Vice-Regal Saint: The English-Speaking Century
by Keith Windschuttle
In the past one hundred years, four successive political movements—Prussian militarism, German Nazism, Japanese imperialism, and international Communism—mounted military campaigns to conquer Europe, Asia, and the world. Had any of them prevailed, it would have been a profound loss for civilization as we know it. Yet over the course of these bids for power, a coalition headed first by Britain and then by the United States emerged not just to oppose but to destroy them utterly.
From the long perspective of human affairs, these victories must stand as among the most remarkable of the past three millennia. They were as decisive for world history as the victories of the ancient Greeks over Persia, of Rome over Carthage, and of the Franks over the Umayyad Caliphate.
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3 comments:
Dear Mr. Windschuttle,
Thank you for your attractive and well-looking blog. I have read the review in your first post, and I must confess to being troubled by some things. I do agree that the history of the English-speaking world up until the time of Churchill was on the whole honorable in its conduct, and admirable, as you point out, in defeating the four tyrannous threats that you mentioned. But it is the post-1960's period that increasingly troubles me, in the sense that I feel that Western man shows signs of having abandoned the ethical guidelines of the Christian religion (despite lip- service to it, esp. in the US), the sense of proportion and even reason (e.g. consider the fanatic attacks of the Darwinists against Intelligent Design). There seems to be increasing suffocation of the mind, demonization of enemies, narrowness of vision, and inability to address considerable challenges realistically. So, Sir, what I am saying is that while I feel in sympathy to the thesis of the book, I wonder also if the author has considered in all gravity the seeming abyss that separates the pre-1960 era from what has come after it.
I would be most honored if you would visit my blog and read my recent piece, "Dissing Toynbee" - I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about Toynbee, a historian I much admire.
http://from-the-catacombs.blogspot.com/2007/02/dissing-toynbee.html
Caryl, Mr. Windschuttle doesn't blog here; I am merely linking to his work over at the New Criterion. If you are interested more in this Australian writer and thinker, you will find him at the Quadrant magazine or at sydneyline.com where he consolidates all of his work.
By the way, I agree that Chesterton can hardly be thought of as obscurantist. Chesterton is truth and irony melded into one.
Chesterton is more, sir. He is almost a prophet of God. And as is with the fate of prophets of God, they are not accepted in their own country.
Alas for England.
Alba go bragh!
Erin go bragh!
Free Wales!
Free Cornwall!
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