Books by Nicholson Baker, Jeff Lipkes keep history lively
The authors' contrarian views on the world wars reopen debates that, to some, might have seemed settled.
NEW YORK -- Here are some highlights from a new history of World War II that won't be hawked on PBS any time soon: Winston Churchill was a conniving, arrogant bigot who relished the mass murder of German citizens. Franklin D. Roosevelt was an anti-Semitic warmonger who goaded the Japanese into the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor. The strongest and most heartfelt calls for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust came from pacifists -- who were ignored.
"I don't think I'll be winning any popularity contests," said Nicholson Baker, whose book "Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization" has sparked a critical firestorm on both sides of the Atlantic. "But that really wasn't the point of it all. There are some uncomfortable facts about World War II that we can't allow ourselves to forget."
For those who view historians as arcane academics, Baker is a bracing antidote: He's a novelist turned historical provocateur whose new book -- flawed as it may be -- skewers the conventional wisdom that World War II was America's finest moment. He fits into a long tradition of "revisionist" writers who tweak prevailing beliefs in pursuit of a contrarian view. Their work may be unpopular, but it shows the crucial role that feisty history books can play.
"Revisionism is part of our tradition, because history is a continuing argument over the past," said Gordon S. Wood, a preeminent U.S. historian and author of "The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History." "These kinds of books shake people up. And in America, with its limited historical sensibility, that's an important role for historians."
Baker's book boils down the origins and initial years of World War II into a series of bite-sized anecdotes drawn from journalism, speeches, diaries and other materials. He paints an unrelentingly negative portrait of figures like Churchill and Roosevelt: Instead of war without end, the author suggests, they could have taken a "peaceable" approach to end hostilities with a negotiated settlement. Even though it would have frozen Hitler's gains in place, anything was preferable to the carnage that followed in a war "where everything went wrong."
"It's a disservice to present great people from the past as if they're intelligent children who think their way consistently through everything and never have moments of doubt or petty anger," said Baker. "I wanted to convey some reality, some appreciation for these leaders as people, and I think that in the end, Churchill and Roosevelt will survive my 500 pages."
