|
|
The Illusion of VictoryYou wouldn’t use another fellow’s toothbrush. Why use his whore? A Review of The Illusion of Victory, by Thomas Fleming If you ever played a popular board game, like Monopoly, a player by chance may be directed back a number of steps. Now that the 20th Century is finished I’ve often wished we, too, might step back to 1914 and tie-up the loose ends, and forget that difficult century. After reading The Illusion of Victory such hopes appear fantastical. Few recent WWI histories are written by Americans, fewer still address the peculiar circumstances of American participation in the conflict. Interested readers may have read other popular books: The First World War: To Arms, by Hew Strachan; Paris 1919, by Margaret MacMillan; The First World War, by John Keegan. In each of these excellent histories, the American entry is quickly dispensed with by documenting the declaration of war by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917, the bickering with British generals about troop deployment, and finally the celebration by a demoralized French public when General Pershing arrives in Paris. Few readers understand the complex ethnic tensions fermenting in the Republic at that time. The encompassing term “white” which we are now familiar didn’t exist; European Americans were fragmented into exclusive ethnic camps: Irish-Catholics, Germans-Catholics, Protestant Scots-Irish, Italians, and the Anglo-Saxons(applied to both English and Scots-Irish) - which most often comprised the political class; and yes the Negro. The only unifying sentiment among these groups in 1916 was the slogan “He [President Wilson] kept us out of the war”. Fleming’s research uncovers an America deeply opposed to entry into WWI, and the deceptions employed by government operatives and foreign propaganda arms to stoke xenophobia and charge anti-Americanism against objectors. These efforts were not always successful so powerful legislation, The Espionage Act, was drafted to suppress riots and other ‘seditious’ activity. Fleming’s look into America’s ethnic divisions and agents of foreign influence might be unsettling to readers force-fed multiculturalism. Yet popular sentiment against the war had to be countered by official propaganda. But what might convince Irish and German Catholics - a huge percentage of Americans - to fight beside Britain and against Germany? The most commonly used levers were intimidation: firings, censorship, and incarceration. Not a pretty a pretty picture. Special attention is drawn to the exertions of British propagandists at work in America; for the reader of popular history this information is fresh. British readers, along with Americans, may be surprised to learn leading literary talents like H.G. Wells, Conan Doyle, A.J. Toynbee were assembled to propagandize Americans, often these efforts were directed from a group named “The Wellington House”. The phrase a war to make the “world safe for Democracy” was concocted by Wellington House propagandists to appeal to American idealism. President Wilson foolishly parroted this slogan and he would dearly pay for his naivety. Fleming composes a convincing tale of American folly. Yet, he often intrudes on the narrative to color events with prejudicial adjectives. Intelligent readers need no such prompting. The Illusion of Victoryis an effective antidote to the war fever and mindless triumphalism parading through American life in our own time. One can hear echoes of Wilson’s “making the world safe for Democracy” in President Bush’s slogans: Freedom is the future of the Middle-East, and Freedom is God’s gift to humanity. Did the British write those slogans too?
Posted by leslie on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 at 02:36 PM in Books Comments:2
Posted by Geoff Beck on December 29, 2004, 10:15 PM | # The British Historian Paul Johnson wrote favorably about Harding in “History of the American People”. Harding died in office and his political opponents defined his presidency, he couldn’t defend himself, obviously. The Aussies ( do you really call yourself that ) I’ve encountered on Majority Rights know quite a bit about America, I’m suprised. I know the names of your states in Australia, and the name of your current Prime Minister, probably a few other details, but that’s about it. 3
Posted by John Ray on December 30, 2004, 12:47 AM | # I don’t think it is exactly news that America was a reluctant entry into WW1 4
Posted by Tim on December 30, 2004, 04:41 AM | # I suspect the Aussies who from time to time contribute to MR are probably more interested in US matters than the average Australian is. Yes, we do call ourselves Aussies, especially when sport is on the line. There are a few people who don’t like the moniker, mainly Susan Sarandon types, or more exactly people who think they are Susan Sarandon types. These kind of self styled elite folks like to refer to the majority of their fellow citizens as “anglo-celtic”, although I have never heard anyone call themselves an anglo-celt. When I hear the term, I can understand how Kurds feel when the Ankara government insists on calling them “Mountain Turks”. Next entry: A tale of two Elizabeths Previous entry: That Hispanic IQ again |
|
Existential IssuesWhite Genocide ProjectOf note
Recent CommentsAlso see trash folder. alvin sunny commented in entry 'Why Hitler hated Jews' on 05/24/12, 03:45 AM. (go) (view) PMP Preparation commented in entry 'Starvation to keep the masses on a leash' on 05/24/12, 03:15 AM. (go) (view) daniel commented in entry 'Beyond the 14 words' on 05/24/12, 03:05 AM. (go) (view) Lee John Barnes commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/24/12, 02:31 AM. (go) (view) HoroSmutS commented in entry 'Why Hitler hated Jews' on 05/24/12, 02:03 AM. (go) (view) daniel commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/24/12, 02:03 AM. (go) (view) zhrcwuwmkq commented in entry 'The end of Mel Gibson's career?' on 05/23/12, 11:46 PM. (go) (view) SEO Services commented in entry 'The Cubans of Miami' on 05/23/12, 11:11 PM. (go) (view) Captainchaos commented in entry 'Beyond the 14 words' on 05/23/12, 11:08 PM. (go) (view) xiaolily commented in entry 'Maltese Incident' on 05/23/12, 10:12 PM. (go) (view) Cockouche commented in entry 'Why Hitler hated Jews' on 05/23/12, 09:40 PM. (go) (view) Captainchaos commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/23/12, 09:13 PM. (go) (view) assundaGymn commented in entry 'A Line in the Sand' on 05/23/12, 08:41 PM. (go) (view) GlablePax commented in entry 'University official sentenced for child porn, blackmail' on 05/23/12, 08:23 PM. (go) (view) Leon Haller commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/23/12, 07:47 PM. (go) (view) cuiseur automatique seb commented in entry 'Why Hitler hated Jews' on 05/23/12, 07:43 PM. (go) (view) Swan commented in entry 'Indian beauty' on 05/23/12, 12:52 PM. (go) (view) Lee John Barnes commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/23/12, 12:45 PM. (go) (view) Swan commented in entry 'More on the Indian beauty question' on 05/23/12, 12:31 PM. (go) (view) Leon Haller commented in entry 'Beyond the 14 words' on 05/23/12, 11:43 AM. (go) (view) Leon Haller commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/23/12, 11:32 AM. (go) (view) Mellaba Pechios commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/23/12, 07:55 AM. (go) (view) daniel commented in entry 'Beyond the 14 words' on 05/23/12, 03:51 AM. (go) (view) Leon Haller commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 10:40 PM. (go) (view) Leon Haller commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 10:40 PM. (go) (view) Leon Haller commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 10:26 PM. (go) (view) Leon Haller commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 10:23 PM. (go) (view) 7 Year BA commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 09:19 PM. (go) (view) DARYL commented in entry 'A repeatable comment for mass-pasting on American public message boards' on 05/22/12, 08:57 PM. (go) (view) Thorn commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 08:31 PM. (go) (view) Church of Jed commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 07:40 PM. (go) (view) Selous Scout commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 05:56 PM. (go) (view) Silver commented in entry 'Beyond the 14 words' on 05/22/12, 11:37 AM. (go) (view) AnalogMan commented in entry 'Golden Dawn - Greece' on 05/22/12, 11:29 AM. (go) (view) Wandrin commented in entry 'Beyond the 14 words' on 05/22/12, 07:42 AM. (go) (view) Recent Posts
General NewsScience NewsScience CategoriesAll CategoriesThe WritersEach author's name links to a list of all articles posted by the writer; the hashes link to authors' homepages. LinksEndorsement not implied. Controlled Opposition Crime
General
Immigration
Islam Jews
Nationalist Political Parties
Science Whites in Africa |
Posted by Tim on December 29, 2004, 09:09 PM | #
Thomas Fleming deserves a greater audience. Unfortunately as he is skeptical of the benefits of US involvement in both World Wars he is considered a little too politically incorrect.
Of course being un-PC means that he can more easily find items overlooked by the galloping herd.
It’s fascinating that modern “liberals” still portray McCarthyism as perhaps the worst violation of free speech in 20th century US history, where Wilson’s record in the war and after with the Palmer Raids made anything McCarthy did seem inconsequential.
The same judgement should probably also apply to J Edgar Hoover (who certainly had an authoritarian streak). Hoover opposed FDR’s internment of Japanese Americans, a far greater violation of constitutional rights than anything either Hoover or McCarthy did post-war.
In some ways Warren Harding would make a better liberal icon than Wilson (see http://www.affbrainwash.com/genehealy/archives/012624.php ) even if one overlooks Wilson’s role in bringing Jim Crow to Washington DC http://reason.com/links/links121802.shtml Hardi.ng of course is blanked out of liberal iconography as he had the wrong economics and was merely a Tea Pot Dome crook, not a Tin Pot dictator.