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To: CougarGA7
CougarGA7: "Victor and Stinnett's work are popular histories, meaning they are designed more to be interesting to read than to be of any scholarlly merit.
This is not to say that they are completely worthless, but from an academic standpoint you would be better off looking at the Pearl Harbor Hearings..."

Here's what I assume: any good scholar, who spends years or even a lifetime researching this subject will eventually have those hearings, plus all the other data, including every matter of important dispute, cataloged and virtually memorized -- such that it's organized in his head long before being finalized in book form.

That scholar will then select out just the data which really matters to answer the questions and tell the real truth about what happened -- as best we can know it.
And, a real scholar does not shrink from either side of the argument, but lays it out honestly, and then shows where it is right and where wrong.

So here's the bottom line: in the end the question that matters to most people is: who was more to blame -- the commanders in Hawaii or the brass in Washington?

To answer that, the original investigations said it was nearly all the fault of commanders in Hawaii.
Thirty five years later, Prange, in my view, puts it around half and half.
Twenty years after Prange, Stinnett and other more recent authors shift most of the blame onto Washington brass, including especially the Commander in Chief, President Roosevelt.

So, I've said this before, will keep on saying it: the trend in popular history books is away from blaming Hawaii and towards Washington.
To change that trend, somebody will have to write a detailed book saying: whoa, hold on, wait a minute, it ain't necessarily so.

Of course, in my view "popular history" is the only history worth much more than a bucket of spit, because it's the only history that tells us, as a people, who we are, and how we got here.
By itself, academic history has no great value, until it escapes the academy in the form of popular history.

Or, to put it another way: popular history is the battlefield where the war for hearts & minds is won or loss.
All the rest is of only academic interest.

23 posted on 02/27/2011 1:18:22 PM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: BroJoeK
Of course, in my view "popular history" is the only history worth much more than a bucket of spit, because it's the only history that tells us, as a people, who we are, and how we got here.

This really shows your ignorance on the subject. There are plenty of scholarly works that get bought everyday. They are also very good works of history and very interesting. Stennitt is just not one of them.

I have a full bookshelf of books by both popular and scholarly authors and I didn't go anyplace special to get them. For the second time now I have recommended reading to you after you have asked for it and for the second time you have brushed it aside. This tells me that you are really not interested in getting smarter on the subject or were just lying when you said you wanted more information. So along with the credibility issues you have I'm beginning to wonder if you have an integrity problem as well.

24 posted on 02/27/2011 1:35:22 PM PST by CougarGA7
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