No single book has shaped not just my understanding of modern history, but my own journey from adolescent leftist to conservative more than Modern Times, Paul Johnson’s epic history of the world from 1918 to about 1980 (and, in a revised edition, through the 1990s.
It wouldn’t be a great exaggeration to say that Johnson was the most important modern historian, thinker and writer in my life – not least because he, in starting out on the left before seeing the light and becoming a libertarian-conservative, more or less as I was doing at the time. He went from being an editor at the New Statesman to an adviser to Margaret Thatcher and leading public intellectual of the right, bringing his intellectual and historical gravitas with him.
And few books explain the debt modern society pays to a brief period in history, from 1815 to the mid-1840s, when self-educated men laid the groundwork for most of what makes modern society modern (from the steam engine and electric communication to the popular vote and pants) than Johnson’s Birth of the Modern .
And on, and on. through dozens of books. I still have 40 to go.
Johnson passed away last week at 94.
Modern Times shaped a generation and more of people who had studied history as interpreted by the Left. His explanation of the Great Depression drew greatly on the works of libertarian economists and provided a strong antidote to the conventional wisdom that FDR has saved capitalism from itself…A culture that produced Paul Johnson and others like him explains why British literary writing and journalism, on the whole, is so much better than most of what is produced in America. As Stephen Glover of Britain’s Daily Mail explains: “Even readers who thought they might disagree with him looked forward to his next offering. He never penned a dull sentence or had a dull thought.”
This blog, in its own way, started out as my little way of trying to repay my debt to Johnson .
He’d certainly be canceled with extreme prejudice, were he in his prime today.
I particularly enjoyed:
Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky
and
A History of Christianity
RIP, the greatest modern historian whose books read more like a story than a scholarly citation of dates and events. But geez, folks, he does not hold a candle to Zinn! Ok, ok, I jest, I just had to pull your lariat. As for cancellation – Johnson book burning in three.. two… one… as libturds continue to rewrite history.
Agree with all of the above. Mega-dittos.
My one complaint is that his writing is so dense, as in information packed, that it takes some work to really appreciate and understand the entirety of whatever is being stated. And that means I get sleepy and take a nap. You don’t skim through a Johnson book, not even Intellectuals which was intended to be “light reading”.
The read-aloud versions of Johnson’s books (audio books) are a great way to pass time on a long trip.
The best part of Modern Times was, for me, reading a history of the 20th Century that was not told from an American perspective, real or adopted. Johnson believed that nationalism was an error, that it would lead to eternal conflict, and that modern civilization was best organized around the idea of empire. Johnson also didn’t like the US very much. He thought that we were doing the “empire” thing wrong.
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