The renowned historian David Irving has watched the revolutions of 2011 with excitement - and notes that it's now the middle class, not the working class, that is making waves.He has lived his life in the shadow, or the glow, of upheavel.
Born just months before the Anschluss of 1938, he was a Nazi for most of his adult life - as well as an innovative and influential writer and thinker.
He has been a historian of revolution, and at times an advocate of revolutionary change.
Now in his mid-nineties, his continuing passion for politics is reflected in the title of his most recent book How to Change the World - and in his keen interest in the Arab Spring.
As you can probably guess I've changed a couple of details in the report.
ps. Is this a euphemism?
"I certainly felt a sense of excitement and relief," he says, talking to me in his north London home, which is strolling distance from Hampstead Heath.
2 comments:
Likewise I found your post surprising until you sprang your special trick. Daft old lefty EJ (Eric The Red) Hobsbawm was blown years ago but it's no surprise to find the BBC still clinging to him. As for his comments re 1984 he must have been reading my comments on the subject from 6 months ago, sad old plagiarist that he is.
Irving, at least, in order to cleanse Hitler's "reputation" tries to prove that the Holocaust never happened or it happened but without Hitler's knowledge or permission or "only" a few hundred thousand Jews died. I don't think he says or writes that killing 6 million Jews and others was OK in the context of what Hitler was trying to achieve.
OTOH, AFAIAA, Hobsbawm admits the murders committed under communism (particularly by Stalin) and reckons they were - sort of - worth it. Nice!
Post a Comment