Books

In the last year I have read or listened to a few books. Not quite as many as I would like to have read but I am a slow reader and my daily rhythm is not what it used to be a few years ago. I am currently listening to the audio version of Martin Gilbert's Churchill and America.

Two books that I would highly recommend are:

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes
FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression by Jim Powell

and the following book is worth reading - a fine example of revisionist history:
Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World by Patrick Buchanan

The first two books of course are essential reads for anyone concerned about the massive squandering of wealth that the Obama has embarked upon. I find it somewhat disconcerting that the Obama, as noted in numerous liberal papers, spent a lot of time reading sappy sugar coated biographies of FDR - some of them disguised as histories of the Great Depression, but chose not to read two of the most prescient and relevant true histories of the Depression - no soft-balling FDR between their covers - Shlaes' and Powell's books. Powell's book was a bit dryer than Shlaes's but covered in detail each of the policies that FDR and his merry band of socialists implemented or tried to implement and the sometimes catastrophic impacts each had on the economy and the people. The end result was that while Europe was emerging from the Depression in mid 1930s, the US was sinking deeper into it and had it not been for our entry into the war we might well have gone under. Because of FDR we spent nearly 8 additional and needless years mired in the Depression - it should be noted that only in America is the Depression referred to as the Great Depression. This was FDR's true legacy and now the Obama wants to repeat it - liberals never learn from their past mistakes.

As to Buchanan's book - though I recommend reading it - there is nothing new or original between the covers. It is a well researched but baseless piece of revisionist history. Buchanan is a self avowed isolationist and by reiterating history with a new twist he attempts to establish that had it not been for Churchill, WWI and WWII would never have happened and Britain would still have its vast empire. The truth, though, is that had not it been for Churchill Europe might well today be under the rule of a massive and brutal German Empire or even worse a much more powerful and dangerous Soviet Empire. Buchanan does a masterful job of taking Churchill's actions and decisions out of context so as to weave his conspiracy theory. But even in doing this he fails to provide even the slightest bit of evidence that establishes Churchill as the reason for WWI and WWII. Buchanan lets the Kaiser and Hitler off the hook for their actions - and it was their actions alone that led to both wars and not Churchill's. Buchanan is a smart man and he should have stopped while ahead - writing this book casts a bit of doubt on his intentions..