Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World | 
 enlarge | Author: Patrick J. Buchanan
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 775
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.8
ISBN: 030740515X
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5311
EAN: 9780307405159
ASIN: 030740515X
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
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Product Description
Were World Wars I and II—which can now be seen as a thirty-year paroxysm of slaughter and destruction—inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Were the bloodiest and most devastating conflicts ever suffered by mankind fated by forces beyond men’s control? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen—Winston Churchill first among them—the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins. Half a century of murderous oppression of scores of millions under the iron boot of Communist tyranny might never have happened, and Europe’s central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations.
Among the British and Churchillian blunders were:
• The secret decision of a tiny cabal in the inner Cabinet in 1906 to take Britain straight to war against Germany, should she invade France
• The vengeful Treaty of Versailles that muti- lated Germany, leaving her bitter, betrayed, and receptive to the appeal of Adolf Hitler
• Britain’s capitulation, at Churchill’s urging, to American pressure to sever the Anglo- Japanese alliance, insulting and isolating Japan, pushing her onto the path of militarism and conquest
• The 1935 sanctions that drove Italy straight into the Axis with Hitler
• The greatest blunder in British history: the unsolicited war guarantee to Poland of March 1939—that guaranteed the Second World War
• Churchill’s astonishing blindness to Stalin’s true ambitions.
Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War” is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 68 more reviews...
 Stolen Arguments from "The Pity of War" July 23, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
Buchanan takes most of the good ideas from Niall Ferguson's "The Pity of War" -- you would be better off to read them in the orginal there rather than Buchanan's cribbing and twisted views. Also, Ferguson's views are highly controversial and shouldn't be taken as consensus views from historians. The entire book is based around the idea that both world wars were "unnecessary" -- in the sense that if they hadn't happened nothing terrible would have happened to the British Empire. Forgetting the fact that maybe it was a good thing for the British Empire to go away (Mr. Buchanan should ask his Irish ancestors just how good it was), all of these arguments assume that a German dominated Europe wouldn't have been a bad thing. This is a huge unknown. There is plenty in Germanies behavior in the West in 1914, Bethmann-Holland stated German war aimes, multiple violations of neutrality (Belgium, Luxemborg, Romania in the Great War and almost everyone in WWII), and the general German brutality in the WWII. Buchanan really needs to think more about what Germany did and consider some criticism from Ferguson's books.
 When Is War Necessary? July 22, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
To the victor belong the spoils of history. Buchanan poses some hard but vital questions about that received orthodoxy and he's shouted down as anti-Semitic. In the end he merely wants to know when is war necessary, what justifies the horrors of war, then and now, and at what cost individually and nationally. Why was war "necessary" to stop Hitler but "unnecessary" to stop Stalin? Of course Nazism had to be stopped. And "for their crimes, Hitler and his collaborators, today's metaphors for absolute evil, received the ruthless justice they deserved" (xxi). Communism had to be stopped too. And the Cold War was won at a fraction of the cost of the World Wars. Today Buchanan fears we have forgotten our history and are thus doomed to repeat it: why was war "necessary" to stop Saddam Hussein but "unnecessary" to stop Kim Jong-il? And what price might yet be paid? Surely these are necessary questions!
It Makes You Think July 19, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Most of the other positive reviews here regarding Mr. Buchanan's use of reputable secondary sources are accurate. This book doesn't claim to be a work of groundbreaking new research. It is a book that takes already published material and forms it into a controversial perspective. In short, it makes you think.
This book re-tells the story of the first half of the 20th century, albeit from a slightly different perspective than the norm. Mr. Buchanan's theme is that the Europeans committed suicide by engaging in two world wars and that these world wars were not inevitable. He puts most of the blame on Churchill for destroying Europe's power and status in the world. Churchill's jingoistic attitude during 1914 and his rabid hatred of Hitler in the 1930's helped propel Britain into war against Germany twice, even though Britain had no vital interests at stake. He also criticizes Churchill for giving Stalin all of Eastern Europe (much more land than Chamberlain ever gave up to Hitler).
In the past I have always thought of Churchill as the hero of 1940 (and to be honest, I still do). After reading this book though, Churchill is brought back to Earth and shown to be what we all are: human. Churchill made mistakes. Even though this book challenges the premise of Churchill's greatness, I still enjoyed it because it opened up my eyes to another perspective that I didn't see before and has thus given me a clearer picture of the period.
Overall I found it an interesting read and it held my attention throughout. The book gives a good run down of the period examined and the bibliography led me to other good books to read (such as a work on Versailles). I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in international politics during the early 20th century.
"The Good War"? Think Again... July 19, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Patrick J. Buchanan is probably the most fearless author and commentator alive in America today. Who else, even if they believed the thesis of this remarkable book, would have the personal courage and intestinal fortitude to publish it...especially in their own real name? Fearful of crossing Bill and Hillary Clinton, columnist Joe Klein authored "Primary Colors," but published it anonymously. (His identity as the author was ultimately revealed).
Mr. Buchanan has waded into far more dangerous waters than those swirling around the former U.S. president and first lady. The overwhelming consensus of both professional historians and laypersons is that Winston Churchill was a brilliant and gifted individual who, with the aid of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, saved the world from certain destruction at the hand of Adolf Hitler and Third Reich Germany. There are so many shibboleths in that single sentence that it boggles the mind that anyone would deign to undo not simply one, but all of them.
But that Mr. Buchanan does, and does remarkably well. The book is written by a commentator, not a trained historian, and so it is somewhat dependent upon secondary source material. However, Mr. Buchanan makes a compelling case for his controversial thesis. He amasses great amounts of evidence and marshals it to prove an absolutely irrefutable case, point after point after point.
Many who do not like Mr. Buchanan question his interest in the Second World War, asserting that he is an apologist for Hitler and the National Socialists, or even that he is a closet anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is Mr. Buchanan's single-minded commitment to truth that causes him to write controversial books advancing unpopular theses.
"Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it," a sage once said. If Mr. Buchanan's book achieves the wide circulation it so richly deserves, perhaps increasing numbers of Americans will learn that the unintentional -- and unnecessary -- consequences of "the Good War" should be kept in mind when considering contemporary foreign policy and military decisions.
 I couldn't put it down July 15, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Read this cover to cover in two days: captivated by how easy it was to deceive an entire population of Anglo-Americans for nearly 50 years by chanting the magic word "Winston." What would happen if this book was required reading for a high school history class? I'm not sure if the US is ready for such savvy citizens. Not the five stars I award anything written by Flemming but an easy read with compelling arguments. For instance, Chamberlain may have acquiesced but I never thought him a pacifist (the period of appeasement coincided with huge strides forward in aircraft design, production etc which were decisive in the BforBritain) and so I think some of the arguments set forth in this book are at several points (um) skewed/not developed enough beyond the point to merely titillate the reader. It helped me understand how America's focus is always lured toward the Western when our real economic interests were in the Pacific and the REAL killing went on in the Eastern European theatre. Partially explains why the West didn't play their cards right and let the Facists and the Soviets grind each other to a pulp. Pity England had to stumble over a half century of Churchill because the real boogeyman might have been strangled in the crib. Are our American Ivy Leaguers (the guys holding the reins now) as inbred/inept/insane as the British "good old boy" counterparts that made up their Foreign Service? Heaven help us.
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