APOLOGIES' FOR WAR
Barnes, Harry Elmer
Apologies' For War THIS AGE OF CONFLICT 1914-1943, by Frank P. Chambers, Christina P. Grant, and Charles C. Bay-ley. Harcourt, Brace. $5.50. THE ORIGIN AND BACKGROUND OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, by...
...The account of the diplomatic background of the second World War is as traditional as the summary of the causes of the first...
...The present book, on the other hand, is a long and faithful historical apology for the epic of the United Nations...
...The main impression to be gained from these books is that we are still far from the "now it can be told" stage of the history of the antecedents of the second World War...
...Oxford University Press...
...There is not a hint relative to the hypocrisy and stage-play that preceded the Munich conference...
...Beginning with the onset of the first World War, the book brings us down to the invasion of North Africa last November...
...Haines and Hoffman covers almost exactly the same ground as the book just reviewed...
...While the diplomacy and politics of the victorious Allies of 1918 are not always represented as lily-white in the interval between the two World Wars, they always come off best in moral evaluation, when set off against those of the Central Powers, Russia and Japan...
...The interpretation of the policies of Petain and of the nature of the French Armistice in 1940 approaches utter nonsense...
...It is not a detailed account of the diplomacy which led to war in September, 1939, which is treated with relative brevity...
...If anything, Haines and Hoffman are even more conventional in their treatment of the causes of the first World War...
...THE ORIGIN AND BACKGROUND OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, by C. Grove Haines and Rosa J. S. Hoffman...
...Yet, if the book is read with a proper understanding of its biases and selections, and with due allowance therefor, it can fairly be called the most valuable and complete narrative of the political and diplomatic history of the world since the outbreak of the first World War...
...They follow the same traditional rut in portraying the policy of appeasement...
...Rather, it is a diplomatic and political history of the world since 1914, though far more briefly handled than the work by Mr...
...There is no comprehension of the obvious fact that his Anglomania and Russo phobia prevented him from making more than a half-hearted attempt, and in the air alone, and led him to call off the effort he did make when it was only a few hours from succeeding in bringing British capitulation, as Churchill has freely admitted...
...His earlier work contained plenty of unconventional and illuminating material, and the author did not fear to stray from traditional and respectable interpretations...
...The British policy is portrayed as innocent and naive appeasement of Germany and Italy, rather than shrewd and deliberate collaboration with the Axis to undo Soviet Russia...
...The volume by Prof...
...We also find repeated the myth that Hitler really tried to take Britain in 1940-41...
...The volume starts off with an inspired quotation from Winston Churchill, and then apparently seeks to document it over some 850 large and well-packed pages...
...It may well be that any greater approach to realism can hardly be expected at this time...
...Nor is there any revelation that Britain, France and the Central European powers were almost as restless under the Munich agreement, in the Spring of 1939, as was Hitler...
...Reviewed by Harry Elmer Barnes THOSE WHO READ Mr...
...The tone and temper of the two books, are also all but identical...
...Chambers and his associates...
...Grant and Bayley...
...4.25...
...Chambers' earlier book, The War Behind the War, are likely to be somewhat disappointed by the present product of his pen, in collaboration with Prof...
...Haines and Hoffman are no less devoted to buttressing the high morality and profound integrity of the United Nations...
...One would never get the impression that the Armistice really saved Britain and the Mediterranean...
Vol. 7 • October 1943 • No. 42
