Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The View From England On Charlie Rose
Here is a wonderful discussion on Charlie Rose about current circumstances in an historical perspective. John F. Burns, who I've got to start a fan club for, was as usual, the Voice of Truth. That can sound sarcastic, but I mean it. The man is overflowing with credibility. Alistair Home, a very English sounding name for a suitably English historian, is new to me, but his ideas have the richness of deeply informed scholarship. Timothy Garton Ash, whom I used to read all the time in the NYRB, was surprisingly tiresome. Charlie needs to use an egg timer with Ash, because once he gets rolling… Ash has an Old European mindset, always edging away from America and subtly missing the point. The focus though should be on “subtly”, because Ash, like the rest of the panel, were all brilliant, thoughtful, gosh, they actually sounded like mature adults discussing real ideas. The discussion is so filled with insights and thought provoking comments I can't pull just one statement as emblematic.