The Phoney Victory
The World War II Illusion
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $25.99
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
Was World War II really the `Good War'? In the years since the declaration of peace in 1945 many myths have sprung up around the conflict in the victorious nations. In this book, Peter Hitchens deconstructs the many fables which have become associated with the narrative of the `Good War'. Whilst not criticising or doubting the need for war against Nazi Germany at some stage, Hitchens does query whether September 1939 was the right moment, or the independence of Poland the right issue.
He points out that in the summer of 1939 Britain and France were wholly unprepared for a major European war and that this quickly became apparent in the conflict that ensued. He also rejects the retroactive claim that Britain went to war in 1939 to save the Jewish population of Europe. On the contrary, the beginning and intensification of war made it easier for Germany to begin the policy of mass murder in secret as well as closing most escape routes. In a provocative, but deeply-researched book, Hitchens questions the most common assumptions surrounding World War II, turning on its head the myth of Britain's role in a `Good War'.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Hitchens (The Abolition of Britain) tackles what he considers a misleading, corrosive myth: that WWII, Britain's war in particular, was a "good war." He argues that, far from being a heroic, principled commitment of Britain's last resources against ultimate evil, that war shows Britannia with her knickers down. Hitchens begins by suggesting that Britain went to war in 1939 not to save civilization but to maintain its waning status as a great power. It waged that war, he continues, on a scale incommensurate with its resources to a point where by 1945 its relationship to the U.S. approached clientage. A series of errors and misjudgments produced Dunkirk, Crete, and Singapore, and led to the killing of German civilians in their homes. Following the war, Hitchens writes, Britain embarked on the helter-skelter abandonment of its empire, leaving an abundance of unresolved questions. Perhaps worst of all, he argues, WWII left a network of shibboleths like "appeasement" in international culture, encouraging Western countries to fight the "good war" again from Korea to Vietnam to Iraq in order to bask once more in its spurious virtue. American readers are likely to consider this as something like WWII seen through a fun house mirror, but that doesn't mean it's without insight.
