Stromata Blog: Could Hitler Have Been Remembered as a Progressive Hero?

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Worth Reading (Fiction)

Mamet, David: Chicago: A Novel
In Roaring 20's Chicago, a Great War veteran turned hard-boiled reporter falls in love with the wrong woman and then seeks to find her killer.
Nelson DeMille: The Cuban Affair: A Novel
Two million dollars to charter a boat for a fishing tournament? A great way for the owner to pay off the boat's mortgage, but it turns out to include slipping into Castro's prison island in search of a lost (and perhaps imaginary) treasure.
Kate Atkinson: Life After Life: A Novel
Ursula Todd has the opportunity to relive her life, over and over and over, moving steadily through the Great War and its sequels and accumulating shards of memory.
Connie Willis: Crosstalk: A Novel
An empathy app leads to complications involving telepathy, Irish women and a true love that runs most unsmoothly. Classic Willis comedy.
Mark Steyn: The Prisoner of Windsor
In a 21st Century sequel to Anthony Hope, the heir to the Ruritanian throne must fill in for the kidnaped Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Tim Powers: My Brother's Keeper
Werewolves, the Brontë sisters, their wayward brother, their heroic dog and a conspiracy to unleash an almost dead deity.
Tim Powers: Declare: A Novel
An intricate Cold War fantasy that seems so plausible that one wonders whether it is the true story of why the Soviet Union rose and collapsed.
H.F.M. Prescott: The Man on a Donkey
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Theodore Odrach: Wave of Terror
Based on the author's experiences when the Soviet Union occupied his homeland after the Stalin-Hitler Pact, this book melds Chekov and Solzhenitsyn. By stages, the isolated folk of the Pripyet Marshes learn that there are worse masters than their former Polish overlords.
Simon Montefiore: Sashenka: A Novel
Both grim and funny, this historical novel peers into the inner world of an upper class Russian girl turned loyal Bolshevik, highlighting her youthful fling at revolution-making in Petrograd, her fall from grace under Stalin, and an historian's effort, after the end of communism, to ascertain her fate.
Harry Turtledove: The Man with the Iron Heart
Can the U.S. maintain its resolve against a defeated enemy's terrorist campaign? Imagining a post-World War II Nazi insurgency, Harry Turtledove puts this question into a new context. As Reinhard von Heydrich's "werewolves" devastate Germany, war-weary Americans call for withdrawal, regardless of the consequences.
Neal Stephenson: Anathem
If you have not a smidgen of interest in how Platonic philosophy relates to the "many worlds" version of quantum mechanics, you still may like this novel, though you'll probably wish that the characters talked less. Persevere. After a slow start, the story grows compelling, and the intellectual dialogues turn out not to be digressions.
Alfred Duggan: Lord Geoffrey's Fancy
Perhaps the finest book of one of England's finest historical novelists. The setting is 13th Century Greece, where Crusaders fought each other and the shattered Byzantine Empire. The history is accurate, the writing graceful and the characters not merely modern people in fancy dress.
Rodney Bolt: History Play : The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe
A pseudo-history springing from the premise that Shakespeare's flashy predecessor survived the famous Deptford brawl and fled to the continent, where he secretly wrote almost all of the Bard's works. A clever, tongue-in-cheek reworking of literary history that also recreates the milieu shared by many real Elizabethan exiles.
Charles W. Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays (Library of America, 131)
Fiction and essays by a black American writer who deserves a wider audience.
Harry Turtledove: Gunpowder Empire
Debut of a juvenile series set in parallel worlds. 22nd century teen siblings, trapped without adult aid in a besieged city, must cope with the bizarre (to them) customs and prejudices of a never-fallen Roman Empire.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Could Hitler Have Been Remembered as a Progressive Hero?

Adolf Hitler presented himself to the world as a socialist, and he transformed the German economy into a centrally directed dirigiste regime. Suppose that he had not lived long enough to embark on World War II and the “Final Solution”. He might today be remembered as the man whose progressive governance could have brought peace and prosperity to Europe. After all, if progressives can overlook that faults of Stalin and Mao, how hard would it have been to praise posthumously a Hitler who never had the opportunity to produce the fruits of his ideology?

Taking up that theme, I have channeled the Hitler apologia that British historian (and communist sympathizer) A. J. P. Taylor might have written, if Hitler had fallen from power in 1936, instead of the one that he actually wrote.

Posted by Tom Veal on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at 10:35 AM in Economics, History, Science Fiction | Permalink

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Books by Tom Veal

Strange Tales for Strange Times
Get the stories shown below plus more in one inexpensive package.
The Miracle Wrought by Silas Gantry
What if everyone believed in miracles?
Igor's Campaign: A Tale of Ambition
The World Science Fiction Convention comes to Yeltsin-era Russia.
The Monkey and the Amazon: A Tale of Illusions
Intrigue, disguise and magic in Hellenistic Babylon.
Daimon Born: The First Adventure of Theagonistes
A being who dwells between the Moon and the Empyrean makes a (literal) impact on the Earth.
Shadowloves: A Tale of Desire
Where romantic dreams come all too true.
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Hillary Clinton won in 2016, but not as expected. Her narrow victory sparks intrigue, catching a callow reporter in a fast spinning news cycle.

Articles and Fiction

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Sean McMeekin: Stalin's War: A New History of World War II
World War II as seen through the eyes of the leader who was most successful in attaining his objectives, despite starting the war with severe weaknesses and a catastrophic defeat. The author makes a particular point of how the U.S. and U.K. naively lavished aid on the USSR without seeking any return for their bounty. (*****)
Thomas Sowell: Knowledge and Decisions
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Laurent Murawiec: The Mind of Jihad
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John Emsley: Molecules of Murder: Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases
Murderers and their poisons - some commonplace, some exotic. But don't try these at home! (****)
Robert Drury: The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat
An hour-by-hour account of a Korean War Thermopylae. In December 1950, single Marine company holds back five battalions of Chinese and plays a key role in saving the overextended U.N. forces from destruction. (*****)
Bernard Lewis & Butzie Ellis Churchill: Islam: The Religion and the People
A nonpolemical overview of Islam, co-written by one of the leading Western authorities. Valuable as a corrective to misleading analogies with Christianity and for its analysis of how contact with the West has altered Moslem ideas and attitudes. (****)
Guy Sorman: Empire of Lies: The Truth About China in the Twenty-First Century
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Robert G. Hoyland: Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam
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Michael Yon: Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope
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Douglas J. Feith: War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism
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Jonah Goldberg: Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning
Except for the lively writing, this unearthing of the historical and intellectual links between American progressives and European fascists could be an academic study. "Progressive" has positive connotations for most people; here is why it shouldn't. (*****)
Andrew Rippin: Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
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Von Hardesty & Gene Eisman: Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race
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Tara Ross & Joseph C. Smith, Jr.: Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State
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David Bellavia: House to House
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Philip Sabin: Lost Battles: Reconstructing the Great Clashes of the Ancient World
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Jaroslav Pelikan: Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures
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William E. Odom: The Collapse of the Soviet Military
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Nicholas Wade: Before the Dawn : Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
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Andre Gerolymatos: The Balkan Wars: Conquest, Revolution, and Retribution from the Ottoman Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond
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Peter Heather: The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
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Jung Chang & Jon Halliday: Mao : The Unknown Story
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Charles Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe
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Arthur Cotterell: Chariot : The Astounding Rise and Fall of the World's First War Machine
The military use of the chariot is a topic badly in need of a definitive analysis. This book isn't it. The author's theory, that chariots were primarily platforms for archery, may be correct but is advanced without a solid foundation of evidence. The discussion is digressive and overly credulous of literary and semi-historical sources, while scanting archeology. On the positive side, the materials gathered here are full of intrinsic interest. (***)
Toby Wilkinson: Genesis of the Pharaohs
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N. A. M. Rodger: The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660-1649
This account of 1,000 years of English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh naval history is full of surprises, showing how Anglo-Saxon seapower fell apart under the Normans and revived only sporadically until Henry VIII, Elizabeth and (surprisingly) Charles I laid the foundations for the Royal Navy. Sprightly writing, a plethora of facts and no fear of shattering myths. (*****)
J. E. Lendon: Soldiers and Ghosts : A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity
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Scott McCrea: The Case for Shakespeare : The End of the Authorship Question
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G. Edward White: Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy
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Frank E. & Fritzie P. Manuel: Utopian Thought in the Western World
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Lynn Struve: Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tigers' Jaws
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John H. Fund: Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy
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N. B. Aitchison: Macbeth: Man and Myth
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Burton Watson: Early Chinese Literature
Incisive survey of the genres and principal works of the Chou and Early Han dynasties. (*****)
Michael Hicks: Richard III
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Henry Kamen: The Duke of Alba
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Jonathan M. House: Combined Arms Warfare in the Twentieth Century
Civilian version of well-regarded military textbook surveying the interaction of technology and doctrine from World War I through the mid 1990's. (****)
Donald E. Queller & Thomas F. Madden: The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople
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Justin Phillips: C. S. Lewis at the BBC: Messages of Hope in the Darkness of War
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Hugh Elton: Warfare in Roman Europe, AD 350-425
Argues that the later Roman army was more successful and less barbarian than traditionally assumed. (****)
Adrian Keith Goldsworthy: The Roman Army at War: 100 BC-AD 200
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Ibn Warraq: The Quest for the Historical Muhammad
Essays by non-Moslem scholars on the dubious historicity of the traditional account of Mohammed's life and teaching. (****)
Ibn Warraq: The Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book
Scholarly, non-Moslem studies of the Islamic holy book. Occasionally too dense for lay readers. (****)
Michael Cook: The Koran: A Very Short Introduction
Written without animus, this slim guide explains what the Koran says and how Moslems read it. (*****)
Richard J. Evans: The Coming of the Third Reich
The collapse of the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933. Excellent on the cultural and social roots of the Far Right's ascendancy, less successful as a narrative history. (****)
Michael Oren: Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
The definitive account of the most crucial war in Israel's modern history. (*****)
Ronald Reagan: Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan That Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America
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Andrew Gurr: Playgoing in Shakespeare's London
Study of the characteristics of Shakespeare's audience and the experience of theater going in his day. Essential for students of theatrical history. (*****)
Susan Rose: Medieval Naval Warfare, 1000-1500
Short, useful survey of an obscure aspect of military history. (****)
Stephen Webb: If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life
Wide-ranging introduction to the paradoxes arising from standard assumptions about technological progress, the abundance of sapient life and the age of planets. (****)
M. E. Durham: High Albania: A Victorian Traveller's Balkan Odyssey
A rugged Edwardian (not Victorian) lady's travels through Ottoman-ruled Albania. Colorful, with surprising empathy for the feud-ridden natives. (****)
Philip Jenkins: Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way
Solid, though slightly plodding, refutation of the bizarre "Jesus Seminar" theories about early Christian history. (****)
Walter E. Kaegi: Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium
Life of the Emperor who saved Byzantium from the Persians but could not fend off the Moslem advance. Good on military affairs and government; weak on the important religious side of the story. (****)
R. J. Knecht: The French Civil Wars, 1562 - 1598
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J. E. Lendon: Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World
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Laurence Kelly: Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran : Alexander Griboyedov and the Tsar's Mission to the Shah of Persia
The brief life and tragic death of a brilliant soldier-playwright turned diplomat. (****)
Trevor Royle: Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854-1856
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Richard Osgood & Sarah Monks: Bronze Age Warfare
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Kenneth M. Pollack: Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991
Since 1948 Arab armies have been uniformly unsuccessful against non-Arab enemies. This thorough history and analysis tries to identify the reasons for this record of failure. (*****)
Azar Gat: A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War
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Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Could Hitler Have Been Remembered as a Progressive Hero?

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