This book collects a number of essays about history, how it is written, how it is ignored, why it is useful, etc. Nothing truly revelatory or astonishing. Just craftsmanlike essays. It is nice to read a book by a Canadian. For me the key point was how badly people botch things because they don't know their history. I, for one, have been trapped many times into believing the propaganda put out by the US as it starts out on another of its disastrous adventures. I know the history, but I keep falling into the trap. So, it is easy enough to say that you need to know history. For me, knowing isn't enough. I need to be less credulous, more cynical. Oh well.
Here's a bit that I enjoyed that in a way sums up the book for me:
In 1893, the British naval commander in the Mediterranean, Vice-Admiral George Tryon, decided to take personal command of the summer naval maneuvers. When he ordered an about-face of two parallel rows of battleships, his officers tried to point out that there would be a collision. A relatively simple calculation demonstrated that the combined turning cirles of the ships were greater than the distance bewteen them. WHile his officers watched in dismay, his flagship Victoria was rammed by the Camperdown. Tryon refused to believe that the damage was serious and ordered the nearby vessels not to send their lifeboats. The Victoria sank, taking him and 357 sailors with it.
I take heart from this. Why? It show me that England managed to struggle on for another 50 years before it collapsed under the gross incompetence of its upper class, so I guess the US can struggle on another 20 years after the Reagan/Poppa Bush/Shrub Bush debacle. Using history as my measuring stick, it will take decades before the US finally collapses under the gross incompetence of its ruling mob, an amalgam of Wall Street "smart guys", fanatical neocons, and rabid fundamentalist Christians.
No comments:
Post a Comment