5 Books To Understand the Disaster of the 20th Century

And a Few Extras...Time to Get Reading

This is something different than normal, though I have done a post on books before.¹ However, I think it’s important. Most books that are currently written, particularly those sold en masse, are somewhere between unreadable slop and infuriating lies. Yet worse, the actually good books of the past have been shoved aside by the “Great Books” that leftist English teachers like. That’s a travesty. There are few things better for the mind than reading, and there is no better way to communicate in-depth, serious ideas in a way that can be deeply considered and understood than a well-cited book.

So, as a voracious reader, I’d like to do my part and recommend a selection of books I have found without par in understanding why the 20th Century was such a disaster.² Particularly, it must be understood why the West went from being a self-confident, prosperous land of relative liberty to a region divided between outright communists and the worst sort of egalitarian socialists.³

That is a big question, but it mainly comes down to the abominable mindsets of our awful rulers. Because it is they and what they thought that is generally to blame, understanding what they did and why is critical. Further, learning about the sort of societies that were functional and successful but-for their civilization-destroying interventions provides clues on how we can escape the grey, decaying world of the present and return to the timeline where the spirit of the Belle Epoque takes us ever higher up the ladder of civilizational excellence.

This list is largely about those themes. For it, I settled on five main books that I think best cover the century of disaster, along with a few extras for each title that you might find interesting. This time of year, with plenty of time at home and chilly weather outside the door, is a great time to try to work through these books and understand what went wrong. Amazon is typically the easiest place to find these works, though AbeBooks is also excellent for some of the rarer ones, so I have included links to the books.

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5 Books To Understand the Disaster of the 20th Century

Book #1: The Great Betrayal by Ian Smith

This selection of The Great Betrayal will likely surprise no one. I mention this book, or at least Rhodesia, in most posts, so it’s no surprise that I think this book by the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia is worth reading. But, though it’s probably not a surprise selection, it is still a book that is worth reading deeply.

The importance of this book is that it shows the West’s perfidy in its treatment of Rhodesia, and the utter senselessness of the carnage. Rhodesia was an economically successful state that had no apartheid laws, protected the property rights of its citizens, had free and fair elections, and so on. The only political differences between the two countries in the early 1960s were that it had propertied voting qualifications applied equally to black and white alike to screen out incompetence in its elections. Well, and that black and white Rhodesians generally got along rather than being at each other’s throats, as in America.

Because of that propertied voting rule, one seen as common sense in America and England up into the 1830s, Rhodesia was assaulted by the West and the communists, and its free and fair elections and respected government were replaced by Mugabe’s evil dictatorship.

All that evil came to Rhodesia thanks to egalitarianism. Things didn’t have to be that way, and wouldn’t have been that way if the West of the pre-World War I period was still around.⁴ But that world was long dead, and what replaced it was a collection of bourgeoisie interests motivated by spite against and envy of the upper class, and underclass interests motivated by hatred of anything that rejected the ideology of egalitarianism and the policy of wealth redistribution. Smith’s book shows that, in a roundabout way, as it is the clear motivation of the continual betrayal Rhodesia experienced at the hands of America and England, all while the House of Lords in England took his side.⁵

In short, the Rhodesian Bush War was the last conflict in which the Lions of the Old World fought the biting jackals of the new; a land of modern gentility fought to the bitter end against the twin forces of liberalism and communism. Unfortunately, it lost, in no small part thanks to the perfidy and ungentlemanly conduct of its enemies, including those enemies it didn’t know better than to trust. And so the land “more British than the British” was destroyed and replaced by yet another “One Man, One Vote, One Time” despotism. Smith brilliantly tells the story of how that happened, cutting through the propaganda that surrounds the conflict.

If you find this interesting, Rhodesia Accuses by AJA Peck is an excellent collection of essays on the truth of what was happening in Rhodesia when the communist rebels began their attacks, and it comments on the political nature of the West’s hatred of Rhodesia and lies about it. Additionally, Three Sips of Gin: Dominating the Battlespace with Rhodesia's Elite Selous Scouts by Tim Bax is fabulous; Bax’s portrayal of the war is top-notch, and he really shows the slog that was trying to contain the Western and communist-backed Red rebels.

Book #2: Stalin’s War by Sean McMeekin

It is hard to understand the degree to which the Cold War was self-inflicted. Nuclear annihilation, constant dirty wars and proxy conflicts in hellholes abroad, and the unnecessary bloodbaths of Korea and Vietnam largely resulted because of decisions made during World War II. Inevitably, there would have been some post-war unpleasantness regardless of who sided with whom and in what manner they did it; such is always the case with mass wars of that sort. But the consequences that came from the version of WWII that happened came mainly because “we” wanted them to, and enabled our future enemies every step of the way up until Truman finally put his foot down.

Such is, essentially, the lesson of Stalin’s War, though McMeekin largely focuses on the war itself rather than the consequences. Regardless, what he shows in this lengthy history backed by documents from the Soviet archives is that the global conflict was one Stalin wanted, and the war emerged how it did thanks mostly to Stalin’s treachery and astute political moves. That’s not what’s taught, of course. Teachers with blue hair and political activists on the right and left are generally fond of saying that Hitler began the war as a war of choice, and fought it in the way he wanted and on his own terms. McMeekin’s evidence is much more compelling than that conventional history.

The other aspect of the book is that it shows how self-destructive Allied policy toward the Soviets was. As the book’s description provides: “McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American materiél from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army. This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.”

It is that aspect that makes the work so compelling. The Cold War is thought of as being a result of Soviet strength. To some extent that’s true, but what is ignored or forgotten is that Soviet strength came mainly from Allied appeasement of Stalin’s territorial demands and the weaponry and industrial supplies which the Soviets received during the war.

That pairs particularly well with The Great Betrayal: Rhodesia was destroyed (along with every relatively free and stable country from South Vietnam to Cuba) because of Soviet strength and some variation of American acceptance and encouragement of their predations. That trend began, however, well before WWII. It wasn’t new, and the communists McCarthy uncovered had been there for a long time, shaping American policy toward Soviet objectives. Stalin’s War shows how that occurred and how it played out in WWII.

If this interests you, the entirety of the One Dozen Candles book set by the John Birch Society is quite good, telling the stories of communist subversion that mainstream history refuses to cover honestly, if at all. Also good is Witness by Whittaker Chambers, as it exposes the vast extent of communist subversion inside the FDR administration, something encouraged by the president and his pinko wife. Finally, American Betrayal by Diana West is fabulous, covering many of the same topics as McMeekin as regards American industrial support for the Soviets and how they took advantage of it.

Book 3: War Dog by AJ Venter

Since decolonization began in the wake of World War II, Africa has been ablaze. Soviet-supported rebels wreaking havoc and destroying governments. Tribal aggression blowing up into genocidal armageddons. Civil wars lasting for decades and leaving millions dead and an entire continent rife with poverty and economic disorder.

But while that has long occurred, it didn’t have to be this way. In fact, from Mike Hoare’s Commando battalions to Neall Ellis and his gunship, there were plenty of men willing to use their inventiveness and experience to end the chaos and protect civilians from continued, awful predations.

Sadly, those men were stopped from saving entire countries from the plunge into chaos. Why? Because they were generally white, and were always mercenaries. To the UN and its American-Soviet backers, it didn’t matter that Mike Hoare was risking his life and the lives of his men to save thousands of Congolese villagers, nor did it matter that Eeben Barlow and Neall Ellis were saving entire cities in Sierre Leone from brutal deaths at the hands of machete-wielding thugs. What mattered was that having white men save black Africans looked bad, and the fact that they were mercenaries made their work all the more distasteful.

So, time after time the UN replaced the effective white (and sometimes black) mercenaries with predictably ineffective African blue helmets who spent most of their time raping and drinking rather than saving civilians. Sadly, much like with the Western attitude toward Rhodesia, the political optics were what mattered, not the results. And so thousands of Sierre Leonese are missing hands they needn't be missing, millions of Congolese are dead, and the worst sort of warlords rule where somewhat less awful dictators could.

It is those conflicts that Venter discusses in War Dog. Particularly, he takes pains to show who the mercenaries were, what they did, and how effectively they fought against thuggish African warbands bent on rapine and murder. Further, he contrasts that effectiveness with the sloth and incompetence of the UN, and notes how hamstrung heroes like Hoare and Ellis were by insane Western policy.

It’s an infuriating read, only marginally less so than the two above, but important in that it shows no problem is truly intractable. To a bureaucrat in some grey office building in DC, perhaps, the Congolese conflict is an impossible to solve mess. But to the men on the ground, South African mercenaries, it’s actually quite easily solvable; all it would take is a free hand and a few million dollars. As Bukele has shown in El Salvador, the same is true in most places. All it takes is a bit of training and a free hand. As we enter into a potential period of war with the cartels, as tens of millions of illegals must be deported, it’s important to remember that the chattering class is wrong and those problems can be solved with just a dash of will.

If this interests you, there are a great many similar books. Civilian Warriors by Erik Prince is a great tale of a similar situation in America, with one of the most competent units in Iraq - the Blackwater PMCs - hamstrung and destroyed because they were mercenaries and seemed “mean” to craven politicians like Hillary Clinton. Similarly, Congo Mercenary by Mike Hoare is fabulous; he led multiple mercenary units in the Congo, and wrote numerous books about those experiences, but this one is his best work; like War Dog, it tells the tale of how a war that could have been easily won wasn’t finished because Western politicos got uncomfortable with the optics. Also good are Eeeben Barlow’s books; he owned and commanded the South African mercenary group Executive Outcomes and pacified Angola and Sierre Leone before the UN shut him down. His book Executive Outcomes: Against All Odds is his best.

Book #4: The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy by David Cannadine

When it comes to the English landed elite, I am an unrepentant romantic. Their world was one with many more virtues than ours, and was much more honest and insightful about toward what purposes wealth should be put and for what reasons. Still, it was a flawed one and that is sometimes missed in my romanticism. Cannadine is fabulous because he is honest and unromantic, but doesn’t fall into the trap of thinking all leftist history is right and the aristocracy collapsed only because of its own faults, namely its fecklessness in the face of financial reversal.

In The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, Cannadine shows how they fell and for what reasons that fall happened. A portion of the book’s official summary is as good as any I could write: “At the outset of the 1870s, the British aristocracy could rightly consider themselves the most fortunate people on earth: they held the lion's share of land, wealth, and power in the world's greatest empire. By the end of the 1930s they had lost not only a generation of sons in the First World War, but also much of their prosperity, prestige, and political significance.”

That is a dramatic change, and was brought about by everything from free trade⁶ to death taxes,⁷ with a healthy dose of overindebtedness and overspending.

For one, that is important because it is, in part, the story of England and shows how it went from being a self-satisfied superpower to a relatively impoverished backwater in just a couple of generations, with only bleakness in sight. What’s more, it is interesting as a social history, if quite sad to read.

But there’s more than that. It’s also highly relevant to Americans, given the similarity between the English aristocracy’s circumstances circa 1875 and their dramatic change by 1946. Namely, they were smug and self-satisfied, whatever their good qualities, and thought their place atop Olympus secure. From it, they surveyed the Earth, saw only dominions and distant competitors, and went back to their port and brandy. But all was not well, and a few rumbles from under Olympus meant that soon their overspending and deep indebtedness was a major problem from which most didn’t recover. Is that not where America is? Like aristocrats going into debt to buy claret, we spend far too much on programs with no expected economic return other than a negative one, from funding gender studies programs in Pakistan to stealing from the working to give to the comfortably retired here in America. That won’t continue because it can’t, and the fate of the aristocracy shows to where lascivious spending and deep indebtedness lead. Cannadine doesn’t focus on that, but it’s hard not to think about and consider while reading his work.

In any case, what he does do is provide a lengthy but not too lengthy social history that shows how the English landed elite, particularly the peerage went from on top of the world to a virtual nullity in just half a century. It is terribly sad, but quite informative, interesting, and telling as to why England is now the squalid, bureaucratic hell that it is.⁸

If this interests you, there are a great variety of works I quite like on this front. Two must-reads are The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman and 1913 by Charles Emmerson; both get into what was good and bad about the period of European glory that ended with World War I. Also, English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century by FML Thompson is superb, as is English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century by Mingay. Mingay’s other works, The Victorian Countryside Volumes I and II and The Gentry are also quite good. My favorites are The English Landed Estate in the Nineteenth Century: Its Administration by David Spring and The Aristocracy in England, 1660-1914 by Beckett. All are more about the heyday than the fall, but are quite interesting in terms of learning how the preeminent nation’s preeminent class built itself into a titan that lasted for centuries despite increasingly hostile government policy and economic competition.

Book 5: I'll Take My Stand by the Southern Agrarians

America, by the end of World War II, was a firmly industrial nation. At this point, it’s mainly a service economy that caters to mindless consumerism, but for a while, we were the world’s preeminent industrial nation. Some see that as a good thing. It provided the material we provided to the Soviets in World War II, after all…

But, at the time it was happening, much of Old Stock America didn’t see it as a good thing. Manufactures on a small scale, whether an armory, nailery, or something of the sort, was one thing…but vast factory complexes poisoning the rivers and melting roofs with acid rain? That was decidedly less positive to the point that even Hamilton, the original promoter of American industry, might have despised it. And, in any case, the Americans who arrived to fight in the Revolution came here for independence and land, not lives of work for others. Even if originally indentured servants, they came because they wanted to work for themselves rather than be consigned to a European life of work for a select few at the very top.

But with the mass influx of immigration, particularly from Central and Eastern Europe, that changed. American self-employment dropped to a previously unthinkable 50% by 1900, and that meant, when paired with the vast number of homesteads in the Midwest, that in some areas work for others rather than self-employment was the dominant mode of being. Good for the steel mongers, perhaps, but horrifying to the old stock.

What’s more, that reorganization of society didn’t just apply in the big cities. Ford’s assembly lines and those like them meant not just huge complexes producing everything from steel to textiles, steamships to railcars, but also the corporatization of America’s farms.

No longer could the yeoman get by with a moldboard plow, if ever he could. No, he needed, or was told he needed, first a steam tractor, then one with an internal combustion engine, and paired with it he needed industrial fertilizer rather than manure to fertilize the crops. He needed barbed wire for the pastures, not split rail. He needed to send his kids off to college and wife on shopping trips into the city.

To some extent that was true. Tractors are more efficient than a plow, industrial fertilizer works better at scale than manure, and college provides better life opportunities, generally, than life on a small farm. But it also meant massive debts for the farmers, a need to depreciate the soil by squeezing more from it,⁹ and the end of a way of life that was the only one regarded as truly American rather than being some imitation or marginally different version of life on the continent or England.

It was against that change that the Southern Agrarians railed. In I’ll Take My Stand, they expose, in a series of essays, what the changes to American farming that had occurred by the first decades of the 20th century meant for the small farmers of the American Southeast.

Their views of farming were probably somewhat romantic, but their essays generally reached a similar conclusion and notably good point: American farming, particularly in the Old South, didn’t have to trend the way it was going and those trend lines were disastrous for farmers and the communities in which they lived. Or, as the summary puts it, they “defended individualism against the trend of baseless conformity in an increasingly mechanized and dehumanized society.” Ultimately, they lost. But, still, it was a worthy fight for the soul of America, and so is a collection well worth reading.

If you find this interesting, The British Gentry, the Southern Planter, and the Northern Family Farmer is excellent and explains what worked for American agriculture, how it developed, and how the yeoman farm was uneconomic for a long time before things came to a head with the Southern Agrarians. Also excellent is The Landed Gentry: Passions and Personalities Inside America's Propertied Class by Burnham, which shows how the larger landowners in America, particularly the South, were squeezed and trying to stay alive as a class a few decades after the smaller southern yeomen.

Enjoy Reading!

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5. Noted on pg 18: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c9b65ed915d12ab4bbeb9/chap2.pdf

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