Friday, March 09, 2007

Andrew Roberts on the challenges to the english speaking world

A curious coincidence: my co-blogger Dag had written to me this week, helpfully alerting me to a new book out that looked to be of interest to the ongoing dialogs we pursue here at Covenant Zone: A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, by Britsh historian Andrew Roberts.

The book attempts to pick up the story as left off by Winston Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples series written before, and published after, World War II.

Meanwhile I had just heard an absolutely riveting interview with this self-same author, on this very book, on the Hugh Hewitt radio show.

Here is a brief review of Roberts' book, from Tech Central Station:

Roberts' History is no mere narrative of recent events. Instead, it is an apologia for the proposition that the English-speaking peoples are the last best hope of mankind.
Roberts' focus is the core Anglosphere; i.e., the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. During the 20th Century, the Anglosphere faced four great challenges. Three have been successfully seen off, with the Anglosphere triumphant: Prussian Militarism in World War I, Fascism in World War II, and Communism in the Cold War. The fourth assault arrived on 9/11 when the true menace of Islamic terrorism was finally brought home to the cultural and financial center of the modern Anglosphere.

Indeed, just as Churchill's History was intended to rally the Anglosphere in the early days of the struggle against Communism, Roberts' intent self-evidently is to rally the Anglosphere against Islamofascism.

... If Roberts is right, whether the 21st Century extends the era of Anglosphere hegemony thus depends on whether the Anglosphere becomes a house divided against itself. The two great issues here are education and demographics. Most of the Anglosphere nations have seen a dramatic rise in Muslim immigration and population growth since the Second World War. This demographic reality has been
coupled with the rise of multiculturalism as official state policy in much of the Anglosphere. Properly understood, the Anglosphere is not a collection of nations united by language and race, but rather a group of nations united by a common culture. Yet, in the name of multiculturalism, our political and educational systems have not pursued the goal of assimilation. To the contrary, throughout the Anglosphere, the notion that we should be inculcating the values of the Anglosphere among all our citizens of whatever race or religion has become anathema to the Politically Correct.


The three hour interview that talk show host Hugh Hewitt conducted with Andrew Roberts can be heard online by following the links below, commercial-free through TownHall's archives. Each "hour" is really only 35 minutes, now that all the commercials have been taken out.

Hour 1 here:

Hour 2 here:

Hour 3 here:

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