Peter Hitchens on the First World War

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 23 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 83

  • @RM-vj4ni
    @RM-vj4ni 4 роки тому +27

    Hitchens has seriously grown on me.

    • @colincampbell7928
      @colincampbell7928 Рік тому

      Me too. I've been listening to Christopher for years but Peter has grown on me. Christopher vs Peter is a good one.

  • @colincampbell7928
    @colincampbell7928 Рік тому +2

    Him and his brother are/were amazing talkers.

  • @dengelke
    @dengelke 7 років тому +5

    Important interview. Thanks for the upload.

  • @ericbanfield9440
    @ericbanfield9440 7 років тому +33

    It's worth making some distinction between the German war ministry and the Kaiser, is it not? The war ministry likely did want war with Russia, but the Kaiser sure as hell did not. Not only were he and the Tsar close friends, but he was ultimately a romantic who believed in Christendom, and was more interested in fighting non-Europeans (see his reaction to the Russo-Japanese War). A similar dichotomy emerged on the Russian side. Since the French Revolution, monarchs across Europe started losing real power, to the point where wars were more a decision of petty politicians and bureaucracies than theirs. Unfortunately, this remains the case today.

    • @jonathannewstead6599
      @jonathannewstead6599 3 роки тому

      Kaiser wanted war with Russia, tried to abort on French war

    • @kiwitrainguy
      @kiwitrainguy 3 роки тому

      "he and the Tsar close friends" - They were related, cousins I think, they used to holiday

  • @Yourismouter
    @Yourismouter 6 років тому +4

    interesting talk! I really want Peter hitchen's new book on WWII called 'The Phony Victory', but would love to read and listen more to him on WWI.

  • @markmewordz6860
    @markmewordz6860 7 років тому +20

    Characteristically cogent. We went into massive and irreversible hock to the USA in 1914 ... to save France. Bummer.

    • @joechamberlain8618
      @joechamberlain8618 7 років тому +6

      Derek Barwise and got stabbed in the back for it. Le special relationship!

    • @johnjohniglwy
      @johnjohniglwy 7 років тому

      There was a moratorium on WW1 debt during the 1930's depression. It remains today.

    • @markmewordz6860
      @markmewordz6860 7 років тому +1

      Britain, I believe, did in fact pay off its 1915-1919 monetary 'debt' to Wall St. (sorry, the USA)

    • @owenjones7517
      @owenjones7517 6 років тому

      From 1940 onwards, not 1914.

    • @proudhon100
      @proudhon100 6 років тому

      Nonsense! We made a system of alliances, which included France, because we recognised France as having lost her power, and used her as a lever against the growth of German economic and political power.

  • @Longshanks1690
    @Longshanks1690 7 років тому +6

    To summarise; They done fucked it up.

  •  5 років тому +5

    Adam Tooze is the One to read

  • @jonesalex565
    @jonesalex565 6 років тому +6

    The Kaiser said himself ww1 was a war of Germans against Slavs.
    So maybe listen to him.

  • @mourningireland4560
    @mourningireland4560 6 років тому +1

    I for one am eagerly awaiting Samantha Mumba's commentary on this interview.

  • @jameshazelwood9433
    @jameshazelwood9433 4 роки тому +4

    I wish he would debate Nigel Farage on this

    • @seanmoran6510
      @seanmoran6510 3 роки тому

      Nigel Farage 🙄
      Why on Earth would you want that he’s a money money man

    • @jameshazelwood9433
      @jameshazelwood9433 3 роки тому

      @@seanmoran6510 Because Farage is a World war 1 enthusiast with completely the opposite opinion about us joining the War

    • @philmitchell91
      @philmitchell91 2 роки тому

      Or Max Hastings.

  • @nicck
    @nicck 6 років тому +3

    What happened in 1925?

  • @solidus1995
    @solidus1995 3 роки тому

    windhelm was related to brit royalty, also brits are from old germania.

    • @Bellg
      @Bellg 3 роки тому

      Windhelm? You've been playing too much Skyrim...

  • @williamneumyer7147
    @williamneumyer7147 7 років тому

    Cf. "Strategy" by B. H. Liddell Hart.

  • @shanek6582
    @shanek6582 7 років тому +1

    Is there a UA-cam channel devoted to Peter hitchens?

  • @MrLoftusjj3
    @MrLoftusjj3 5 років тому +3

    “War against Putin is Peace... Freedom to Question is Slavery to Putin... Ignorance of Putin is Strength.” Love from GO.

    • @kiwitrainguy
      @kiwitrainguy 3 роки тому

      GO aka Eric Blair.
      "The USA does not have allies, it has vassals." - Vladimir Putin.

    • @westleymanc
      @westleymanc Рік тому

      Don't know why you talking like Yoda It's simple, Empire

  • @johnjohniglwy
    @johnjohniglwy 7 років тому +2

    No mention here of the Berlin to Baghdad railway!

  • @hlysnan6418
    @hlysnan6418 2 роки тому

    13:39 oh, dear...

  • @michaelpalmer4387
    @michaelpalmer4387 3 роки тому

    England got involved in Irish affairs in the 12th century. Both countries have been paying the price ever since.

    • @seanmoran6510
      @seanmoran6510 3 роки тому +1

      The Normans where invited by the exiled king of Leinster !
      Rather stupid thing thing to do invite the most aggressive warlike people in Western Europe to your home 🤦‍♂️

    • @michaelpalmer4387
      @michaelpalmer4387 3 роки тому

      @@seanmoran6510 indeed but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

    • @seanmoran6510
      @seanmoran6510 3 роки тому

      @@michaelpalmer4387 It’s not just hindsight it’s about being objective and realising you lost your power as a king
      Inviting powerful warlords to your former territory is an act of stupidity brought on by blind
      Greed Power and Revenge
      It’s a pity for Ireland that Diarmait Mac Murchadha wasn’t knifed by the then high king instead of getting to England.

  • @chrispywilliams1992
    @chrispywilliams1992 6 місяців тому

    The interviewers big breaths waiting to crowbar a question in, are driving me nuts

  • @jonesalex565
    @jonesalex565 6 років тому +1

    The German march East was WAY before 1914.
    See puritan Germans in Ukraine, Romania under Catherine the great.

    • @kiwitrainguy
      @kiwitrainguy 3 роки тому

      Aah, so Germany seeded eastern Russia with its peoples so as to invade later as a means of "bringing German-speaking peoples under one rule".

    • @jonesalex565
      @jonesalex565 3 роки тому

      @@kiwitrainguy well. Whether that was the plan is another matter. Many were invited by the Russians.

  • @zeddeka
    @zeddeka 3 роки тому +2

    The threat to Britain from Germany was largely economic. They had already overtaken the UK and, like the USA, were starting to leave Britain In the dust. I think this explains an awful lot of Britain's involvement in world war I.

  • @magna4100
    @magna4100 4 роки тому +2

    I would love to get Zippy, from Rainbow’s take on this.

  • @vinm300
    @vinm300 7 років тому +1

    Germany was made up of 79? city/states and principalities before unification
    Italy was made up of 7? (Kingdom of Naples, Rome, Puigdemont etc)
    I think they both became states in 1871.

    • @vinm300
      @vinm300 7 років тому

      Hitchens is slightly misleading over the Franco/Prussian war 1870
      "Out of which we stayed". It was France that declared war on Germany,
      Britain had no obligation to join France.
      Austria and Italy would have joined France but Napoleon III refused to
      allow Papal Rome to be claimed by Italy.

  • @dodgeabanana
    @dodgeabanana 7 років тому +3

    It's a funny old game war, we've -humans- have be at it for years. I mean what would we do without a good old
    regular dust up, knocking each other stupid, then going home to breed a few more canon fodder and back at
    it again. Lovely stuff life......anybody watching up there in the blue yonder must be having a great time betting
    on the next war and the winner......Humans?. You couldn't make us up.....

    • @daddycool228
      @daddycool228 7 років тому +1

      Jack Spratt yes I'm inclined to agree...It's always been rubbish out there! Despite it all we keep going

    • @kiwitrainguy
      @kiwitrainguy 3 роки тому

      Oh, and all this time I thought that the encouragement for people to have families, the Catholic Church and Islam opposing birth-control was so that the capitalists could have an abundant supply of workers in order to keep wages and working conditions down and working hours long and all the time it's been to provide cannon fodder for the next war. Well, maybe it's a combination of the two.

  • @fermentedsourdough5462
    @fermentedsourdough5462 6 років тому +2

    "Demography is destiny".

  • @damianbylightning6823
    @damianbylightning6823 7 років тому +6

    Patrick Pearse, like Rupert Brooke, was deeply influenced by Romanticism and other stupid ideas. The mumbo-jumbo spouted by Brooke - the sweet red wine of youth and all that, was the same as the idiocy spouted by the sexually immature and socially awkward Patrick Pearse. Both screamed and cajoled the same romantic, nationalist non sense - just for different national causes.
    Before we point out anything, we have to remember the extraordinary set of circumstances which led up to 1914 and one of its darling children - the 1916 Proclamation. Take one thing away and the world may be a very different place.
    Add to the what ifs - what if Austria-Hungary never marched into Bosnia in 1908? What if the Ottoman Empire had not fallen to pieces? What if there had been better telegraphy and telephony and better functioning diplomacy? No senile or grouchy leadership? What if, what if???
    This was not an inevitable war. Nor was the Easter Rising an inevitable solution to the UK's inability to be constitutionally flexible.
    Of WWI's off-spring, what if Pearse had been born developmentally and intellectually normal and not (likely) suffering from Asperger syndrome?
    Hitch is right to point out questions - but he should remember that you don't do it with WWI because it's bloody incomprehensible.
    People are scared of some countries because people like to be scared and have someone to blame. It's as true for the Irish as it is for anyone who sees Russia's hand in all kinds of shenanigans.

    • @richwilliam3378
      @richwilliam3378 6 років тому +1

      Those are some interesting comments, but can one man, be it Pearse, Hitler, Ghandi etc. really have that much influence on great masses of people, or are they more or less riding some kind of wave which wells up beneath them the origins of which are almost impossible to trace? I don't know, frankly, but rightly or wrongly I've never bought the idea that the second world war wouldn't have happened without Hitler. It may have happened differently, but most of the tinder was laid by events totally beyond his control before he came along.
      Best wishes all.

    • @kiwitrainguy
      @kiwitrainguy 3 роки тому

      @@richwilliam3378 If there had been no Hitler the war in Europe may not have happened in 1939 but by then Japan had already started war with China on 7th July 1937.

    • @kiwitrainguy
      @kiwitrainguy 3 роки тому +1

      Yes the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand should have been an internal police matter given that Serbia was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It was as though the assassination of JFK was blamed on the state of Texas by the US Federal Government so the USA declares war on the state of Texas. Texas has an alliance with Britain so Britain then declares war on the US. France has an alliance with the US so it declares war on Britain, and so on it goes...
      Also "shenanigans" - isn't that an Irish word? lol

    • @damianbylightning6823
      @damianbylightning6823 3 роки тому

      @@kiwitrainguy Yep!
      I think shenanigans is an Irish term. It's a great word too.

  • @barryirlandi4217
    @barryirlandi4217 7 років тому +4

    All wars are a con...

  • @paulvmarks
    @paulvmarks 7 років тому +2

    The German Declaration of War on France 1914 was a pack of lies - and the invasion of Belgium was directly opposite of this island and was a direct threat to this island. The German elite academic and political was also open that their aim was WORLD domination - even in 1914. The idea that the Prime Asquith or Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Gray were warmongers is horribly wrong. Asquith and Gray passionately wanted peace - even the German Ambassador in London understood that it was the GERMAN government that was to blame for war. As for calling Sir Henry Wilson "infamous" - he was a kind man who died heroically, fighting with only a ceremonial sword against two IRA murderers armed with pistols. You need to apologise Mr Hitchens - both for your statement on the British Liberal government in 1914 and your personal "infamous" statement on Sir Henry Wilson. There was no chance of Britain "not participating" in the First World War - because GERMANY forced it upon us.

    • @markmewordz6860
      @markmewordz6860 7 років тому

      French troops were already in Belgium as early as 31st July 1914. Gray was leading a perfidious agenda and they were there with British acquiescence. Yeah whatever .... Germany is, was, and always will be, the ultimate villain. Putin next.

    • @paulvmarks
      @paulvmarks 7 років тому +1

      To claim that Sir Edward Gray was following a "perfidious agenda" is a despicable lie Sir. And the German Declaration of War upon France was a tissue of lies. As for the idea that Germany would have let Britain carry on as a fully independent power - that is utterly absurd.

    • @barryirlandi4217
      @barryirlandi4217 7 років тому +1

      Paul Marks lol... You really believe whatever suits your worldview..one which somehow believes in a kind and knowledgeable British government.. Lol.. The story of yr man drawing his sword on his killers is a prime example.. Not true, just a tabloid lie of the times.

    • @westleymanc
      @westleymanc 5 років тому

      Bollocks

    • @westleymanc
      @westleymanc Рік тому

      NONSENSE, you tool. Grey was an agent for greedy bastards

  • @m78991234
    @m78991234 5 років тому +1

    I find mr hitchens and niall ferguson's views on ww1 a little far-fetched; don't think german intentions in europe were as benevolent

    • @seanmoran6510
      @seanmoran6510 3 роки тому +1

      Germany was and is the largest power on the Continent
      Size
      Economy
      Population
      It is what it is
      It is the mostly silent power behind the EU

  • @ikeike2
    @ikeike2 7 років тому

    BS

  • @sparticuzj19
    @sparticuzj19 7 років тому +2

    “How dear Germany tries to expand” man those British are such hypocrites.

    • @morisan42
      @morisan42 6 років тому +9

      he's talking about in the modern era. The British empire has continuously given up territory since the 1950's, by no means is it expanding.

    • @kiwitrainguy
      @kiwitrainguy 3 роки тому

      @@morisan42 The British Empire has been on the decline since WW1.
      My house was built just before WW1 but was remodelled in the 1920s in the California Bungalow style popular at the time. After WW1 there was a backlash against Britain within its Empire and a turn towards the USA expressed in part by the aforementioned architectural style. That began to wane in the 1930s.

    • @morisan42
      @morisan42 3 роки тому

      @@kiwitrainguy Yeah, the first world war dealt huge damage to the british ego, for sure. The giving up of territory happened after the suez crisis, as it became clear britain was no longer strong enough to maintain its empire alone.