Rethinking the history of 20th century wars
These are wonderfully important books, new in the Mises Store.
The first I had never heard of but is hugely significant as the first piece of WWI revisionism to appear in English: How Diplomats Make War by Francis Neilson (1915). It is a beautifully written and well-argued case that Germany was not uniquely to blame. The secret diplomatic corp in all countries brought this disaster about. The book appeared before war censorship clamped down.
The second is a classic of Old Right literature called The Merchants of Death (1934). It was the very archetype of the rethinking about war profiteering that took place in the interwar years. The co-author was the founder of Human Events, now a conservative weekly. Here we see the real heritage of the American right.
The third takes on what is surely one of the most controversial issues in American public life: the claim that the US should not have entered World War II. The author is the great Garet Garrett, and he wrote these pieces for the Saturday Evening Post. They provide a rare glimpse into American political culture at the time and the kinds of arguments the American Firsters were making.
Are three are enormously valuable.
Comments (7)
Boris Lvin
Just for information: the original edition of this book is available for search and full download from google.books - http://books.google.com/books?id=aME1AAAAMAAJ
It might not be available for download outside of the US, due to Google copyright policy (see http://books.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=44666)
Published: December 6, 2007 6:25 PM
Junker
Mises' is
Fifth printing, October, 1940
http://mises.org/books/diplomats.pdf
B.W. Huebsch, 1915
Published: December 6, 2007 6:40 PM
BK Marcus
The Google version seems to be the 2nd edition:
Published: December 6, 2007 7:16 PM
Junker
Thank you, BK. Good blog, etc. wou have. Thanks for that too.
Cursory glance shows the two to be the same except for the intros. The Google edition seems to make it harder to copy and paste, whereas on the Mises PDF, copy and paste works as expected.
In any case, a continuing A+ and thanks to LvMI and staff.
Published: December 6, 2007 11:08 PM
Geoffrey Allan Plauche
I just purchased the 6 book Garet Garrett collection yesterday and now I find out that it was replaced by a 9 book collection. Would it be possible to change my order to the 9 book collection before it is shipped?
Published: December 7, 2007 12:24 PM
Dennis
Thank you wholeheartedly for making these important works readily available.
If the militarism and chauvinistic nationalism that infects so much of the world, including the United Stated, is to be reversed, many individuals need to read and absorb the lessons contained in these works.
Again, thank you, and I hope that someday the Mises Institute will also publish the important works of Harry Elmer Barnes and Charles Callan Tansill.
Published: December 7, 2007 7:22 PM
Bill Campbell
Three other books that are very good on the 20th century wares are by Jim Powell, FDR's Folly, Bully Boy, and Wilson's War.
FDR's Folly has more about the Great Depression than WWII. Thomas J. Fleming's The New Dealer's War is quite good on the WWII issues.
All of these books present very different viewpoints than one is accustomed to seeing.
Published: December 10, 2007 3:50 PM