Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, Buchanan

The full title of this book is Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War - How Britain Lost its Empire and the West Lost the World. The book is by Patrick J. Buchanan. Buchanan was a senior adviser to three American Presidents of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. Buchanan is a syndicated columnist and founding member of three of American’s public affairs shows of NBC’s The McLaughlin Group and CNN’s The Capital Gang and Crossfire. He is a senior political analyst for MSNBC.

Buchanan has many interesting things to say about the war. As many historians currently seem to be doing, he is looking at WWI and WWII as one war. He calls the world wars the Great Civil War of the West. This is an interesting idea and certainly worth considering.

He talks about how the Eastern Europeans saw Stalin as a bigger threat to them than Hitler. They may have been right. I know when I worked with some Eastern Europeans they certainly express that view. A lot of historians, including Buchanan certainly think that Britain made some bad choices in both world wars. Britain certainly lost its empire because of these wars. Part of the reason was that the US did not support a British Empire. They support the UK in the fighting, but not the British Empire. This has a lot to do with why the British Empire was dismantled following WWII.

There is an entry on Wikipedia for Buchanan at Pat Buchanan. He has his own web site and blog at Patrick J. Buchanan.

You can find Buchanan on YouTube at Buchanan. What I have linked to is part 1 of a 10 part series (1 hour) of Buchanan talking about his book. For a typical book review, see the one at Magistra Mater. There is a review by Adam Kirsch, which completely pans this book and you can find it at The Sun.

I must say that I personally liked the book. I find it thought provoking. You may not agree with his views, but the book is well written. It also makes you think about the two world wars we suffered.

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Buchanan. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.