tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post8665107793313796702..comments2024-03-26T14:19:33.332-07:00Comments on Bench Grass: Fall of France, 10: Counterfactual, Or, Nimrods I have ReadErik Lundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-58831350572687843612011-03-08T13:50:29.579-08:002011-03-08T13:50:29.579-08:00Well, he wasn't exactly a fan of free enterpri...Well, he wasn't exactly a fan of free enterprise, either. John Byrne's Krypton is more his style. With the Science Council in charge, everything will finally be efficient!Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-70490127212665204132011-03-08T08:29:12.851-08:002011-03-08T08:29:12.851-08:00Isn't Barnett the same guy who thinks that the...Isn't Barnett the same guy who thinks that the elites 'allowing' the masses access to real health care and pensions- the NHS and the welfare state- was what crippled Britain economically after the war? I think I recall reading that from him somewhere or another. <br /><br />If true, one suspects that his fantasies are rather more like Margaret Thatcher holds power for a century, and never has to compromise with reality the way that the actual Milk Snatcher did...ChrisMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06264355590211481637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-64549475898950250672011-03-07T05:12:59.146-08:002011-03-07T05:12:59.146-08:00Wasn't it Victor Hugo who denounced the "...Wasn't it Victor Hugo who denounced the "sunken road of Waterloo" breed of historian, for whom Napoleon had clearly won the battle, only for his victorious troops to fall prey to this horrible obstacle. From there it was a short step to say that Napoleon had "really" won the battle. <br /><br />And there they were, these sunken-road historians at breakfast, their bodies cracking eggs, their minds in the glory of a triumphant Empire, a better world by far.<br /><br />To give Barnett his due credit, his mind lived in a world where Britain was ruled by technocrats. Hard men, but fair, and it seems at first glance better than those who dream of Nazis and Confederates triumphant.<br /><br />Or, then, maybe not. Our fantasies don't necessarily map to the real world, and, if they do, may be refracted through a private language.<br /><br />You know what? I think I'll leave it there, before I start defending neo-Confederates and neo-Nazis as being mainly concerned with finding ways of expressing their repressed sexuality. No good can come of expressing such notions...Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-34582761868653694722011-03-06T19:44:38.915-08:002011-03-06T19:44:38.915-08:00You are exactly right about a major preoccupation ...You are exactly right about a major preoccupation of WI builders relating to World War Two: getting Germany to win, generally in some ludicrous way that is even more silly than what the Nazis actually did: V-2 earlier! Improved Me-262! Panther Tanks in 1941! Konigtigers for everyone! <br /><br />But one thing that I think that Barnett's take is common one, certainly the conventional wisdom in the 1970's and 1980's (about the time that Barnett was an influential figure in popular history-writing, oddly enough). It focuses instead on all the "mistakes" the Allies made. If only we had listened to either Monty or Patton (depending on the historian) we would have won the war in 1944. If only there had been the Narrow Front! Or if the Tommies of Market-Garden hadn't stopped to brew up their tea! Or if the Falaise-Argentan gap had been closed! Then the war could have been won without all that nasty fighting. <br /><br />This is a piece with H.P. Willmott's trenchant point that when reading English language histories of the NW Europe it often appears that the main antagonists were Britain and the US, and the main front was a desk in SHAEF Headquarters. The fact that the Allies conducted an opposed amphibious assault, then liberated ~1/2 of Europe in less than a year, is never seen as a massive accomplishment, it's why didn't they win better?ChrisMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06264355590211481637noreply@blogger.com