World War II revisited, history revised &/or revisioned, re recent posts

[Guest guest]

Hello to the several posters on this theme.

First, Toni (who started this current thread), hello and _thank you_

for your p.s. " marte, I know you would be interested for one, no? "

_Thgank You_ for that. And, still, to Toni's first post: Tony Judt (

couldn't help noting the alliteration) is indeed a well-published and

finely credentialled historian and writer.

Second, as to one of Alice's posts: I do suspect the editorial writer

of your (Toni's) local paper may have mis-cited some of Judt's

statistics. Historians are historians and can, do, and must take the

time their profession requires and their professions enable.

Newspaper editors write for quick short summaries. Do, Toni, if you

feel you must, buy this latest book by my (reader-writer defined,

only) " friend " Tony Judt but otherwise maybe a few onlist exchange

posts might be at least as useful.

: I especially appreciate your post, with its several

references. Toni knows a part of my particular interest in this

period and its histories, if less about my own efforts to study --

simultaneously, in a sense? -- both through feeling & empathy and

through serious historical research. [A few of my other on and off

list friends know more about my frustrations on _that_ topic!] Just

a few days ago, in a minor homeclutter mishap when needing to

dismantle computer cords and move a few things around, I hugely

annoyed myself by knocking over two of the most recent books _I_

bought on all of this topic: history revisited, revisioned, revised.

[You, , might be interested in the particulars (otherwise maybe

only " quirkily " relevant, because except for my personal story they

aren't important focal points, but they do constitute the prodigious

amount of work that goes into historical study and public

publication:]

A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II, by Gerhard

Weinberg, and Visible Spaces: Hannah Arendt and the German-Jewish

Experience, by Dagmar Barnouw.

I bought these two books because of a " dust-up " on a web-site I

subscribe to called HNN (History News Network/ Mason

University) where a lot of some of the issues periodically batted

about here get batted about particularly from the " pov " of people

professionally defined as historians.

There is a lot of myth, controversy, and error in all of this,

inevitably because, after all, our feelings _do_ color how we see

things, " nicht Wahr? " [if I may risk the German language as we 're-

visit' these issues and times?].

However all of that may be, I do particularly appreciate 's

post just now on the topic in the spirit of the sense that we're all,

I hope it's safe to assume?, trying to " jes gimme the facts ma'am "

get this thread of our common shared history straight, while also

trying to " figger out " how to assimilate the past facts horrors and

reportorial errors (oops, sorry; it's getting a little late at

night), pull " it " (the past -- individual and Collective?) together,

know how to atone if atonement is what's needed, and then, well,

figger out " where do we go from here " ?

This is the longest and most personal (hence in many ways, I feel,

questionable) post I've ever yet posted onto a " Yahoo! Groups " list,

but oh well wotthehey, see my earlier remarks about " the moon having

left the zodiac " !

Enough (too much) for now,

" marte/'fricassee' "

[not proofread; too late at night :-(]