Tag: World War II

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When an unsuspecting member of the public waddles into the Royal Academy of the Arts expecting, perhaps, to find some edifying emblem of beauty and power—only to be confronted by the likes of Damien Hirst licking his lips over a decaying ram carcass in a glass box, Grayson Perry in the quasi-paedophile drag of a 13 year old American schoolgirl, and Marina Abramović sitting abstemiously in the same plastic chair for over nine hours—it is perhaps worth asking with him what has happened to modern art, without resorting to insult his however mediocre cultural intelligence. (more…)

George Moseley (right) testifies before the Dies Committee on May 31, 1939. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

The Crisis Years

The Roaring Twenties ended with a tremendous economic collapse which lasted for more than a decade. But all was not lost. Old-stock American patriots had been able to enact the 1924 Immigration Act, which cut off immigration and protected the demographic makeup of the country for the following 40 years. (more…)

Bolshevism Without a Mask, National Socialist propaganda poster (1937)

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Travis LeBlanc dropped a lot of wisdom and perspective on us regarding the Second World War and the Jewish Holocaust in two recent essays for Counter-Currents. Judging from the comments in response to them, it seems the Counter-Currents readership is well aware of this and appreciates his efforts. I certainly do. Although he expressed a fair number of historical opinions regarding the world wars, his main thrust was to discourage what he calls “spergery,” or how the excessive, specialized interest in the Second World War among dissidents can quickly drive a political movement into the weeds. Or even cause it to crack up altogether through absurd purity spiraling: (more…)

Joseph Nash, The Autumn Manoeuvres, Officers Playing at Kriegs Spiel, or the “Game of War” (1872) (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

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In my last essay, and against my better judgement, I quoted from memory something that Winston Churchill might or might not have said. I could be wrong; people attribute all sorts of things to Churchill that he never said. This, of course, launched a discussion about the Second World War in the comments. (more…)

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This was supposed to be a year-end book roundup, but I had a difficult end of year. So for the present I’ll pretend this is the 53rd or 54th week of 2023 (a nasty year altogether).

When my husband died a few weeks ago, I found a number of “overdue” library books in all manner of places. I stacked them by the door. That’s pretty much how we did things here. He’d take out a lot of books and then, when he saw me making an exit, he’d go, “Oh, if you’re going out, could you take those back to the library?” He’d say that even if I was just going out to the trash bay. (more…)

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I had no special access to the inner workings of the National Justice Party (NJP). The higher-ups always held me in contempt, and would have kept me at arm’s length had I attempted to approach the project. I didn’t ask. They didn’t ask.

I remained in my lane and, up until the last few months, kept my mouth shut about the ill-fated project. (more…)

Hitler issuing his declaration of war against Poland in the Reichstag on September 1, 1939.

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Part 5 of 5 (Part 1 here, Part 4 here)

A German war with Poland was now a certainty, but a new continental war involving Britain and France was not. The most important obstacle to the widening of the conflict was that Britain quietly viewed French participation as an indispensable precondition of her own involvement, and the French had not committed themselves to action against Poland. (more…)

Winston Churchill and Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

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Part 4 of 5 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here, Part 5 here)

Hitler’s cancellation of military operations for August 26 left him with only five days before September 1, after which, according to his generals, a military campaign in Poland would no longer be feasible. If war was to be prevented, it had to be done within this time. (more…)

Joseph Stalin and Joachim von Ribbentrop during the signing of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact on August 23, 1939.

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Part 3 of 5 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 4 here)

By August 1939, everyone understood that a war between Germany and Poland was extremely probable. The great question was whether it might still be prevented from developing into a general European war. Hitler was under an important time constraint: since October rains transform Poland into a sea of mud, German military leaders warned him it would be unsafe to postpone the launch of hostilities past September 1. (more…)

David L. Hoggan

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Part 2 of 5 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)

Given that both the United States and the Soviet Union were far larger and more powerful than Germany, and that the British themselves were still presiding over an enormous empire, one may wonder why Britain’s leadership was in such agreement on the supposedly urgent need to resist a far smaller power’s efforts to consolidate more of the German-speaking population of Central Europe within her borders. (more…)

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Part 1 of 5 (Part 2 here)

David L. Hoggan
The Forced War: When Peaceful Revision Failed, 2nd ed.
Newport Beach, Calif.: Institute for Historical Review, 2023

David Hoggan (1923-1988) was an American historian who received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1948 with a dissertation on The Breakdown of German-Polish Relations in 1939. (more…)

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

Does it really matter? Is it even worth it? When it comes to redressing the official World War Two narrative — what I call the Steven Spielberg version of history — these are questions we have all asked ourselves at some point or another. For my part, I wholeheartedly wish we could just move on from WWII. I wish it were treated as any other war from history and that we needn’t waste so much time and energy dismantling that Steven Spielberg recounting of events. (more…)

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Paul Fussell
Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War
New York: Oxford University Press, 1989

Most readers know Paul Fussell from his satiric Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, which, intended as a humorous study of American mores, has been accepted as a legitimate guideline to what H. L. Mencken called Boobis americanus. (more…)