There is an interesting piece about Christopher Hitchens in the current Media issue of The New Yorker. Hitchens is a fascinating and frustrating figure. I started reading his column in The Nation when I was an impressionable left-leaning undergraduate. He certainly made me more aware of what was happening in Bosnia than anyone in the mainstream media.
Hitchens - much like my father - has great respect for the writing of George Orwell, and wrote an encomium volume to him recently, "Why Orwell Matters". Their career arcs are similar as well. Orwell's career ended as an anti-Stalinist; Hitchens is a passionate supporter of the US invasion of Iraq, which he sees as part of the ongoing struggle against violent extremism.
It has been interesting to watch Hitchens travel from leftist to spokesman for the Bush agenda. I saw him speak when I lived in the DC area and was impressed with his knowledge, his passion and his oratory skills. He can come off as an aggressive ass at his worst, but at his best can help clear the wool from one's eyes about current events.
What is it with me and the British neocons? I also recently finished reading Niall Ferguson's book Empire which was a paean to, you guessed it, the British Empire. He also spoke longingly about the American Empire, a theme continued in his subsequent book Colossus, which I will read after I take a shower or at least wash my hands. Ferguson is another very interesting writer; far less filled with vitriol than Hitchens but no less a contrarian. I read his book The Pity Of War a few years ago. He concluded that the world would have been better off if German had won the First World War, suggesting that the German vision of post-war Europe was similar to the EU that emerged only forty years later. Not sure if I buy in to that, but it was an interesting read.
I swear I am not a burgeoning fascist. I do like to read things that challenge my belief system and each of these writers certainly does that.
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