I decided that I wasn't ready to leave World War II behind yet, so I pushed Churchill's 6 volume The Second World War to the head of the Daily Devotional Reading queue. Amazon says it's 4,736 pages...but it's not the same edition, so I'm going to do a head count on mine. Speaking of which, I got this lovely thing for $9.99 + tax (at Half-Price Books, of course) some time ago, but the cheapest I saw online just now was $50 + $7.60 shipping (and probably some tax, too) for a raggedy looking set of hardbacks. And no box. (It's all 'bout that box, 'bout that box, no treble.)
And our survey said:
Volume I: 12 + 691 = 703 pagesVolume II: 10 + 650 = 660 pages
Volume III: 12 + 784 = 796 pages
Volume IV: 11 + 872 = 883 pages
Volume V: 12 + 638 = 650 pages
Volume VI: 11 + 676 = 687 pages
Day One (DDRD 1,117): November 22, 2020
I actually read the 12 introductory pages yesterday as I tried to decide if I was really up for this, and then I read the first ten pages of the book proper today. Churchill certainly has a lively and intelligent style, and I feel that this book is much more readable than other history tomes. (David Glantz's Stalingrad springs to mind....) So I'm already interested, especially as the premise seems to be that The Second World War should and need not have happened, that it was the all too predicable result of the Allies' stupidity at the end of World War I. (Churchill relates how when he was asked what this war should be named, he immediately said, "The Unnecessary War.") One thing that was a little off-putting: Churchill had previously written on the First World War in a 6 volume work entitled The World Crisis (1 1911–1914; 2 1915; 3 1916–1918 (Part 1); 4 1916–1918 (Part 2); 5 The Aftermath; 6 The Eastern Front)...so of course I'm now thinking, "Maybe I should have read that first...." But I'm not going to go there. If this work really cooks my brain I'll think about it, but I am now officially on my way, so damn the torpedos.
Day Two (DDRD 1,118): November 23, 2020
Read to page 34 today. Not really meaning to up the ante, just wanted to finish the chapter I was on. Quite a few interesting things came up today. For instance...I didn't know that Woodrow Wilson had a debilitating stroke two years before the end of his presidency. Or that the allies sank lots of its battleships after WWI ended.
And how's this for a This Sounds Like Trump & The Republican Party Thing:
"How the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous; how the structure and habits of democratic States, unless they are welded into larger organisms, lack those elements of persistence and conviction which can alone give security to humble masses.... We shall see how the councils of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be found to lead direct to the bulls-eye of disaster." (16)
Mmm-hmm.
Also, a classy little typographical element:
I like it.
And I thought I'd spotted a typo when I read the phrase "milliard-dollar," but lo and behold...
"mil·liard /milˈyärd/ noun BRITISH
one thousand million (a term now largely superseded by billion)
So there you have it. Read Churchill and learn.
Churchill also has a little flash of a sense of humor every once in awhile, such as when he referred to the fact that Hungary, which had brought a Communist fellow to power briefly, then rid itself of him, by saying, "Hungary had recovered from her dose of Bela Kun." (14)
Later...
I've been feeling really lousy today...past few days, actually...so I decided to lay down for a bit, and then I went ahead and read another chapter (3), so went to page 46.
At one point in this chapter, Churchill is talking about Allied disarmament after World War I, and what he said re: that seems like good advice for today as well: "The redress of the grievances of the vanquished should precede the disarmament of the victors." I'm thinking of De-Fund the Police movements. Just sayin', sir.
Day Three (DDRD 1,119): November 24, 2020
Read to page 72...but still feeling a bit shitty, so I very well might be going prone in a bit, and if I do, this book will probably be coming with me.
Meanwhile...
Here's something to think about: according to Winston Churchill, fear of communism was a primary cause of the German people embracing Adolf Hitler. Now I'm thinking about all of the times I've heard people say that Trump had to be re-elected or else the U.S. would become a Communist nation. Coincidence...or something else?
Churchill referred to one of Hitler's early supports...Ernst Röhm...as sexually perverted (53). I immediately had the nauseous feeling that he meant that he was a homosexual (as opposed to being a dog or frog fucker). I Googled around and...yep. It upsets me when intelligent people make these kinds of statements. I know that Churchill was just speaking out of his own time, but I think that genius has the opportunity to see beyond its own time.
And then there was this:
"...when we watch with surprise and distress the tumultuous insurgence of ferocity and war spirit, the pitiless ill-treatment of minorities, the denial of the normal protections of civilized society, the persecution of large numbers of individuals solely on the ground of race – when we see all that occurring in one of the most gifted, learned, and scientific and formidable nations in the world, one cannot help feeling glad that the fierce passions that are raging in Germany have not yet found any other outlet but upon themselves. (68)
Well. Just substitute the words "United States of America" for "Germany," right?
Also, we find out that in April of 1933, Churchill warned Parliament that allied disarmament at the same time as Germany was permitted to rearm would lead not only to disaster, but to war: Surely shall we see ourselves within a measurable distance of the renewal of general European war." Alas, Parliament was not listening.
It already seems very clear that Churchill was not engaging in hyperbole when he made that reference to The Unnecessary War. In fact, it seems that every major Allied nation directly acted (or failed to act) in ways which ensured that a second world war would come to pass.
Day Four (DDRD 1,120): November 25, 2020
Read to page 105.
"It is much better for parties or politicians to be turned out of office than to imperil the life of the nation." (101)
Yep.
Day Five (DDRD 1,121): 🦃November 26, 2020🦃
Read to page 126.
Seems to me that two things are clear from The Gospel According to Winston Churchill: (1) when governments / people focus on the immediate and near-future benefit, they pretty much insure that the future will be fucked. (2) Most to all of the horrors in this world could be mitigated or avoided entirely if people in power would make it their first priority to seek to alleviate suffering. (Which, if you think about it, is really just another way of looking at (1), isn't it?)
Day Six (DDRD 1,122): November 27, 2020
The world kind of sucks right now, but I've got a cat, a sofa, and Winston Churchill, and that's enough for a few moments.
Read to page 147. Still astounded at how negligent the Allies were in terms of being aware of / prepared for the German threat...which was pretty obvious. (And not just in hindsight.)
Day Seven (DDRD 1,123): November 28, 2020
Somewhere...and I'm thinking that it was in one of Noam Chomsky's books...I read a reference to the "fact" that Winston Churchill was a racist and had made some awful comment on a par with "exterminate the brutes" with respect to African people. It cast a shadow over my thoughts about Churchill, and if not for his portrayal in several movies, which showed him as a brilliant fellow with a firm moral center, I doubt that I would have even picked up one of his books (much less six). Now I'm wondering if that was anywhere close to fair. I have nothing but love and respect for Noam Chomsky (assuming that I'm correct and that I did read it in one of his books), but it seems to me quite possible that there was more to the story than he revealed...for instance, that this was a comment Churchill made when he was young and stupid, or a comment he made with respect to a specific group of awful people. The doubt was cast by these words from The Second World War Volume 1:
"Mussolini's designs upon Abyssinia were unsuited to the ethics of the twentieth century. They belonged to those dark ages when white men felt themselves entitled to conquer yellow, brown, black, or red men, and subjugate them by their superior strength and weapons. In our enlightened days, when crimes and cruelties have been committed from which the savages of former times would have recoiled, or of which they would at least have been incapable, such conduct was at once obsolete and reprehensible." (148 to 149)
Read to page 160.
Day Eight (DDRD 1,124): November 29, 2020
Read to page 181. And...oh. Yep. Here, on page 171:
And this is a book first published in 1948, and in an edition printed in 1985 or 1986 (that's the best I could do...damned British books). And I just found out that kindle unlimited has this book...and, in fact, all six volumes of The Second World War...ready and waiting. And since I am currently a subscriber to ku, I had a look there...and in the RosettaBooks 2013 edition, this typo still stands. Hmpf. I don't think I have it in me to write another email, though, so I'll leave that to you.
This morning I was watching the news on CNN for a bit (since a bit is all I can stand these days), and caught a moment wherein Jon Meacham dropped a great Churchill quote: "...you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing--after they've exhausted every other possibility."
Mmm-hmmm.
Day Nine (DDRD 1,125): November 30, 2020
Read to page 207. With Jet, of course.
Day Ten (DDRD 1,126): December 1, 2020
Read to page 230.
Day Eleven (DDRD 1,127): December 2, 2020
Read to page 250.
Day Twelve (DDRD 1,128): December 3, 2020
Read to page 270.
As we build up to the start of World War II, every page of this book shows how cowardice allowed Hitler to bluff his way into a position of virtually unassailable power. Sounds familiar. It's depressing to read...not because of the historical tragedy, but because it's so clear that we (Americans, at least) have learned nothing from this. Trump is still running roughshod over the nation...and the only people who have the power to stop him are such cowards that they just close their eyes and nod their heads. It really makes me sick.
Day Thirteen (DDRD 1,129): December 4, 2020
Read to page 291.
Day Fourteen (DDRD 1,130): December 5, 2020
Read to page 310.
This week the Corona Virus became the leading cause of death in the United States of America. Unemployment is on a par with that during the Great Depression. And my first ex-wife's aunt, who was a kind and gentle person who I loved, died. Sometimes reading a book about World War II seems exceedingly trivial. But...what else are you going to do, right?
Day Fifteen (DDRD 1,131): December 6, 2020
Read to page 330.
On the last page of today's reading, Churchill gives a description of the Soviet politician Vyacheslav Molotov which is pretty high-larious. Check this out: he describes Molotov as having a "cannon-ball head," a "slab face," and sums it all up by observing, "I have never seen a human being who more perfectly represented the modern conception of a robot." (330)
Of course I had to Google around to find a picture. And?
Day Sixteen (DDRD 1,132): December 7, 2020
And speaking of World War II...today is the 79th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I always think about Edgar Rice Burroughs when Pearl Harbor is mentioned. He wrote about playing tennis as the Japanese planes attacked...and how no one even knew it was an attack at first. He then became one of the oldest U.S. war correspondents during World War II. I wonder why there's never been a collection of his writings from this period of his life? I'd certainly buy it. For now, though, you can find a nice collection of these works online at https://www.erbzine.com/war/ if you're interested.
Read to page 350. Past the halfway point!
Day Seventeen (DDRD 1,133): December 8, 2020
Read to page 370.
Check this out:
"If a government has no moral scruples it often seems to gain great advantages and liberties of action, but 'all comes out even at the end of the day, and all will come out yet more even when all the days are ended.'" (352)
Are you listening, Mr. Trump?
Day Eighteen (DDRD 1,134): December 9, 2020
Read to page 390.
Pat called last night and she asked what I was doing. I told her I was reading The Second World War by Winston Churchill, and told her a little bit about it, mentioning along the way that he'd been a pretty prolific writer. She said something along the lines of, "How did he manage to get so much writing done when he was Prime Minister, etc." I told her I didn't know (thinking about how little I manage to get done), and then quipped, "He did say that he took a nap every day. Maybe that's the key."
In today's twenty, Churchill talked in detail about his nap program. I copied the (rather hefty) paragraph and sent it to Pat. It's a bit too long to quote here, but suffice it to say that Churchill was a great believer in the power of the one hour afternoon nap, and credits his capacity to do a day and a half's worth of work in one day to this habit. Reminds me of Kabuki, wherein the titular character only slept four hours, then was active 8 hours, then repeated that cycle. She said that it allowed her to get two days into every one. I've never tried it, but I'm pretty sure (based on past experience of not sleeping well) that it would only insure that I was tired all the time...probably too tired to get much of anything done.
Also...a disconcerting bit. Churchill makes reference to some of the early naval losses incurred by Great Britain, and notes that 26 ships were sunk between September 3rd to the 30th (1939, of course). One of these ships was an aircraft carrier, and 500 sailors drowned as a result of just that one sining. Churchill makes a couple of references to these events, categorizing them as "acceptable" or "expected" losses. I'm sure that he was just trying to keep it real...and that he was trying to assuage the fears of the people to whom he was speaking...but still, that's some cold shit, man.
Day Nineteen (DDRD 1,135): December 10, 2020
Read to page 410.
Churchill sure does have an amazing vocabulary. He taught me another word in Today's Twenty:
lim·i·trophe | \ ˈli-mə-ˌtrōf , -ˌtrȯf \: situated on a border or frontier : ADJACENT
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/limitrophe?fbclid=IwAR2x5Ekj_TNWhgAl4cfk_RvJBRdbsYnm4ALH__Psyk1AVPa6PR1Gq8Hwbyk
I was also surprised to see this witticism on page 403:
"It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."
(It's a reference to wondering what action the Soviet Union will take as World War II shudders into view.)
I've heard that phrase many a time, but would never have guessed that it came from Winston Churchill.
Day Twenty (DDRD 1,136): December 11, 2020
Read to page 430.
On page 425 there is a reference to a Commander de Gaulle; presumably this is Charles de Gaulle, and if so then I suppose he wasn't all that famous at this point in time.
I checked the Index and there was an earlier reference to this so-called Commnder de Gaulle that apparently didn't make an impression on me at the time. I looked back, and it is kind of funny. It says, "It seemed that a Colonel de Gaulle had written a much-criticized book about the offensive power of modern armored vehicles." Funny because clearly Monsieur de Gaulle was not much known at the time Churchill wrote this book. De Gaulle's book, by the way, was The Army of the Future, and I found a copy on Amazon for $890. Yowza.
I couldn't let that go, so I poked around until I found a copy on AbeBooks for a mere $34.26 + $13.30 shipping. A regular fuckin' STEAL there. Along the way to finding this deal, I also ran across this lovely set of toy soldiers:
Day Twenty-One (DDRD 1,137): December 12, 2020
Read to page 450.
You know, it's November 1939, and the Soviet Union is still butt buddies with Germany. I didn't know that it went down like that.
Day Twenty-Two (DDRD 1,138): 🕯December 13, 2020🕯
🎵St. Lucy's Day, St. Lucy's Day, December 13th is St. Lucy's Day.🎵
Which is a big deal when you have a daughter who converses with said saint every single day of her life. And yes, St. Lucy does answer.
Read to page 464. A little less than my usual, but it was a busy day.
BTW, here's an interesting web site which gives some information about the disarmament which happened after World War I:
https://www.americanforeignrelations.com/A-D/Arms-Control-and-Disarmament-Between-the-world-wars-1919-1939.html
Day Twenty-Three (DDRD 1,139): December14, 2020
Read to page 484...but must confess that there were quite a few illustrations (of a naval battle).
Speaking of that naval battle...the German and British ships began to engage when they were 19,800 yards apart. That's (stops to do the math) 11.25 miles apart. In 1939. Holy shit! I'm impressed.
I was also impressed by this line, which I thought was pretty good advice: "...I expect you will find that change is the best kind of rest." (471)
And lastly (for newly), I was surprised to learn that Finland's role in World War II was a bit complicated. Here's what The Wikkans have to say about it (for the sake of the soul of wit):
"Finland participated in the Second World War initially in a defensive war against the Soviet Union, followed by another battle with the Soviet Union acting in concert with Nazi Germany and then finally fighting alongside the Allies against Nazi Germany. As relations with the Soviet Union changed during the war, Finland was placed in the situation of being for, then against and then for the overall interests of the Allied powers."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland_during_World_War_II#
Sheesh.
BTW, here's a Public Domain picture of Finnish soldiers doings War-y Things which I thought looked a lot like the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back:
Day Twenty-Four (DDRD 1,140): December15, 2020
Read to page 500.
Here are some things which I found interesting:
The Molotov cocktail was invented by Finnish soldiers when they fought against the Russians in 1939. They successfully held off the superior Russian troops, and used the MTs against Russian tanks.
Also...
I like the little CandyCane incursions into Finland.
Day Twenty-Five (DDRD 1,141): December16, 2020
Read to page 520.
One of the things which seems clear from this book (at least the first 500 pages of volume one) is that Hitler was enabled by the fact that so many leaders followed a "Maybe things will turn out okay if we wait and see" philosophy. It seems to me that this is very much like what has happened in America under Trump. His success has depended to a great extent upon people thinking he surely wouldn't do the things that he ended up doing...or not acting because they were afraid of making him angry. Which is also called "cowardice."
Did the British invent the tank as Churchill implied on page 502? (Calls Britain "the cradle of the tank in all its variants.") Let's see. Googling "Who invented the tank?" gave me the answer "Lancelot de Mole." Wikipedia tells me that "Lancelot Eldin 'Lance' de Mole CBE, (13 March 1880 – 6 May 1950) was an Australian engineer and inventor." Hmmm. Australian. But what about this CBE? And he did bring his idea for a tank to British authorities. So I guess Churchill is more or less right to make this claim. Could have thrown a bone to Australia, though.
I also finally remembered to write myself a note, "Look for book on war between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939." Because for some reason Churchill's comments on that were pretty fascinating to me. And I found a few interesting looking prospects:
The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland, 1939-1940 by Eloise Engle and Lauri Paananen
Finland's War of Choice: The Untidy Coalition of a Democracy and a Dictatorship in World War II by Henrik O. Lunde
Stalin and the Soviet-Finnish War, 1939-1940 by E. N. Kulkov, Oleg Aleksandro Rzheshevskii, and Harold Shukman
The Winter War: Russia's Invasion of Finland, 1939-1940 by Robert Edwards
War of the White Death: Finland against the Soviet Union 1939-1940 by Bair Irincheev
The Good News: two of these are available for Kindle. The Bad News: neither are on kindle unlimited.
The Good News: the Robert Edwards book is available at the Louisville Free Public Library. The Bad News: they've never heard of any of the other books. So looks like I'm going to give Mr. Edwards a shot.
Also found that there was a movie about this war--Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) from 2017 which is available for a mere $2.99 from YouTube, so that might fit the ticket. The movie is based on a novel by Väinö Linna novel...which is available for Kindle, but not for free...and it's not at the library. So there you have it.
Also, I've been thinking about reading Jason Lutes' Berlin for a long time, but just recently stumbled upon it at the LFPL, ordered it up, and have been reading it for the past couple of days. Wasn't really thinking about it in context of World War II until this:
Churchill spent a fair amount of time talking about this very thing--how under the guise of a civilian airline program, Germany developed its fighter planes. Small world.
Day Twenty-Six (DDRD 1,142): December17, 2020
Read to page 541. And it was an early morning reading (finished at 7:40), so it's possible I'll read a bit more...but I would like to take a chunk out of Berlin, too, so we'll see how that goes. One advantage that The Gathering Storm has is that it's a lot easier to read by the available light in my bedroom, whereas Berlin requires much stronger light...and I'll be banished to my bedroom for at least an hour today while the kids Zoom meet their friends from St. Mary's.
Today's twenty hammered home the point about how the British Government delayed acting with specific details about how Churchill proposed mining a Norwegian harbor to cut off oil supplies to Germany...and it took 6 1/2 months for the government to actually carry out that action. In consequence, Germany took over the Norwegian ports despite British action.
There was also a horrific anecdote about a captain of a British naval vessel who was severely wounded in battle, losing both of his legs, and since he didn't want to demoralize his men he rolled himself off the ship and into the sea, where he drowned. Can you imagine that? I'm sorry to say that I can.
I'm also still pre-occupied with the movie I saw last night--The Unknown Soldier. I've found a sample of the book available via Google Books which I'm hoping to read (to see if I really need the book). I've also found a couple of interesting looking editions online, most of which are pretty expensive. The one that draws me the most is from Ace Books...and has a really great cover:
Pretty pricey item, though...I think between $35 and $50...so I can't really justify buying it...can I?
Day Twenty-Seven (DDRD 1,143): December18, 2020
Read to page 560.
"For Sweden the choice was a profitable neutrality or subjugation." (548)
Profitable because the were selling iron ore to Germany. I guess that's pretty much the name of the tune, isn't it? Questions of right and wrong are smothered by questions of what is profitable versus what is not. Of course, it's also worth noting that not everybody has the luxury of making hard distinctions between right and wrong.
Day Twenty-Eight (DDRD 1,144): December19, 2020
Read to page 580.
Another early morning read...this one starting around 4:30 am. (Bad 🐈.) Getting pretty close to the 100 Pages To Go mark, isn't it? I seem to have settled into a 20 page per day habit, which is good, I think.
One thing that hit me today as I read about Churchill and government's plans to move into Sweden was the fact that clearly as they planned offensive actions, they had to calculate how many men would be lost. And then they had to decide if the losses were "acceptable." It's hard to imagine how anybody could make those decisions without losing h/is/er mind. I also thought about the soldier on the ground. He expects that his superiors are making their plans with him in mind...that they are sending him into situations where he can expect to survive...and that is probably not the case. It's pretty scary stuff, really. It makes life seem so fragile, so cheap.
Day Twenty-Nine (DDRD 1,145): December20, 2020
Read to page 604. And surprise, surprise, surprise...that's the end of the text for Volume I. I knew that Appendices were coming (since in the text Churchill would refer to Appendix this or that), but I hadn't peeked ahead, and didn't suspect that they would occupy so many pages. Which means that I might have made a strategic error, in that I now have 89 pages of Appendices to get through, and I don't know exactly what that means. If they're like long footnotes, it could be rough, and if that's the case I will certainly read them as they come up in the next volume. Details as they happen.
As for the text...in ended on a high note, for sure, with Churchill stepping in as Prime Minister (I'm assuming that that's no spoiler for anyone) and ready to take on the Axis powers as he takes charge of the Allied powers (which at this point in time does not include the U.S. of A.).
Day Thirty (DDRD 1,146): December 21, 2020
Read to page 625...Appendices A through F. Some of them were kind of like long footnotes, as I feared, but for the most part it wasn't hard to pay attention to. The entries took various forms, including letters, charts, and maps. So I think it will be okay...though I will still try to read these as (if) they come up in the next volume.
Lesson learned.
Day Thirty-One (DDRD 1,147): December 22, 2020
Read to page 641. Mostly letters today...and pretty good ones, too. And btw...only 52 pages to go in Volume I. If I keep to my current pace, that means I'll finish up on Christmas Day. Sounds like a plan.
Day Thirty-Two (DDRD 1,148): December 23, 2020
Read to page 660. Here's an interesting thing:
There was a thing called White Rabbit No. 6...and later called Cultivator No. 6...and even later called something else. It was a 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁gigantic digging machine. Check this out:
"The machine in its final form weighed over a hundred tons, was seventy-seven feet long and eight feet high. This mammoth mole could cut in loam a trench five feet deep and seven and a half feet wide at half a mile an hour, involving the movement of eight thousand tons of soil." (645)
Shades of David Innes & Abner Perry! Apparently this was a very real plan which had gone into production when changes in the war (don't know what that means) rendered these machines useless after only a few smaller versions had been produced, and most of them (all but one) ended up being dismantled. Reference the whole thing, Churchill notes "I am responsible but impenitent." Ha! Here's a cool Public Domain picture of this monstrous thing:
In the course of today's twenty pages, I read the final appendix (R) which was a series of charts showing naval losses; then came First Lord's Minutes, the text of which began on page 654.
I'm getting closer to my ho-ome.
Day Thirty-Three (DDRD 1,149): December 24, 2020
Read to page 681. Looks like tomorrow is it, then, will a mere 12 pages left in this book. I'm actually looking forward to the second volume, too. In fact, I got caught up in this WWII stuff enough to watch the first episode of Band of Brothers, thinking that it was a documentary about the war. My disappointment in discovering (after a few interviews with guys who actually had fought in the war) that it was not a documentary was only eclipsed by my disappointment that I didn't think it was very good. For one thing, if you want someone to portray a hard ass Airborne Captain, then you sure as fuck don't get David Schwimmer to play the part. Don't know if I'll even go back for a second episode...though it does look like the series got a lot of accolades, so we'll see.
Day Thirty-Four (DDRD 1,150): 🎄🎁December 25, 2020🎁🎄
Read to page 693, aka The End. The end of the text, that is. The Index goes on to page 724.
There were several pretty funny comments in these last pages...which were entirely letters written to various officials. For instance, this bit:
"Now that we are not allowed to interfere with the Norwegian Corridor, would it not be possible to have one or two merchant ships of sufficient speed, specially strengthened in the bows and if possible equipped with a ram? These vessels would carry merchandise and travel up the Leads looking for German ore-ships or any other German merchant vessels, and then ram them by accident. This is only another development of the “Q” ship idea." (682)
Which is not to suggest that Churchill wasn't entirely serious in this proposal--as I think he was. But still...it's ha ha funny.
This was a most excellent book, and I'm looking forward to reading Volume II (Their Finest Hour). So much so that I might even start reading a bit of it today, since it's just me and Jet until this afternoon, and it's probably too cold to go for a walk outside today (16º with a "Feels Like" of 2º).
Before reading this morning I turned on CNN to do a news check-in, but it was too early (5-something am) for news, and there was a "Special Report" showing.
I was about to turn it off and get to my reading when they started talking about how Woodrow Wilson caught the flu as he was taking part in the negotiations for Germany's surrender after their defeat in World War II. According to the people interviewed for the program, the flu altered Wilson's thinking dramatically, and when he went back to the negotiating table he stepped back from his previous position and allowed seriously punitive measures to be enacted against Germany. (So much so that he was quoted as saying that if he was a German he wouldn't have accepted the proposals.) And it then went on to say--as Churchill has done from the get-go in The Second World War--that it was in large part these punitive actions which made it possible for the Nazis to rise to power and thus caused the second World War. So that's how a microscopic parasite can alter the course of civilization. A humbling thought which reminds me of Tom Robbins' proposal in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues that human beings were invented by amoebas so that they could get from one place to another. (I think that's how it went. It's been awhile, and I really don't feel like looking it up. It's definitely close enough for rock 'n' roll.)
So...
Merry Christmas. See you on the other side of this.
DDR Day 1000 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War __ days, 4,379 pages Total: 6,970 pages...more than 1/2 of my first 1,000 DDR days
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