The Duel
John Lukacs
Dominic Cummings wrote a blog post about the UK’s EU referendum and the ‘branching histories’, the alternate realities of what could have happened. Lots of events in this book reminded me of how fragile the path taken actually is.
Because I was educated in England, my history lessons focused on British courage, innovation and the phlegmatic British response to the war. You don’t hear much about the German side. This book sheds light on how precarious our position was.
Patriotism vs nationalism
Lukacs discusses patriotism vs nationalism a few times, in particular how patriotism (he sees Churchill as a patriot) is defensive, whereas as nationalism (Hitler) is aggressive. He says: ‘patriotism is not a substitute for a religious faith, whereas nationalism often is. It often fills the spiritual and even emotional needs of uprooted men’. This explains some of the quasi-religious fervour of Nazi followers.
Another memorable quote in this section: ‘It is not love (which is personal and particular) but hatred that unites men - something that Hitler instinctively understood.’
‘History and human nature are much more complex than are the definite categories of mathematics or than the kind of logic that is but a verbal mathematics of sorts.’
What could have been
A major aspect of the history I didn’t know was the pressure Churchill was under to enter into a treaty with the Germans. Churchill refused this. I enjoyed the quote
‘We must not get entangled in a position of that kind before we had been involved in any serious fighting.’
The ‘position of that kind’ being a reference to peace negotiations.
On Halifax
‘Halifax was a very British type, in the sense that he knew how to adjust his mind to circumstances, rather than attempt to adjust circumstances to his ideas.’ This comes up a lot in statistics work when examining bias or applying after-the-fact reasoning to events.
On Churchill
A good quote from Churchill, apologising for snapping at someone: ‘You know, I may seem to be very fierce, but I am only fierce with one man - Hitler.’
On plans to defend London in case of an invasion: ‘We would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved.’
Churchill defending his praise of Stalin: ‘If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.’
On Hitler
With reference to Hitler’s command in the early stages of the war:
‘Napoleon once said that in war, as in prostitution, amateurs are often better than professionals. Hitler may have been an amateur at generalship, but he possessed the great professional talent applicable to all human affairs: an understanding of human nature and the understanding of the weaknesses of his opponents’.
Populism:
‘Early in his life Hitler realized the failure of materialistic political philosophies. He realized that strength was more important than wealth, that nationality was more important than class, that nationalism was more powerful than internationalism.’