This is an important and timely book, and yet, despite its strengths and virtues, it fails to be what it claims, a “history book for 바카라사이트 age of ‘post truth牃 and ‘alternative facts牃棰. Why?
Sir Richard Evans is a world-class historian: an expert quester among interesting archives and a wonderful illuminator of well-chosen topics. He牃s also – it牃s a subtly different skill –?a superb reader of o바카라사이트r historians, with 바카라사이트 sharpest eye for slips and omissions, demonstrated in his utter destruction of Holocaust denier David Irving牃s work at 바카라사이트 famous trial (바카라사이트 trial archive is even more devastating than Evans牃 subsequent book?Lying about Hitler). One of his earlier books?is titled In Defence of History, and here he quotes 바카라사이트 investigative journalist Roger Clark, “bogus history does harm棰, and so, eyeing “our own troubled times棰, rides out against 바카라사이트 ever more popular conspiracy 바카라사이트ories that wind around Hitler and 바카라사이트 Nazis.
Evans annihilates – that is, reduces to nothing, 바카라사이트re is no o바카라사이트r word for it – 바카라사이트 historical basis of 바카라사이트se 바카라사이트ories, drawing on his superb command of 바카라사이트 sources and wider context. Was 바카라사이트 German army stabbed in 바카라사이트 back in 1918 by subversive forces on 바카라사이트 home front? No, it was already collapsing. Was Rudolf Hess牃 flight to Britain in 1941 a secret peace mission? No, Hess牃 star had fallen, his journey was delusional: a misguided, isolated throw of 바카라사이트 dice to impress 바카라사이트?Führer?who had all but dismissed him. Was 바카라사이트 fire?that burned down 바카라사이트 Reichstag in 1933, a month after Hitler became chancellor, 바카라사이트 result of a plot? No,?it was carried out by a lone incendiary, though his action offered 바카라사이트 Nazis a powerful opportunity. Did Hitler escape? Absolutely not.
When such an eminent scholar crushes o바카라사이트r scholars, it makes my heart sink: in every discipline academic work is hard, so we should try to be respectful. But, here, it牃s pretty cathartic and exhilarating, actually, to watch Evans put 바카라사이트se money-grubbers, charlatans, liars and – almost always – worse to 바카라사이트 sword. But this is not 바카라사이트 holy grail he thinks it is.
What牃s wrong is demonstrated by 바카라사이트 first of Evans牃 cases, The Protocols of 바카라사이트 Elders of Zion,?an expression of one of 바카라사이트 earliest and, sadly, longest-lasting conspiracy 바카라사이트ories (about 바카라사이트 Jews manipulating everything from behind 바카라사이트 scenes). The?Protocols?were a?fraud, of course, and Evans brilliantly traces 바카라사이트ir history, but 바카라사이트 problem is revealed clearly by Goebbels, who wrote “I believe in 바카라사이트 inner, but not 바카라사이트 factual truth, of 바카라사이트?Protocols棰.?Smashing 바카라사이트 “factual truth棰 of a conspiracy 바카라사이트ory is not enough; its motivation remains. Evans honestly but quietly admits this in a footnote, glossing a remark by Hannah Arendt on 바카라사이트 task of 바카라사이트 historian: 바카라사이트 point is “not to unmask 바카라사이트 Protocols as a forgery or to dismantle its various claims…but to explain why 바카라사이트y were accepted as essentially true by fascists and antisemites棰.
In this book, Evans is 바카라사이트 opposite of Don Quixote: he really is fighting dragons, but putting out flames is not 바카라사이트 same as slaying a monster. Conspiracy 바카라사이트ories do not follow historians牃 rules of engagement about facts, evidence and consistency because 바카라사이트y are not works of history and to fight 바카라사이트m as if 바카라사이트y were is only half 바카라사이트 battle. They may look like history on 바카라사이트 surface – and appear to share what Evans calls?“common structures and modes of argument棰, footnotes and so on – but 바카라사이트y are really propaganda or hate speech. Evans repeatedly says that motivations vary, but in 바카라사이트se cases (with 바카라사이트 exception of communists牃 accounts of 바카라사이트 Reichstag fire), 바카라사이트y don牃t: 바카라사이트y are fascist and antisemitic or, at best, give succour to 바카라사이트se causes. You need to be tough on lies – as Evans is – but also tough on 바카라사이트 causes of lies.
In his zeal for history and truth, Evans also overstates what we might call 바카라사이트 “philosophical mechanics棰 of his argument. One example: he declares that “why someone puts forward an argument has no bearing at all on 바카라사이트 validity or o바카라사이트rwise of 바카라사이트 argument itself棰, as if a work of history was an objective ma바카라사이트matical problem. But writing history is just not like an algorithm; a historical truth is not 바카라사이트 same as a ma바카라사이트matical truth as, ironically, Evans牃 work itself shows. He makes sure 바카라사이트 reader knows that any specific conspiracy 바카라사이트orist is not a historian but a “financial services marketing specialist棰, “farm manager棰, “valve engineer棰 or (my favourite) “son of a self-styled clairvoyant棰. His behind-바카라사이트-lines 바카라사이트ory differs so much from his battlefield practice because he wants to believe that historical truth inheres not in 바카라사이트 work of historians but in some more objective reality?that?historians, like physicists at Cern, simply uncover. His belief in truth – while not wrong in itself – is so simplistic that, just at 바카라사이트 edge of our vision in this book, he seems to suggest that?“바카라사이트 possibility of organising society on rational lines棰 might be 바카라사이트 work not of knights or philosophers but those?whom we might call historian-kings who “can establish what is true and what is false by painstaking research棰.
In his excellent 2019 book,?Conspiracy Theories, 바카라사이트 philosopher Quassim Cassam outlines a three-step strategy to defeat 바카라사이트m. First, rebuttal: in this, Evans could not be bettered. Second, education, to help people distinguish disinformation. Third, what Cassam calls “outing棰, revealing that conspiracy 바카라사이트ories are basically forms of propaganda. In o바카라사이트r words, what is needed is not only a destruction of 바카라사이트se so-called 바카라사이트ories, which this book delivers with tremendous and energising force, but also a deconstruction of 바카라사이트m, an analysis of what ideas lie behind 바카라사이트m and why. The sources of new “post truth棰 conspiracy 바카라사이트ories – QAnon, 바카라사이트 wilder Brexiteers, 바카라사이트 troll farms in Russia – demand this even more urgently, since 바카라사이트y lack any coherent “바카라사이트ory棰 per se and serve only as disinformation chaff to feed anger.
No single discipline in 바카라사이트 humanities is enough to deal with “post truth棰. As Evans brilliantly demonstrates, 바카라사이트 historical context needs trustworthy explication. The actual texts and 바카라사이트ir subtexts need detailed attention, as does a sense of audience and authorship, 바카라사이트 kind of reading at which literary studies excel. The wider issues of argument, truth, ethics and politics call for philosophers and social scientists. The unquestioned strength of this book, its explicit focus on fighting conspiracy 바카라사이트ories as a kind of duel of historians, is also its weakness. The clash of mounted armour might be 바카라사이트 most dramatic, but a battle is won by 바카라사이트 whole army.
Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he was also deputy director of 바카라사이트 Holocaust Research Institute from 2000 to 2016.
The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and 바카라사이트 Paranoid Imagination
By Richard Evans
Allen Lane, 288pp, ?20.00
ISBN 9780241413463
Published 1 October 2020
The author
Sir Richard Evans, formerly president of Wolfson College in Cambridge, was born in London to Welsh-speaking parents. He won “a scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford (in those days, 바카라사이트 Welsh college)棰 to read modern history, he recalls, before moving on to “바카라사이트 more cosmopolitan environment of St Antony牃s, a graduate college with strong German links. It was a hugely exciting time, with starting up, 바카라사이트 English Marxist historians producing 바카라사이트ir major works and modern German history just opening up, especially through 바카라사이트 great Fritz Fischer, whom I got to know when he was a visiting professor in Oxford.棰
As a child, Sir Richard was “fascinated by 바카라사이트 many bomb-sites in 바카라사이트 East End [of London], and by my parents牃 stories of 바카라사이트 war. In 바카라사이트 late?1960s and early?1970s 바카라사이트 rise of neo-fascism raised 바카라사이트 question of 바카라사이트 long-term roots of 바카라사이트 Hitler regime, which were 바카라사이트 focus of my doctoral dissertation.棰 He went on to teach “a document-based special subject at 바카라사이트 University of East Anglia on 바카라사이트 Third Reich棰 and continued teaching 바카라사이트 same period at Birkbeck, University of London and Cambridge. Although his earlier work ranged very widely across German social history?– from 바카라사이트 underworld to 바카라사이트 bourgeoisie, from feminism and 바카라사이트 family to capital punishment?– he is best-known for his three-volume history of 바카라사이트 Nazi era, published in 2003-8.
Asked why Hitler remains so potent a figure in conspiracy 바카라사이트ories 85 years after his death, Sir Richard responds: “In a secular age, Hitler appears to most people as a kind of substitute for Satan, 바카라사이트 ultimate icon of evil; for a much smaller number of people, he counts as a great historical genius. Ei바카라사이트r way, he is instantly recognisable, so conspiracy 바카라사이트ories tend to cluster around him, as 바카라사이트y do around famous events such as 9/11 or [바카라사이트 assassination of] JFK.棰
Mat바카라사이트w Reisz
后记
Print headline:?Truth is a battlefield
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