Comments on: GANGING UP http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/ganging_up/ Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:00:14 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Anthony C http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/ganging_up/comment-page-1/#comment-6332 Anthony C Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000 /?p=3428#comment-6332 I'm afraid I agree - not so much on VDH (who responded with a very nice and very well reasoned email when I contected him to criticise one of his articles - nice bloke) who is a genuinely very talented Classicist - even if you don't like his political output - but on Paul Johnson. VDH is a talented Classicist who has taken on a side job as a hack. Johnson's a hack who has taken to writing history books - history books which are generally vehicles for his political views. I suspect a lot of his past isn't too well known in America - he used to be very, very left wing and now he's very, very, VERY right wing. I suspect he finds his biggest audience in America these days; largely because he's pissed on his chips in the UK. The very fact that he can blithely assert that Labour will lose the next general election on the basis of pensions is an indication of just how out of touch with with the reality in the UK he is (either due to relocation to America or because he's locked himself in his own little ideological ivory tower with no windows). The broader points with regard to the articles seem to be to have strong kernels of truth in them - but I can't sit by and listen to Paul Johnson described as a "preeminent historian" without choking on my cup of tea. I'm afraid I agree - not so much on VDH (who responded with a very nice and very well reasoned email when I contected him to criticise one of his articles - nice bloke) who is a genuinely very talented Classicist - even if you don't like his political output - but on Paul Johnson. VDH is a talented Classicist who has taken on a side job as a hack. Johnson's a hack who has taken to writing history books - history books which are generally vehicles for his political views. I suspect a lot of his past isn't too well known in America - he used to be very, very left wing and now he's very, very, VERY right wing. I suspect he finds his biggest audience in America these days; largely because he's pissed on his chips in the UK. The very fact that he can blithely assert that Labour will lose the next general election on the basis of pensions is an indication of just how out of touch with with the reality in the UK he is (either due to relocation to America or because he's locked himself in his own little ideological ivory tower with no windows).

The broader points with regard to the articles seem to be to have strong kernels of truth in them - but I can't sit by and listen to Paul Johnson described as a "preeminent historian" without choking on my cup of tea.

]]> By: Anthony C http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/ganging_up/comment-page-1/#comment-6333 Anthony C Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000 /?p=3428#comment-6333 Hang on, I've just realised, I DON'T agree. JadeGold's got it wrong when she says VDH is just a hack whereas Paul Johnson is an actual historian. It's the other way round - VDH is an historian (a very good historian when it comes to Ancient Greece) and Paul Johnson is a (very) right wing hack. Hang on, I've just realised, I DON'T agree. JadeGold's got it wrong when she says VDH is just a hack whereas Paul Johnson is an actual historian. It's the other way round - VDH is an historian (a very good historian when it comes to Ancient Greece) and Paul Johnson is a (very) right wing hack.

]]> By: James Joyner http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/ganging_up/comment-page-1/#comment-6334 James Joyner Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000 /?p=3428#comment-6334 Anthony, See the following on Johnson: http://www.time.com/time/time100/johnson_chat.html http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/pubaffairs/newsletter/03081/boo.html http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/pjohnson.html There's little doubt of his pre-eminence. The last link explains why he is less well regarded in the UK than here: he does double duty as a columnist over there and his journalistic writing is apparantly often quite radical. His books, though, at least the couple I've read, are quite good. --- Anthony,

See the following on Johnson:

http://www.time.com/time/time100/johnson_chat.html

http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/pubaffairs/newsletter/03081/boo.html

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/pjohnson.html

There's little doubt of his pre-eminence. The last link explains why he is less well regarded in the UK than here: he does double duty as a columnist over there and his journalistic writing is apparantly often quite radical. His books, though, at least the couple I've read, are quite good.

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