s capitulation, at Churchill’s urging, to American pressure to sever the Anglo- Japanese alliance, insulting and isolating Japan, pushing her onto the path of militarism and conquest • The 1935 sanctions that drove Italy straight into the Axis with Hitler • The greatest blunder in British history: the unsolicited war guarantee to Poland of March 1939—that guaranteed the Second World War • Churchill’s astonishing blindness to Stalin’s true ambitions. Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War” is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.