CSPAN, BOOK TV, Niall Ferguson Interview

[Maigret]

CSPAN had a three hour interview with author/historian Niall Ferguson today and will repeat it in about half an hour at 12:00 am Eastern time.

In Depth: Niall Ferguson

Description: Niall Ferguson joins Book TV for a three-hour conversation about his life and work. Mr. Ferguson teaches Financial History at the Stern School of Business at New York University. He is also a Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Professor of History at Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author of five books: "The Pity of War: Explaining World War One," "The House of Rothschild" (in two volumes, "Money's Prophets" and "The World's Banker"), "The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000," "Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power," and "Colossus: The Price of America's Empire," which publishes in April 2004. Mr. Ferguson and his family have homes in New York and Oxfordshire, England.

[Maigret]

This is a terrific program, a definitel must see!

[nkycincinnatikid]

The Pity of War , is the most intelligent and compelling history of its period recently written. A truly refreshing and significant viewpoint. Thanks for the heads up

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I certainly enjoyed it. All except where he credibly asserts that there is good reason to suppose that we are in pretty deep in Iraq . . .

But he certainly is a serious person whose views you want to agree with generally.

[LadyDoc]

I only watched a little...but he was discussing the British occupation of Iraq in 1920. We rarely hear about that, except to hear it was a "disaster" like ours is (according to the US Liberal Press)...

But he says that one year on, the mullahs also started preaching revolt, that the Brits had too few troops, but that they did overcome the revolt. The League of Nations was a sham back then in trying to run the country, so they eventually put in a local king to rule the place, and as a result the Iraqis had peace for 40-50 years. The Brits didn't take their soldiers out for 30 years...the interviewer Susan seemed astonished and mumbled that most Americans didn't think we'd have troops there for that long (ignoring we still have troops in Germany 50 years later)...

[Sam the Sham]

Yes, and during WW2 Iraq revolted against the British.

Then again, they didn't have RPGs and remote controlled bombs and CNN and al-Jazeera in 1920.

[Sam the Sham]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a beef I have with "The Pity of War" is that it kinda assumes that it would have been a good thing if Germany had won in 1914. Well, Imperial Germany was not West Germany. It would only have been a good thing if Germany had used its victory wisely. Prudence and judgment were alien concepts to the swaggering, strutting, bombastic nation that invaded Belgium, launched unrestricted submarine warfare, and casually offered to partition the United States with Mexico.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Just quickly. I believe the book is important precisely because it calls into serious question the rich gilded mosaic of a century of unquestioned propaganda which you allude to. "The Swaggering, The Strutting The Bombastic" nation. which was falling behind in the huge arms race being undertaken by the (what must be the words, enlightened? pacifistic? cultured? )French and the ( let us see, liberal, responsible? peace loving? ) Tsar. as it moved foreward the life of workers , and revolutionized science and technology. Unrestricted submarine warfare! A nation which was being starved by an ironclad British blockade never challenged by America which was shipping war machines and materials to the Allies on credit, was to continue forever to deny herself its unimportant advantage under the sea as it bleed to death? You really think that the UK had no plans in the offing to harry the US from Canada, or alliance with Mexico had America insisted upon its neutral rights or worse actually supported the middle Europeans instead of the allies? I think the book truly cast daylight where none had been for almost a century, thats all.

[Sam the Sham]

It was Imperial Germany's own fault that it found itself surrounded by enemies. That tends to happen when you act like the neighborhood bully as Imperial Germany did. It was Imperial Germany's own fault that it never considered the consequences of invading Belgium (and responded to King Alberts 1915 peace feelers with Germany's demand for a "truly neutral" Belgium which would require German control of Belgian ports, railways, heavy industry). It was Imperial Germany's own fault that they did not grasp the consequences of threatening the United States with dismemberment.

The streak of pure evil in German political culture that blossomed under Hitler was never far from the surface in Wilhelmine Germany. A victory in 1914 would have been a victory for the very worst in the German national character and political culture the Germany that respected no one's rights or feelings but its own.

Of course none of the participants of 1914-1918 were angels. But Germany was the most theoretically and actually ruthless.

[nkycincinnatikid]

You are so adept at making my humble point that I defer to you

[AuntB]

I caught this program yesterday and was not familiar with Mr. Ferguson. It was very informative.

[Constitution Day]

BUMP.

I watched this yesterday.
One of Professor Ferguson's books was discussed in National Review a while back, but I have never read anything by him.

I will soon remedy that.
He noted Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as two of his favorite world leaders, along with Winston Churchill.

CD

[nkycincinnatikid]

Oh my. visited your page and saw your picture with She Who Must Be Obeyed. We are not worthy.

[Constitution Day]

Heh heh.

I felt privileged to finally meet her.
She was very gracious, not only to me, but to all her fans that were there.

CD

[justshutupandtakeit]

I stumbled upon an hour of so of this and thought it fascinating. Ferguson's description of America's main problem as its attention span parallels my own. However, he did not attack its root the RATmedia which ensures that the nation will have no patience for serious undertakings or understanding of what is at risk.

It was fun watching the interviewer have to swallow her biases when he would answer with ringing endorsements of Thatcher and Reagan and Bush's Iraq policy.

[independentmind]

later

[The Shrew]

Thanks for that website I'll include it in this thread:

Check this thread out and Call CSPAN!

Call CSPAN to air this press conference!

Regards,

TS

[Ryle]

The link's posted at cspan now for the interview:

http://www.booktv.org/feature/index.asp?segid=4485&schedID=267

Ryle