The War of Wars Analyzed to the Third Decimal Place

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Santa’s Book Bag

By Larry Thornberry // The American Spectator

A magnificent contribution from Victor Davis Hanson.

The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won
By Victor Davis Hanson
(Basic Books, 652 pages, $40)

Yes, Virginia, after thousands of books, lectures, debates, veteran memoirs, and documentaries, there is still something to say about World War II that advances our knowledge of that tragic, deadly and totally unnecessary world conflagration that claimed 65 million lives and changed the shape of the world. Military historian and Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson says it in his huge, dense, and important new book.

As I struggle in my office to capture Hanson’s analytical tour de force in review, I can see the shelf full of books on World War II that I’ve read over the decades. After reading Wars, I believe I have a firmer grasp of the big picture — very big picture indeed — of how this conflict began, the various tortuous paths it took, and how it resolved the way it did than after digesting all of these other volumes. Reviewers are sometimes over-quick to label a book essential. For readers who wish to fully understand World War II, this book is.

Readers will have to set aside some time to get through Wars. There is meat on every one of the 529 pages of text, and it can be thought-provoking. This is not a book to rush through. If you plan to read this one on an airline flight, it better be a long one. But for all the weight, length, and relentless analysis of Wars, the reader’s job is made easier by Hanson’s clear and persuasive prose. Continue reading “The War of Wars Analyzed to the Third Decimal Place” →

Disruptive Politics in the Trump Era: Yuval Levin or Victor Davis Hanson?

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By | December 15, 2017
American Greatness

The crucial question for the American Right today, as it has been for at least 60 years, is: What is the nature of its confrontation with modern liberalism?

Is it a policy argument over how to achieve the common goals of liberal democracy? Are we working to expand liberty, equality, and prosperity for all citizens? Do we share the same principles with American liberals but differ with them  over policy and how best to implement those principles? Is it really,  as  Yuval Levin has said, “a coherent debate between left and right forms of liberalism”?

Or is this conflict a much deeper existential struggle over the very nature of the American “regime” itself—its principles, values, institutions, mores, culture, education, citizenship, and “way of life”? Is it, as Victor Davis Hanson has put it, that we are in a “larger existential war for the soul of America”?

I would argue that Hanson is essentially correct: We are in the middle of a “regime” struggle. Continue reading “Disruptive Politics in the Trump Era: Yuval Levin or Victor Davis Hanson?” →

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From An Angry Reader:

 

It’s a good thing I’m 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers) away from you.

 

You can take that any way you want.

 

Daniel Weir

Washington, DC

 

___________________________________________

 

Dear Angry Reader Daniel Weir,

 

Making personal threats against someone with whom you disagree is not good for the soul.

 

Victor Hanson

Selma, CA

 

___________________________________________

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From An Angry Reader:

You live in an alternate universe, silly clown, silly institute, silly magazine. But the article was funny so congrats.

Sincerely,

Bruce Patten

___________________________________________

 

Dear Angry Reader Bruce Patten,

 

I congratulate you on your succinctness and your use of anaphora (“silly”…”silly”…”silly”) but otherwise your note is simply personal invective and underwhelming satire that is applicable to anything—and thus unfortunately nothing.

 

Sincerely,

Victor Hanson

Why Trump Should Consider a Post-Twitter Presidency

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by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review

 

By now, the president’s record has transcended his social-media idiosyncrasies.

 

Almost every supposedly informed prediction about President Donald Trump’s compulsive Twitter addiction has so far proved wrong.

 

He did not tweet his way out of the Republican nomination. Spontaneous social-media messaging did not lose Trump the general election race with Hillary Clinton. Nor has Trump tweeted his presidency into oblivion.

 

Instead, Trump’s tweets have not just bypassed the mostly progressive media; they’ve sent it into a tizzy. In near-suicidal fashion, networks such as CNN have melted down in hatred of Trump, goaded on by Trump’s Twitter digs.

 

Trump has often bragged that having a large following on social media — he has more than 44 million Twitter followers and connects with millions more via Facebook and Instagram — is “like having your own newspaper.”

 

He has a point. Continue reading “Why Trump Should Consider a Post-Twitter Presidency” →

One Mueller-Investigation Coincidence Too Many

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by Victor Davis Hanson//National Review

 

Stacking the deck with anti-Trump staffers is proving to be a really bad idea.

 

Special prosecutors, investigators, and counsels are usually a bad idea. They are admissions that constitutionally mandated institutions don’t work — and can be rescued only by supposed superhuman moralists, who are without the innate biases inherent in human nature.

 

The record from Lawrence Walsh to Ken Starr to Patrick Fitzgerald suggests otherwise. Originally narrow mandates inevitably expand — on the cynical theory that everyone has something embarrassing to hide. Promised “short” timelines and limited budgets are quickly forgotten. Prosecutors search for ever new crimes to justify the expense and public expectations of the special-counsel appointment. Soon the investigators need to be investigated for their own conflicts of interest, as if we need special-special or really, really special prosecutors. Special investigations often quickly turn Soviet, in the sense of “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.”

 

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has led what seems to be an exemplary life of public service. No doubt he believes that as a disinterested investigator he can get to the bottom of the once contentious charge of “Russian collusion” in the 2016 election. But can he? Continue reading “One Mueller-Investigation Coincidence Too Many” →

Axis powers miscalculated after early advantages in World War II, Stanford scholar says

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Axis powers miscalculated after early advantages in World War II, Stanford scholar says

By 1942, the Axis powers seemed invincible. But the course of the war soon changed in ways that offer lessons for the U.S. and its allies in today’s world, said Victor Davis Hanson, a Hoover Institution senior fellow.

In the early years of World War II, the Axis powers had the upper hand. The tide turned when the Axis leaders overreached and the Allies steered their more massive economies and populations into wartime mode.

Bombers and anti-aircraft guns

(Image credit: narvikk/iStock)

By 1942, the Axis powers seemed invincible, but the course of the war soon changed in ways that offer lessons for the U.S. and its allies in today’s world, said Victor Davis Hanson, a Hoover Institution senior fellow.

Understanding how miscalculations by Germany and Japan led to their defeat offers lessons for world leaders today on how to avoid another major conflict, a Stanford scholar said.

“The once ascendant Axis powers were completely ill-prepared – politically, economically and militarily – to win the global war they had blundered into during 1941,” writes Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian and a Hoover Institution senior fellow, in a new book, The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.

At the start of the war, the misperception was “that the Axis powers, particularly Germany and Japan, were ferocious war makers in the global sense and that they were strategically adept and almost unstoppable,” Hanson said in a recent interview. Continue reading “Axis powers miscalculated after early advantages in World War II, Stanford scholar says” →

Uncommon Knowledge Part 2: The Second World Wars with Victor Davis Hanson

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This video was originally published by the Hoover Institution. Click here to learn more about this episode.

Could the Axis powers have won? What are the counterfactuals for World War II?  Find out in part two of this episode as Victor Davis Hanson joins Peter Robinson to discuss his latest book, The Second World Wars.

Victor Davis Hanson explains the counterfactuals of World War II, the “what-ifs” that easily could have changed the outcome of the war. If Hitler had not attacked Russia or the Japanese had not attacked Pearl Harbor, the USSR would have never turned on Germany and the United States would have never entered the war. Hanson argues that the leaders of the Axis powers overreached in their strategies, which ultimately caused their downfall. Hanson also explores the counterfactual surrounding the American commanders and the “what-ifs” that could have prevented American success in the war.

Victor Davis Hanson also reflects on his own family history and connections to World War II and how it shaped him as both a person and a scholar in his life today. He talks about his motivations to write his latest book, The Second World Wars, and how his family history and the current political climate inspired him to write it.

Watch both episodes to learn more about the history of World War II. You can watch the first episode here.

Interview with VDH on Area 45: Remembering Pearl Harbor

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Seventy-six years ago, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, America went to war. Listen to the latest episode of the podcast, Area 45, as Victor Davis Hanson discusses the 76th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the lessons learned from that conflict’s successes and failures and how they apply today.

Listen to the podcast episode here. 

Q & A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger: VDH’s WWII

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Listen to Victor Davis Hanson chat about his new book with Jay Nordlinger on his podcast, Q & A.

Victor Davis Hanson’s new book is “The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.” Jay asks him a slew of questions, including: What caused the war? Was Hitler dumb to declare war on America? Was Japan dumb to attack America? How was FDR as wartime leader? And Truman? Were we right to drop the A-bomb(s)? Was Yalta a crime, committed by the West? Is the Holocaust separable from the war? Who are some unsung heroes of the conflict?

Listen to the episode on Ricochet here.

Listen to the episode on Podtrac here.

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