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Summary: Christopher Hitchens is Bitchens
Review: Blood, Class and Empire is the most engrossing book I've read this month.
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Summary: Misinformation
Review: Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair and should stick to that. Need I say more?
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Summary: A charming and entertaining, if incomplete survey
Review: Hitchens is both a polemicist and a comedian and this re-issue is a timely reminder of his wicked sense of fun. It probably shouldn't be taken too seriously. If read as an extension of an amusing hypothesis it's very effective, if read as a serious work of geo-political analysis it may be something of a disappointment.I enjoyed it tremendously, but then I came to it mostly expecting to be entertained and reminded of some hazy anecdotes that might adorn the history of the 'special relationship' at a dinner-party level. Reading the reviews that this book has garnered on amazon ironically demonstrated to me the very sizable difference in character between the two partners in this uneasy, but now very long-standing marriage. The British Empire was an empire based on 'grace' (of necessity - that small temperate isle anchored off the coast of continental Europe could only enforce its 'imperium' by diplomacy and grace. Let's be honest: the Brits CHARMED the Indians into accepting their rule!) In contrast the American Empire is based on 'power' and the projection overseas of American interests through financial and military 'might' based on a trans-continental nation with unparalleled economic and technological capability has been the exercise of effective, determined, aggressive self-interest. It is therefore a not-too-surprising irony that your reaction to this work will be determined by your expectations based on whether you are looking for a Brtish-style work of charming anecdote illuminating by wit, or whether your need is really for a hard-headed geopolitcal analysis to satisfy the most self-interested Beltway policy wonk. My advice: sit back and enjoy the charm. Thank God that we (eventually) went and saved Britain from Hitler and thus helped them secure Europe for civilisation and democracy. Life would be immeasurably less rich without these crazy Brits and their incomprehensible wit and, despite their all-too-obvious concerns of late, they have repaid that debt with interest in supporting us through thick and (recently) thin and adding their not inconsiderable weight to our strategies. You can just hear Harold Macmillan saying something like "Think nothing of it dear boy". No 'serious' American writer would have produced this confection. That's why we serious Americans should read it.
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Summary: Hitchens is a good bloke
Review: Hitchens, with his wicked British sense of humor (you know, that great unfunny type of pompous intellectual humor) and his passion for all things American, has written a lovely little book about the history of the relationship between America and England. What fun!! In usual Hitchens style, he tells fascinating made-up stories of how the US Congress almost voted to make Swahili the official language of the nation, but lost the vote because of one brave British born representative, Ngwame Tsufu. There is also the wonderful tale of Thomas Jefferson and his romp with several young English lads who had deserted from the British army. I especially enjoyed the story of Abigail Adams spooning the inedible Blood Pudding under the table at a dinner hosted by the British ambassador. Simply wonderful!! Hitchens is a well-spoken, objective, historian/journalist who simply presents the facts as they are and has no interest in stroking his own ego with over-written passages or injecting himself into every commentary. He is, as they say, a good bloke. A good bloke who rightly stood against the VietNam War and publicly castigated Kissinger and Nixon, and who has rightly come to love the Iraq War and to idolize Bush and Rumsfeld. Hitchens is a highly complex individual with deeply held beliefs who speaks the truth and will stand up and speak out against those who take the wrong position on anything. You go girl, I mean bloke. Hated the VietNam War, but loves the Iraq War. The Brits, such a complex people. And this book explains it all. Buy the book.
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Summary: Apparently Greatly Misunderstood
Review: I feel compelled to write a short review of this book in order to underscore how badly I feel that many of the leftist reviewers here have misunderstood it, probably based on no more than reading the title if history is any judge. This book IS NOT some bloated Noam Chomsky fairy tale about America and its misdeeds throughout time; it IS a very nice survey of the 'special relationship' between America and Great Britain, and its enduring components of blood, class, and nostalgia (as the original title that I own went).
So, look elsewhere for loony paranoid fantasies; here you will only find the usual intelligent Hitchens style.
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Summary: The "New" Hitchens needs to re-read this and fight himself
Review: If Chris Hitchens really believes all the pro-Bush, war on terrorism garbage he has been spewing since 9/11 he would halt the publication of this book--instead he's rushed to print it. Money is the only way a sell-out like Hitchens could rationalize re-publishing his old ideas that he now reputes. Unfortunately, the old Hitchens had it mostly right while the new one seems too inebriated to understand his new role propping up the empire.
If you want to read about the American empire don't buy this: buy Gore Vidal's latest book.
Rating:
Summary: A charming and entertaining, if incomplete survey
Review: What trash and aimless drivel. You'll find more truth at a liars anonymous gathering. This book is not worthy of a long retort so I will simply say that it is TRASH! There, I've done it now. I've insulted trash. I didn't think that was possible...
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Summary: Hitchens Retails An Urban Legend
Review: While I like this book quite a bit - vintage Hitchens -- he makes one dreadful error on page 138, when he's talking about English as the semi-official language of the US. He says that "as late as 1795, the House of Representatives narrowly defeated a motion that all its documents and proceedings be printed also in German. The tie vote was cast by the Speaker, one Friedrich Muhlenberg." This ain't so. Muhlenberg was the Speaker, and a vote did fall one short -- but it wasn't to print in German, it was merely to table such a motion for consideration later. It failed, and thus the motion was dropped forever. It was never voted on at all.(...)
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