I know nothing about the study of history, so feel free to call me an anti-intellectual nihilist for saying that I can’t see the difference between Niall Ferguson’s counterfactual work and the SNL skit “What if Napoleon had a B-52 at the Battle of Waterloo?”
I’m not going to read Ferguson’s new book, but this blog post lays out a convincing case that Ferguson conflates race and culture in his new paean to the greatness of teh west.
Now Ferguson is suing another reviewer for writing that the book is essentially racist. I have to wonder if someone who was really concerned about being thought of as racist would write things like this about Obama:
Felix was not only black. He was also very, very lucky.