Dec 2, 2009
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
- ISBN13: 9780060875992
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
A magisterial history inspired by Winston Churchill’s famous opus, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 is an engrossing account of the twentieth century, with a unique perspective on our turbulent times. In 1900, where Churchill ended the fourth volume of his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, the United States had not yet emerged onto the world scene as a great power. Yet the coming century was to belong to the English-speaking peoples, who … More >>
I made the mistake of buying this absurdity based on the title, which implies a thoughtful, objective, and intelligent presentation. Instead the book is nothing but neoconservative regurgitated drivel replete with significant factual inaccuracies.
As an example, the prickly Roberts feebly attempts to justify the deaths of 130,000 innocent civilians and Allied POWs in the closing days of WW II during the infamous fire bombing of Germany’s most beautiful city and Europe’s finest example of Baroque-Humanism architecture, Dresden. The defenseless Dresden was bloated with a quarter million refugees (primarily women, children, and Allied POWs) and of no economic, military, or strategic significance. On the topic of global climate change, the author invokes the Republican war on science party line that global warming is a hoax being perpetrated by environmentalists to raise money. Sadly, Republican attempts to obfuscate the science and confuse the public have been largely successful. In the meantime, mankind’s atmospheric experiment continues unabated via the expulsion of 72 million tons of carbon dioxide every 24 hours. Scientists have established, with a high degree of probability, a vision of the future based on the Permian Mass Extinction, which occurred as a consequence of a warming planet- catastrophic species loss across the planet, coastal flooding, drought. The world must never forget the parties responsible for preventing meaningful and timely action.
Unless you wish to view the world through the rosiest of rose colored glasses, you are advised to stay well clear of this neocon revisionist gibberish.
Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us.
“The good Earth- we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy.”- Kurt Vonnegut
Rating: 1 / 5
The great man is no doubt rolling in his grave that a political tract like this book is representing itself as a continuation of the Churchill work. “Just say no” if you were thinking this was a history book. And someone should tell the author that the global warming debate is over.
Rating: 1 / 5
If you are old fashioned like me you expect historians to at least try to get a handle on the truth. This author isn’t even close. I went right to the section on Bush and the war in Iraq and was greeted with the most revisionist history one can imagine. For example, the author simply asserts that Bush (and Blair) simply believed bad intelligence and went into Iraq based on it. As I write this, we are hearing how the pentagon invented the intelligence that Bush wanted to justify his war. And, of course there is the Downing Street Memo, etc. And this was just one of the many false assertions in this book. If this is any indication the book is pure bunk. This guy is no historian. He is simply a propagandist. Don’t buy the book if you are interested in history as truth.
Rating: 1 / 5
I suppose my not getting past the introduction before flinging aside this absolutely blinkered, narrow-minded book should disqualify me from weighing in, but I have to agree with the previous reviewer – save your money.
Mr. Roberts commits the cardinal sin of history writing – he has an utter lack of objectiveity, and obviously came to his subject with all his notions and opinions firmly in place.
Read Niall Ferguson on the 20th century instead.
Rating: 1 / 5
Andrew Roberts believes that the British Empire is the perhaps the best thing that ever happened, since its progeny (the Commonwealth nations and the United States) have made liberalism and free-market capitalism the aspiration of most of the world’s governments. One can agree with that and still have a hard time understanding how one of Britain’s most gifted young historians could have produced such an awful book, one that is filled with factual mistakes and questionable reasoning.
As The Economist wrote in a recent review of this book, “Mr Roberts’s work is less a history than a giant political pamphlet larded with its author’s prejudices, with sneers at those who do not share them and with errors.” I agree. Don’t waste your money on this bloated doorstop.
Rating: 1 / 5