The Humanistic Tradition, Book 6: Modernism, Globalism, and the Information Age

Book Description

"The Humanistic Tradition is quite simply the finest book of its type. Fiero manages to integrate the political, cultural, and social history of the world into one coherent and fascinating whole. It is a masterpiece of scholarship . . . balanced, interesting, easy to read, and consummately beautiful. Our professors praise its accuracy and scope and our students unanimously say it is their favorite textbook." — Sonia Sorrell, Pepperdine University

The Humanistic Tradition features a flexible, topical approach that helps students understand humankind's creative legacy as a continuum rather than as a series of isolated events. This widely acclaimed interdisciplinary survey offers a global perspective, countless illustrations, and more than 150 literary sources. Available in multiple formats, The Humanistic Tradition explores the political, economic, and social contexts of human culture, providing a global and multicultural perspective which helps students better understand the relationship between the West and other world cultures.

Customer Reviews:

I've never read this either...........2006-04-19

However giving the book a one star review based on the fact that you had a bad experience with Amazon is unacceptable. Your poor rating hurts the author much more then it hurts Amazon. Many a casual browser will not even browse further past a one star rating. And despite your experience many a writer makes a great deal of money from sales on this site.

I don't know, I never recieved my order.......2006-02-24

I would have no idea how to rate this product since I never recieved it. I do know however, that I will never be ordering from Amazon.com again. It was the poorest internet experience I have ever had, and I had heard such amazing things about this company. Live and learn I suppose.

The Humanistic Tradition, Book 6: The Global Village Of The Twentieth Century

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A Great Study Companion

The Humanistic Tradition, Book 6: The Global Village Of The Twentieth Century
Gloria K. Fiero
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Consciousness & Thought | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0697340732

Book Description

Beginning with the startling twentieth century developments in physics and the Freudian revolution, this volume of The Humanistic Tradition addresses 100 years of precipitous change. The exciting conclusion to the six-volume series, Book 6 can also be used as a literary or cultural supplement to courses on the art or the history of the period from 1900 to 2000.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Study Companion.......2000-07-11

I have had to study this book over the course of the past year as a required text for my college classes. Either my other required texts bored me or this one is just that good, but this is the only book I did not sell back at the close of the year. I admire the style Fiero uses to convey mountains of information surrounding the twentieth century. The rhetoric of the book is conducive to any reader of high school capabilities or above yet does an excellent job of avoiding the type of over-simplification which can lead to misunderstanding and ignorance on any of the subjects which Fiero writes about. Most study reference books created today require that you buy four other books to comprehend the information from the original reference. Fiero avoids that hassle. The information provided is never so technical as to perplex and confuse its reader, instead offering a steady flow of fact and critique that covers all bases and satisfies most any set of professors. This was the finest study reference I had available as it is more than adequately organized chronologically. The beginning and closing remarks at each chapter offer a synopsis that not only link all the information you have just read but similarly binds it to everything before it and establishes a foundation for what will come after it. This book is not meant for leisure reading so please do not buy it for such a purpose. However, as a study tool covering any aspect of the twentieth century, I could not recommend a finer addition to any materials you have than Fiero.

Study Guide (Books 4-6) for use with The Humanistic Tradition

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Study Guide (Books 4-6) for use with The Humanistic Tradition
Gloria K. Fiero
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Consciousness & Thought | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0072388498

Audio CD set 2 for use with books 4-6 of The Humanistic Tradition

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Audio CD set 2 for use with books 4-6 of The Humanistic Tradition
Gloria K. Fiero
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0072516968

Humanistic Tradition (Books 3-6) - Gloria K. Fiero - Paperback -

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Humanistic Tradition (Books 3-6) - Gloria K. Fiero - Paperback -

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0073883352

Product Description

Publisher: Edition: fourth

The Humanistic Tradition: 4th Book 6 Modernism Globalism and the Information Age

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The Humanistic Tradition: 4th Book 6 Modernism Globalism and the Information Age
Gloria K. Fiero
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGTWH2

The Humanistic Tradition: For Use With Books 4-6

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The Humanistic Tradition: For Use With Books 4-6
Fiero
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill College
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

Inspiration & Philosophy | Religion & Spirituality | Books on Cassette | Formats | Books

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ASIN: 0697148564

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Study Guide (books 4-6) For Use With The Humanistic Tradition
Gloria K. Fiero
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFZ5WE

Book Description

* 8-page b/w photo section * 5 x 8 *
Praise for John Pullen's classic, The Twentieth Maine:

". . . this comes as near reliving the Civil War as anyone in the twentieth century is likely to get." --Boston Sunday Herald

"Mr. Pullen . . . has gone to the letters, diaries, and memoirs of the participants with the thoroughness and care of a good historian, and he has had the literary skill to let the personality of the regiment come through. . . ." --Bruce Catton

During the past two decades Joshua Chamberlain has emerged as a modern icon, featured in the novel The Killer Angels, the film Gettysburg, and Ken Burns's series The Civil War. Numerous biographers dissect his Civil War career, living history interpreters speak on his behalf, and even a beer bears his likeness and name. Renowned historian John J. Pullen, who first introduced Joshua Chamberlain to modern readers, is again approaching the subject of this complex man. This new biographical essay explores Chamberlain's later life through the lens of his experiences during the Civil War and examines his place in history--both man and myth.

John J. Pullen is the author of The Twentieth Maine, a modern literary classic that is still in print after 40 years. Also by Pullen: A Shower of Stars: The Medal of Honor and the 27th Maine. He lives in Brunswick, Maine.

"On the Confederate surrender at Appomattox . . . Whether or not it was a full-fledged salute, its ordering was an audacious act on Joshua Chamberlain's part, considering the actions and attitude of Congress over the next several years and the widespread grief of thousands of Northern families who had lost fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons as a result of the rebellion. But somehow, in spite of his own suffering in the war, Chamberlain had reached a higher plane, from which he saw the surrendering Southerners as part of the nation he had fought to preserve, and he was welcoming them back into a Union that in his opinion they had never left."--from Joshua Chamberlain

Customer Reviews:

Something Abides.......2001-05-10

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain did not appear "ex nihilo" on 2 July 1863 at the craggy slope of Little Round Top. Neither did he disappear on 12 April 1865 following his magnanimous violation of military protocol at Appomattox Court House. In this volume, Mr. Pullen documents Chamberlain's life after the Civil War, demonstrating that the hero's character continued to illuminate all his life until his death in 1914.

Unlike Sis Deans', "His Proper Post;" Michael Golay's, "To Gettysburg and Beyond;" or Willard M. Wallace's, "Soul of the Lion," Pullen's text does not presume to be a complete biography. It does not address the question of what forces in Chamberlain's up-bringing formed such an extraordinary man.

Unlike Chamberlain's own books "Through Blood & Fire at Gettysburg," and "The Passing of the Armies;" or Michael Shaara's, "The Killer Angels," and Alice Rains Trulock's, "In The Hands of Providence," this is not primarily a book about soldiers at war.

The question that Pullen addresses is, "What becomes of the hero after the battles cease: how is courage displayed after the war ends?" In the case of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and other great Americans, the answer is that true heroes continue to demonstrate the same commitment to service in peace as in war. True heroes demonstrate the same integrity and courage in their chosen civilian occupations that they once showed while facing iminent death.

Forget the trendy books on leadership and values. Instead, read Mr. Pullen's book. Be inspired by the story of an exceptional leader, who demonstrated his commitment to American values until the day he died.

Pullen has done it again!.......2000-08-21

I don't think I could say it better than the reader from Huntington, Pennsylvania - what a great review! But I agree wholeheartedly, this book allows the reader to see Chamberlain *the human* and despite his faults and frailties, he remains someone well worth admiring. John Pullen, as always, has written a very well researched and very readable book that gives one a look at the whole person. For those who are just starting to become interested in Chamberlain, this book will give you an excellent view of his later life and accomplishments (all of which were achieved despite a debilitating wound!). For those who have been Chamberlain fans for years, this book will help you get to know him even more and give you further reason to admire him.

Solid biography about Chamberlain's later life but..........1999-09-03

Joshua Chamberlain's post-Civil-War life never reached the heights of his military exploits. John Pullen has done an excellent job researching and writing about Chamberlain after the Civil War, but, like Chamberlain's civilian life, it's not as gripping as his Civil War experiences. For die-hard Chamberlain fans and those interested in Maine's and Bowdoin's history, it's worth reading, but if it's excitement you want, read Killer Angels.

A genuine American hero who transcends both myth and hype........1999-07-06

Joshua Chamberlain reaches through time and space and grips the imagination of all that encounter him. John Pullen, who drew back the shroud of a forgotten hero in his excellent book "The Twentieth Maine," has come full circle in this engaging and enlightening biography. Chamberlain, the hero of Little Round Top, burst upon the American culture in the film "Gettysburg." As if in answer to the question "What makes this guy a REAL hero?," Pullen has gathered the facts and presented us with both the man and the myth. Few heroes, stripped of legend, endure the light of truth. Chamberlain not only lives up to his legend: he invites further acclaim by the manner in which he lived, and the integrity of his character. John Pullen fills in the blanks of Chamberlain's postwar life, and shows us a man worth admiring. A true American hero, Joshua Chamberlain emerges unsullied, untarnished and quite human. Thank you, Mr. Pullen!

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THE ROAD TO SERFDOM.
friedrich A. Foreword by John Chamberlain. Hayek
Manufacturer: George Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O9EKV2

Songs from the Sky: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World (Archaeoastronomy) (Archaeoastronomy)

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Songs from the Sky: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World (Archaeoastronomy) (Archaeoastronomy)
Von Del Chamberlain , John B. Carlson , M. Jane Young , and International Conference on Ethnoastrono
Manufacturer: Ocarina Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0954086724

Book Description

This substantial collection of papers on indigenous astronomical knowledge is quite unequalled in its scope and extent. The authors are drawn from a variety of academic disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, engineering, art history, history of science, history of religion, folklore, and mythology, and bring a variety of academic perspectives to bear upon aspects of celestial knowledge and perception in diverse social contexts from many different parts of the globe. The Americas provide the main geographical focus, with twenty of the 32 papers concerning indigenous north American groups such as the Navajo, Lakota, Zuni and Blackfoot, the Mixe and Tzotzil Maya of southern Mexico, the Andean highlands and the Amazonian region of Peru, and southern coastal Brazil. The remaining twelve articles extend to the Arab world, sub-Saharan Africa, southern India, Java, Melanesia, Australia and Polynesia, with a few addressing broader synthetic themes. For a number of the culture areas dealt with in some detail here, other published information about sky knowledge is extremely scant.

The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball

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Russell and Chamberlain
The Rivalry
Excellent book on a legendary era
The Rivalry's Got Game
good for anyone who enjoys nonfiction or basketball

The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball
John Taylor
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Basketball | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1400061148
Release Date: 2005-10-11

Book Description

A BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN ACCOUNT OF THE NBA’S GLORY DAYS, AND THE RIVALRY THAT DOMINATED THE ERA

In the mid-1950s, the NBA was a mere barnstorming circuit, with outposts in such cities as Rochester, New York, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Most of the best players were white; the set shot and layup were the sport’s chief offensive weapons. But by the 1970s, the league ruled America’s biggest media markets; contests attracted capacity crowds and national prime-time television audiences. The game was played “above the rim”–and the most marketable of its high-flying stars were black. The credit for this remarkable transformation largely goes to two giants: Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.

In The Rivalry, award-winning journalist John Taylor projects the stories of Russell, Chamberlain, and other stars from the NBA’s golden age onto a backdrop of racial tensions and cultural change. Taylor’s electrifying account of two complex men–as well as of a game and a country at a crossroads–is an epic narrative of sports in America during the 1960s.

It’s hard to imagine two characters better suited to leading roles in the NBA saga: Chamberlain was cast as the athletically gifted yet mercurial titan, while Russell played the role of the stalwart centerpiece of the Boston Celtics dynasty. Taylor delves beneath these stereotypes, detailing how the two opposed and complemented each other and how they revolutionized the way the game was played and perceived by fans.

Competing with and against such heroes as Jerry West, Tom Heinsohn, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, and Elgin Baylor, and playing for the two greatest coaches of the era, Alex Hannum and the fiery Red Auerbach, Chamberlain and Russell propelled the NBA into the spotlight. But their off-court visibility and success–to say nothing of their candor–also inflamed passions along America’s racial and generational fault lines. In many ways, Russell and Chamberlain helped make the NBA and, to some extent, America what they are today.

Filled with dramatic conflicts and some of the great moments in sports history, and building to a thrilling climax–the 1969 final series, the last showdown between Russell and Chamberlain–The Rivalry has at its core a philosophical question: Can determination and a team ethos, embodied by the ultimate team player, Bill Russell, trump sheer talent, embodied by Wilt Chamberlain?

Gripping, insightful, and utterly compelling, the story of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain is the stuff of sporting legend. Written with a reporter’s unerring command of events and a storyteller’s flair, The Rivalry will take its place as one of the classic works of sports history.

Customer Reviews:

Russell and Chamberlain.......2007-06-27

Silly for me to say this but on the paperback cover, there is a picture of Chamberlain shooting over Russell, and it looks like Wilt is smiling as he shoots. I think the difference between the two men was that Chamberlain was pursued when he was a boy whereas Russell was a walk-on at USF - that most likely made Russell work harder for everything he got and made him more determined to prove himself to the world - in a word, Chamberlain was coddled all his life. I have always wondered why Wilt's playoff stats "dipped" in comparison to his regular season stats; maybe this is the reason why. The Celtics always being victorious in the championships was of course due to the fact that Russell was always surrounded by better players - compare Havlicek to Chet Walker or Bob Cousy to Guy Rodgers - and I'm convinced Chamberlain would be filling Russell's shoes if he were surrounded by those same Celtics. A very good book by Taylor - it details the times, the social commentaries, and the state of the NBA.

The Rivalry.......2007-06-27

David Letterman talked about this on his talk show and I placed it on "My Wish List". I just received it and I am sure it will be a very good read.

Excellent book on a legendary era.......2007-01-12

Having read many basketball books, I find this as one of the best. Well-written, thoroughly researched, it captures the era of the 50s and 60s from the perspective of two of the greatest players ever, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. Thankfully, Taylor does not go into play-by-play detail of games, instead captures the flavor of the era, everything from coaching, basketball styles, management, to racism. It is fascinating and truly an outstanding read. I highly recommend it.

* I usually stay away from blasting another review, but the one below that says it is poorly written and that the author does not know basketball is so off the mark, I would say it is a complete lie and fabrication. Ignore that review and get this book.

The Rivalry's Got Game.......2006-05-12

No two players in NBA history better epitomize the dichotomy between individual excellence and a willingness to blend their talent for the collective success of the team than William Felton Russell and Norman Wilton Chamberlain.

While author John Taylor's latest work centers (pun intended) on two of the greatest bballers in NBA history, The Rivalry isn't your typical slam-jam basketball biography. On the contrary, his latest work is a finely crafted historical chronicle showcasing the fledgling days of the National Basketball Association, circa today's tattoo-flaunting, hip-hop happy hoopsters and multi-million dollar play palaces.

The author's unflagging narrative provides vivid eyewitness accounts of an NBA that played fourth fiddle to other sports, and where games were often played in front of vegetable throwing crowds that would make the Throwdown in Motown seem like a summer camp pillow fight.

Off the court, the two men the book is largely about were as different as the masterful way they played the game. Russell was reserved, introverted - some said surly. Chamberlain was flashy, outgoing and tried more coaches' patience than a roster full of Portland Trailblazers.

Taylor's riveting narrative style and thorough historical research make The Rivalry a classic sports work deserving of space alongside Plimpton, Feinstein and Halberstam.

good for anyone who enjoys nonfiction or basketball.......2006-01-19

A lot of times, these nonfiction books about games and scores and statistics and so on are packed full of information but are dense and not very compelling. John Taylor, however, does an excellent job of presenting a ton of information in a fun and interesting way. The book is easy and entertaining to read, and you'll probably learn a lot about Russell, Chamberlain, and the period during which they played basketball. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys well-written nonfiction, whether or not he is a basketball fan.

Heart of the Matter: Diary of a School Year

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Anyone interested in education should check out this work.
Climbing to the heights

Heart of the Matter: Diary of a School Year
John Chamberlain
Manufacturer: Ginger Plum Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Educators | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The Heart of the Matter is a diary account of a school year at Fayette Street Academy, a private school in Santa Fe, New Mexico known for its innovative methods. For years the staff has been asked to write about the daily events and teaching techniques. Now John Chamberlain, a co-founder of the school, has answered that request. In his book are woven stories of student centered events, philosophy of the school, successful teaching tips; all in a delightful telling of one school community.

Customer Reviews:

Anyone interested in education should check out this work........2002-01-05

Dear Friend,

Education is a hot topic these days. A good friend and long time
acquaintance has run a very successful small private school for over twenty years. He has recently written a book narrating the happenings of one school year. Anyone interested in education should check out this work. The book is filled with insights, teaching tips, humorous happenings, and is an all together pleasant read...

Climbing to the heights.......2001-12-28

The guiding principle at Fayette Street Academy in Santa Fe, New Mexico, comes from a quote by the legendary college football coach, Bear Bryant: "If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, you did it." John Chamberlain, headmaster, teacher, and "head elf" of the school has written a "real good" book about an excellent school.

Twenty-eight students, ages 7-14, use no textbooks, attend classes only four days a week, do no academic work for the seven weeks preceding the Christmas holidays, spend many wonderful hours swinging and climbing the ropes course in the "Big Elm," and play baseball every afternoon in May. They sprawl on floor pillows instead of sitting at desks, don't use computers in school, and don't work for grades.

However, they study physics, history, Greek, Latin, French, music, algebra, and inorganic chemistry. They perform Shakespearean plays in the Big Elm, read Robert Burns and Harry Potter, portions of the Bible, the Koran, and the Dhammapada, and the U.S. Constitution. They perform in near-professional Winter and Spring concerts, play non-competitive soccer, and spend many hours perfecting their essay-writing skills.

The 20-year-old school has a reputation for academic excellence and innovative teaching techniques. They have no endowments, use no government funds, and do not advertise, yet have five applicants for each student opening. A majority of former students have been on high school honor rolls and excel in college and post-graduate studies.

Highlights of the school year are the two Parents' Weeks in which parents take charge of the school and all instruction. Those periods serve several important functions: they provide the staff members needed breaks for rest and class preparation; they allow parents an inside view of the school and a taste of the challenges teachers face every day; and they give students a chance to see other faces and experience new ideas.

A continuous thread of climbing weaves its way through the book, both physically and metaphorically. Using his many years of mountain climbing expertise, the author has rigged the Big Elm with all manner of climbing ropes, pulleys, handholds, and swings, and carefully supervises each student's practicing. Students climb and swing almost every day, some making their way to the very top of the tree, others perfecting their swinging skills from shed rood to shed roof. This emphasis on climbing and swinging develops the children's mastery in paying attention and following directions and also enhances their self-confidence. Students at Fayette learn not to underestimate themselves, to develop their skills and intellects to the highest degree possible. They climb the heights intellectually.

The love and skill shown at Fayette Street Academy is palpable and thoroughly honest. John can tell when his students are learning by looking in their eyes. Please read this comfortable, entertaining, enchanting, and uplifting book. You will come away with the feeling that children can learn anything and everything if allowed the space and given the attention needed to climb to their own individual heights.

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A hate crime against one family

Classic

EVIL ANGELS (Cry in the Dark Movie Title)
John Bryson
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Movie Tie-Ins | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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A Cry in the Dark

ASIN: 0553272071
Release Date: 1988-05-01

Customer Reviews:

A hate crime against one family.......2007-05-11

I was a young child in Primary School when baby Azaria got taken by the Dingo, but even now 25 years on, I still remember the debates on whether Lindy Chamberlain was innocent or guilty.
Comments such as "she looks too emotionally cold for a woman who has just lost her baby" and the speculation that because Azaria had a black dress in her wardrobe, her parents must have been invoved in sacrificial rituals, because who would dress a baby in black?
What occurred at the time was a media sensation that used peoples fear of the uncommon (ie. a little known religion "the seventh day adventists) and used it to sell their magazines, newspapers or boost their television ratings. The media have a lot to answer for, as do the Northern Territory Police whose shoddy investigative methods and conclusions led to a Nation wide hate crime against a family who were going through one of the most difficult experiences a family can face, the loss of a child.
Evil Angels is a factual and non-biased account (despite my afore mentioned feeling on the matter) about the events leading up to the dissapearance of Azaria Chamberlain and the investigation, media frenzy and court trial that occurred afterwards.
It is a long book, but very interesting and tragic.
I highly recommend this book.

Classic.......2000-03-21

This is a classic in not only telling the story of the Chamberlains, particularly Lindy, the mother whose baby was taken by a dingo 20 years ago, but also about how people can be caught up in a maelstrom of media scrutiny.

I remember the events so well, and, like the rest of Australia, watched them unfold year by year.

The Northern territory government and the media have a lot to answer for. The NT remains a backwater of injustice to this day - most often directed towards Aborigines, but also, as demonstrated here, with invective directed towards another group outside the conventional mainstream.

The media reported in the most outrageously biased and one-sided fashion, and actually whipped up the populous into a frenzy of finger-pointing, gossiping hatred toward Mrs Chamberlain.

I am not at all religious, but to my mind Seventh Day Adventism doesn't even sit far outside the mainstream Christian tradition, yet we were encouraged to believe it was some sort of devil-worshipping Jim Jones type sect.

Eventually the government was forced to recognise the veracity of the Chamberlain's story. ironically, another person died on The Rock for the essential clue to be discovered - a tourist fell off and his body was found near the baby's matinee jacket. It is almost beyond belief the lengths the authorities went to to balme the parents, when most of the people closest to the event on that night verified or supported the Chamberlain's case. Yet those voices were drowned out for years.

Book Description

An important new reappraisal of the immediate origins of World War II. Entertaining and absorbing....Chamberlain hardly emerges a hero from these pages, but at least there is no excuse left for regarding him as no more than a wimp in a wing-collar. --The Guardian

Customer Reviews:

The True Hero of the War.......2007-04-23

Great Britain, like all countries, lives by a national myth. The story every child learns at school is that in its finest hour the country stood alone against Germany and saved the world from an evil creed called Nazism. What is ignored is that the only result of the war was that Eastern Europe was lost to an equally evil creed called Communism. And in case you are thinking "What about the Holocaust?" don't forget that the Holocaust didn't begin until well into the war; Hitler's original plan was to expel the Jews.
In order to make the national myth work, Chamberlain, and anyone who helped him in his attempts to prevent war, must be demonised as weak and stupid. But what was weak and stupid about trying to prevent millions of deaths or recognising that Germany had some legitimate demands?
John Charmley shows Churchill as most people in the 1930s saw him - a war-mongering opportunist with very bad judgement. He presents Chamberlain in his true colours - a decent man doing his best for his people.

Charmley Is Right.......2001-03-21

English historian John Charmley has disturbed World War II "establishment historians"--and established myths--by his iconoclastic re-interpretaion of the origins and beginning of the 1939-1945 war. Yet, in a series of closely reasoned studies he makes telling points that reveal a number of missed opportunities, in the months and weeks before and even after the outbreak of war, to have secured a satisfactory resolution of the growing hostility between the UK and Germany. He does not say that this resolution would have been permanent in the long run; indeed, the two powers may have eventually ended up in conflict. Nevertheless, the possibility that Britain could have kept out of a general war for another couple of years, while Germany was expending its resources and materiel in a war in the East, might well have changed the course of history. The "war hawk" party in London, egged on surreptiously by the Roosevelt administration and ideological "anti-fascists," managed to get Britain mired in a conflict for which it was not ready and which in the end totally exhausted it, which ended its role as world power, and that meant the destruction of the "empire." Churchill's vaunted promise to "defend the empire" was made hollow as he presided over the very destruction of that empire--and of historic Britain. Charmley offers ample notes and primary sources for his interpretation. While certainly not a new view--Barnett, Taylor and others have made similar points--Charmley's points deserve respectful consideration--not the "Establishment" condescension (and apparent fear!) that some have exhibited.

A very strange look at 1939.......2000-04-22

John Charmley has a thesis that he has tried to hammer home repeatedly: that Britain should not have intervened in the Second World War and that, by doing so, Winston Churchill succeeded in mortgaging Britain's future to America, losing the Empire, and ushering in decades of social democracy in Britain. In other words, Charmley thinks Britain would have been better off if it had turned an even blinder eye to Nazism.

This book is nominally about Chamberlain, but we see a lot of Churchill and Charmley tries to bring in his arch-villain whenever possible. This visceral dislike for Churchill - combined with a fawning admiration for Chamberlain - is troubling in that it prevents Charmley from acknowledging that one was ever right and that the other was ever wrong. This book is about as partisan as possible.

His ultimate argument, that Nazi Germany posed no threat to Britain is absurd. Charmley does not even bother to examine Hitler's ambitions; had he done so, his argument would have fallen apart. Germany sought to be an Atlantic power, as well as a European power. Ideological bias blinds Charmley from the fact that a triumphant Germany would have effectively emasculated Britain and encouraged Italy and Japan to poach London's colonial possessions. He despises America enough to blind him to the fact that there were far more rapacious powers operating in the 1940s (see some of the letters Charmley has written to the Daily Telegraph)

All in all, this book is best read as an example of modern-day Tory cynicism and contempt for the past. As a chronicle of the years before the war it has little to recommend it.

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