How do you keep something like this secret, if it involves telling military depots all over the country to start preparations, calling up railroads to start logistics planning, and I assume arranging for drafting men all over the country? Either nothing significant was happening. or Berlin should have fired their intelligence staff.
I’m going to guess both sides knew what the other was doing but wouldn’t say so.
I agree that the USA had no monopoly on racism or stereotyping. (I still have Mister Golliwog in my storage downstairs, that my mother made for my in the 1950’s). OTOH, when Idi Amin took over Uganda with interesting results, I recall some commentary that he was the first local African Commonwealth leader that had not been educated in British universities; Gandhi also was IIRC an Oxford-educated lawyer. I try to imagine Alabama or Missouri or Virginia educating the best and brightest of their ex-slaves in their most prestigious universities. There is a difference of degree…
Your “slam” against S.L.A. Marshall has nothing to do with the widely accepted facts he presented re the origins of WWI.
Perhaps you can dredge up a cite that shows Fritz Fischer had unpaid parking tickets. Or revisit your obsession with discrediting Barbara Tuchman.
Declaring that preparations to meet aggression are the equivalent of declaring war and invading one’s neighbors, is as ludicrous as your previous claim that post-WWI German reparations were unjust because the Germans only occupied a little bitty-teeny weeny part of French territory, so no big deal.
"This show of unity turned somber the next day as Macron addressed world leaders gathered at the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris. Alluding to the global rise of nationalism, he warned that “the old demons are reappearing, ready to do their work of spreading chaos and death. … At times, history threatens to resume its tragic course and jeopardize the peace we’ve inherited and which we thought we had secured for good with the blood of our ancestors.”
“That day, Reuters would report that Alexander Gauland, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), had criticized Merkel for participating in the armistice commemorations. The AfD, which entered the German parliament for the first time in 2017 on a platform of protecting the country against the perceived threat to German culture posed by Muslim and African immigrants, has called on Germans to rewrite the country’s history books to focus more attention on domestic war victims.”
"And yet here was Gauland accusing Merkel of attempting to rewrite history by appearing among the war’s “winners.” Germans, he said, “can’t put ourselves in a historical situation that clearly favors the winner and walk alongside Mr. Macron through the Arc de Triomphe.”
Well, the fact that he died in 1977 makes his conclusions totally wrong and outdated. As my cite shows:Clark lends authority by citing Russian-French falsifications of documents. The Russians backdated and reworded papers in the records. The French were even more inventive, fabricating a telegram reporting six days of war preparations by Germany that weren’t happening. In Clark’s phrase, both Russia and France were at pains, then and later, to make Berlin appear “the moral fulcrum of the crisis.” He had no chance to read or use the new information that has been found. Same with Tuchman. They were relying on false info.
To be fair, the comics of the 40’s and early 50’s had a common heritage with the pulp magazines of the era, and which were often luridly focused on crime and murder, horror, the occult, and scantily-clad women with veiled implications of rape. The Comics Code era was an overreaction, but one could legitimately call a lot of 40’s-era comics “that trash” and not be far wrong. I mean, we wouldn’t see heroines dressed like this again until the 1980s:
I’ve long felt that while that crackpot shrink may have honestly believed the dreck Seduction Of The Innocent, Congress did not. They went along to regulate an industry that was (my cite is many EC stories. Not so much the horror or cime suspense as the sci fi ones) teaching kids that racism and discrimination were wrong. They saw that comic books could be used to teach children and wanted be sure that only lessons they approved of were taught.
OMG! I read your book on Medusa(s) recently and found it so interesting and actually enjoyable to read. I blush to confess it made me go out and buy a medusa ring on etsy.
Gee, thanks. It’s always good to get positive feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed Medusa.
You might want to check out some of my other books. I’ve written another book on mythology – Sons of God – but I haven’t been able to find a publisher (Oxford turned me down, although they printed my two books on weird optics)
I’ve bookmarked your site. but I have such a pile of books in my to-be-read pile. Giant sigh.
Oh, my sister just googled you when I mentioned you. She said “he’s a smartie.” Concur. But mostly I enjoy your style of writing. Some of the chapters in the medusa book could have been dull dull dull, but were anything but. Thanks.
Right now I’m writing a book about a submarine, and trying to keep if from being dull, dull, dull. It’s a struggle. My wife and my writing group agree that I need to work on that. I am ruthlessly cutting interesting but ultimately pointless trivia.
I like trivia myself. I’m referring here to trivia that’s neither interesting nor informative. Putting facts in simply for the sake of having the facts may be good for a reference work or as documentation, but it can turn your book into a snoozefest, and you’ve got to weed it out.
Speaking of “false info”, Deth’s “they were all lusting after war” bullshit history appeared on the Dope as far back as 2015, and was convincingly shot down by posters including Tokyo Bayer and Dissonance in this thread.
And yet here he is, still insisting that preparing to counter aggression is morally equivalent to committing it.
Yeah, that thread is about WW2, and how much The Treaty of Versailles caused it. IIRC, Tokyo Bayer never replied to any of my posts or points, nor was I “convincingly shot down.” Note that Dissonance just relies upon the now debunked lie that Germany mobilized first and thus started it.
The German General staff was sure that Germany would LOSE the Great War (which is what happened, oddly). Why would you start a war you knew you were going to lose? The Germans thought there was one strategy would could pull Victory out of the jaws of Defeat. 1. There were sure the Russian steamroller was unstoppable (they were wrong). 2. They thought Russia was gonna be slow the mobilize (wrong again). 3. They thought they could beat France in a very short time, and then stave off Russia (wrong). It was a “Hail Mary pass”.
Yes, the Imperial Germans deserve full blame for invading Belgium. That was not only morally wrong, but stupid. Not to mention, in a war full of atrocities by all players (maybe not the latecomer USA) the German atrocities in Belgium were the worst.
“Russian-French falsifications of documents” . France had gone deeply in debt loaning Russia millions of francs to build a modern rail made to mobilize against Germany. They wanted to get Germany to pay for that and everything else. Thus France falsified documents to show German mobilized and attacked first- (which they did not), so the Treaty could say Germany had the blame for starting the war, and thus had to pay France. France lied to get money. And historians believed those lies until fairly recently. That part of the treaty- the “war blame” was what pissed Germany off, they knew it was a lie, but any objections would mean no food for their staving people. Mind you certainly making Germany pay for Belgium would be the right thing. However, afaik, Belgium got none of the gold, only some livestock. The gold went to France and the UK.
Yeas, that pin-up cover was widely shown as why comics needed a “Code”. But it was a small comic, printed by Quality comics. Early Wonder Woman, by DC were not so scandalous:
Yes, great book, I gave it 5 stars (I am a semi-pro book reviewer). And his web blog on Atlantis is solid also. Platos Atlantis was a parable, not history. Atlantis never existed Thus any claim that someone has “found Atlantis” is false.
This is even more flagrantly nonsensical than your previous insistence that the Allies and Central Powers were equally guilty of starting WWI.
It’s useless to continue to debate the point with someone whose views are so divorced from historical reality.
Thanks for bringing up Belgium though. For all the immense damage and suffering the occupying Germans caused in Belgium, postwar reconstruction was financed by the Belgians and Allies, not Germany. Though the cows and sheep were a swell token of regret.
“The total war damage was estimated at 36 billion Belgian francs…Germans (had) imposed occupation costs on Belgium (during WWI). Initially, they requested 40 million francs per month, by May 1917 the amount had increased to 60 million francs per month. The total sum paid throughout the war amounted to 2.280 million Belgian francs.”
It wouldn’t be surprising if you started telling us that Belgium was equally or more guilty than Germany for starting WWI. After all, Belgians refused free passage for German troops and fought to defend their country. Aggressors!
Note that Dissonance just relies upon the now debunked lie that Germany mobilized first and thus started it.