Churchill, Hitler, and 'The Unnecessary War'

How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World

By: Patrick J. Buchanan

Narrated by: Don Leslie

Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Were World Wars I and II - which can now be seen as a 30-year paroxysm of slaughter and destruction - inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Were the bloodiest and most devastating conflicts ever suffered by mankind fated by forces beyond man’s control? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen - Winston Churchill first among them - the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins.

Half a century of murderous oppression of scores of millions under the iron boot of Communist tyranny might never have happened, and Europe’s central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations.

Among the British and Churchillian blunders were:

• The vengeful Treaty of Versailles that mutilated Germany, leaving her bitter, betrayed, and receptive to the appeal of Adolf Hitler
• Britain’s capitulation, at Churchill’s urging, to American pressure to sever the Anglo-Japanese alliance, insulting and isolating Japan
• The greatest blunder in British history: the unsolicited war guarantee to Poland of March 1939 - that guaranteed the Second World War

Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Churchill, Hitler and 'the Unnecessary War' is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future that no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.

©2008 Patrick J. Buchanan (P)2008 Books on Tape

A Must Read

This book is one I will read again. It is rich with the history I was never taught in public schools. Buchanan is to be lauded for his scholarship and in-depth analysis. This book helped me to understand both World Wars and Germany's actions in them. Please do not take this to be a whitewashing of Nazi Germany's warcrimes though. The last chapter shows the direction in which this nation is rushing headlong. If you are a serious student of history or politics you will find this an informative read. I sincerely believe you will consider this money or a credit well spent.

Excellent!

Woven together in a way that requires more than a rudimentary knowledge of this era and the players. Buchanan makes a very detailed and compelling case. Buchanan fleshes out these well-known characters as the complex and flawed creatures they were, not their "statue" history that most people know and accept. Both Churchill and Chamberlain come alive as real humans living in the context of their times.

Buchanan shows how the mistakes of WWI, brought about WWII and the Cold War and that there were opportunities to avert both conflagrations. Today, as the opportunities for peace after the fall of the Soviet Union fall away one-by-one, we have to wonder if we are not making similar mistakes.

The baddies are not the baddies from my youth

This history book is essential reading. Even if only for epistemological hygiene; this book challenges the narratives supplied by my American public school education and popular culture.

Correction not revision

To be clear this is not a revisionist history. Instead Buchanan offers a needed correction to faulty perceptions on the Great War. He particularly targets the inflated views of Churchill. More could be said on the diplomatic failures, outrageous pride and terrible destruction of that era but Buchanan gives a very good start. The book is a bit redundant with some repeated phrasing - though this is not unwelcome when trying to remember historical detail. At first I found the narrator an unnatural fit for Buchanan's voice but I quickly became accustomed and conclude it was a good performance (though I would have welcomed the author reading). The book is easily accessible but well referenced. It is applicable not only as history but as cautionary tale, as we are want to go down similar paths.

Required reading

Im going to listen to it again but this time, I'll be sitting with a pen and paper. This ought to be required reading for all citizens of the west. We are repeating history because we have not learned it.

The "greatest generation" sacrificed its best and brightest in brother wars that should have never been fought. Listen to the book, then do some internet searches on Churchill and main side project, given to him by his uncle.

Outstanding

A perspective of the causes and outcomes of the World Wars that I haven’t read elsewhere.

Unbelievably good.

This is too good. It feels like relaxing by the tv as a kid listening to the history channel, except it’s about a topic that is unique and amazing. The reader was amazing, again sounding like an episode of the history channel. This is the first book I actually enjoyed on here. I’m going to be chasing this book and this feeling for the rest of my time.

A beautiful fresh look in a familiar subject.

This book explores the political intricacies that led to WW1 and WW2 by a person who has his own political experience. Buchanan's insights to various decisions taken by various political players of the two wars are invaluable, If one wants to understand what really did happen back then, tgen this is tge definite book he or she should read. The lesson to be learned by the United States on the epilogue will continuously sound as a prophetic warning across time.

The narrator was excellent, despite the "Gurrbels"(Goebbels) & "Phebuary" (February).

Lots of sense, beautifully researched

Buchanan at his best. While I dont agree with all the conclusions, I have learned a lot. A great guide for the future also.

Eye Opening

Quite an amazing book filled with information never taught in school or college. Simply stunned me and enlightened me also.