History and Anti-History

I have never argued that Churchill was a saint, any more than have his greatest biographers, Martin Gilbert and Andrew Roberts. But I have consistently echoed A.J.P. Taylor’s verdict that he was “the savior of his country.” More, Churchill was the savior of Western civilization. Had he not stiffened British resolve—in the time before Hitler in his hubris declared war on the Soviet Union and the United States—the repulsive, blood-drenched empire that was the Third Reich might conceivably have won the war. True, Churchill had to make common cause with Stalin to beat Hitler; but he knew Stalin for the brutal dictator that he was, and he was among the very first to see that World War II would soon be followed by Cold War I.

It is surely the epitome of professional failure to have spent more than three decades writing, teaching, and speaking about these matters, and to have achieved so little that a nasty little Nazi apologist like Darryl Cooper can win an audience of millions. But that is apparently what happens when podcasts drive out books and anti-history drives out history. 

I shudder to think where this leads.