Re Lou P's query: I ought to know more about this, but from what I know the British revisionist historians tend to be right-wingers who feel that Churchill's line brought Britain unnecessarily into a war with Germany, and as a result lost its Empire. They feel that Britain could have stayed out of a war with Germany, and thereby maintained its global position.
The myth of the 'good war' remains very strong in Britain, and, as the case of Andy Newman shows, it can even attract those who at one point adhered to an anti-war position. Churchill was canny enough to incorporate much Popular Front verbiage in his presentations; the soft left therefore thinks that this made the war 'theirs'. Hence their fond memories. Even today -- indeed, I'd say especially today -- one can't get away from the war, even though it ended 64 years ago and anyone fighting in it must be over 80 years old now. Practically any excuse is enough to get someone trying to commemorate something or somebody; every night on the telly there will be someone rabbiting on about some aspect or another about the war. The Second World War was the last time that Britain played anything like a major role on a world scale, and I guess that the endless commemorating of it here is at least in part an unconscious recognition of this. Paul F ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
