Paul Ham > Quotes

“Thwarted by the British and French on the world stage, Berlin decided in 1913 to concentrate Germany’s military objectives in Europe. That year Germany grew into a singularly dangerous continental presence: besieged, paranoid and armed to the teeth.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“Far from shocking the rulers of Europe, the war that erupted in August 1914 was widely anticipated, rigorously rehearsed, immensely resourced and meticulously planned.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“Germany’s siege mentality and gnawing sense of encirclement (the need to ‘storm out of the fortress’ to prevent a Russian attack); Austria-Hungary’s hatred of Serbia; Russia’s deep fear of Germany; France’s vengeful chauvinism; and Britain’s ferocious Germanophobia.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“Despite these warnings, the Great powers’ arsenals were brimful; their ranks, swollen. In this light, to suggest they groped or sleepwalked blindly into a battle not of their making is nonsense. To many politicians and commanders, the coming war was seen as necessary; some relished it as noble and desirable. To most, it was regarded as inevitable.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“Friedrich von Bernhardi, one of Germany’s most influential military thinkers. Bernhardi believed the German people were destined to become the master race, who would prevail over lesser breeds and rule the world.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“In America's 'nonlinear war', with no frontline or clear political or territorial goals, the number of enemy killed apparently revealed who was 'winning'. 'The military kill' became 'the prime target, simply because the essential political target is too elusive for us, or worse, because we do not understand its importance'.”
― Paul Ham, Vietnam - the Australian War

“The moment historians examine the past they risk changing it, by selectively re-arranging events, consciously or not, according to the judgment(s) of posterity or their own baggage of values and prejudices.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“entrenchment of social conservatism, being a strident belief in God, King and Country that arose after the disillusionment of the Belle Époque (which was never anything other than an elitist movement that scarcely touched the majority of ordinary people).”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“In other words, it was unavoidable, and probably inevitable, so we might as well close our minds and accept that 16.5 million people had to die. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, it is time to re-examine these sops of self-exculpation, which posterity still largely applauds or tolerates, aided by recent histories that re-peddle the myths that the governments of Europe groped blindly towards war; or that Germany was solely responsible for the catastrophe, and thus had to be vanquished and utterly destroyed.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“There was a happy irony in the first cousin of the autocratic Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II (with whom George bore a striking resemblance) furthering British democracy.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“During the Year of the Monkey, the press, which had hitherto generally supported the war or stuck to feel-good stories of heroism and mateship, vigorously changed its tune. The media reacted to growing middle-class disenchantment with the war: they did not initiate or promote anti-war feeling; they reflected and fed off it.”
― Paul Ham, Vietnam - the Australian War

“The role of race cannot be understated in an era of fervent social Darwinism. For decades the Balkans had enacted in microcosm the racial hatreds at great-power level. In consequence the Balkan states were likely, indeed expected, periodically to blow a head gasket over racial and religious differences and threaten a major confrontation by dragging their powerful sponsors into the local mess.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“The tired expression, ‘What we need is a good war’ was common enough: ‘a good war’ that would preserve the old world, conservative certainties. In”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“There is one possibility left,’ he wrote on Christmas Day 1913, 40 years ahead of his time, ‘an industrial customs union, of which sooner or later, for better or worse, the states of Western Europe would become members… Fuse the industries of Europe into one … and political interests will fuse too.’ (2)”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“But behind the superficial appearance of a time of radical upheaval, most governments and ordinary people simply did not experience the Belle Époque in the way today’s wistful novelists, TV producers and cultural historians present”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“If a complete free market seemed efficacious in principle, in practice it had not delivered the basic services necessary for a country to call itself civilised.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“The Russian economy was strong, though only the wealthy seemed to enjoy the benefits. Throughout 1913 the stock market surged to record levels,”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“Respected political and military leaders saw the world as a Darwinian battleground, where the fittest race would emerge triumphant from a savage fight to the death.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best.”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“in order to make a spectacular impression ‘on as many inhabitants as possible’.”
― Paul Ham, Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath

“At the present rate of attrition, Haig delighted in informing the prime minister, ‘the enemy’s man power will be running out next May or June at the latest’.”
― Paul Ham, Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth

“Soil radiation had had no effect on black carpenter ants, black mountain ants, reticulated ants and others; they seemed to carry on regardless. So too did an array of water insects that returned to frolic in the tanks”
― Paul Ham, Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath

“The story of mankind was a moral continuum in Truman’s mind,”
― Paul Ham, Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath

“Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations – ‘When another blames or hates you, or when men say injurious things about you, approach their poor souls, penetrate within, and see what kind of men they are. You will discover that there is no reason to take trouble that these men have a good opinion of you…”
― Paul Ham, Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath

“The memo provoked, and still provokes, deep division. At the time, the Foreign Office’s most strident critic was Thomas Sanderson, who rejected Crowe’s simplistic portrayal of German history as ‘an unchecked record of black deeds’.24 Since then, however, historians have tended to come down on Crowe’s side. Fritz Fischer’s Germany’s Aims in the First World War is the most controversial meditation on the idea that Germany sought to conquer Europe and the world. Yet his book is confined to Germany’s aims during the war, i.e. after the war began, when all nations were fighting for their lives; it finds no persuasive evidence that Germany intended global conquest – through force of arms – before the war began.”
― Paul Ham, 1914: The Year the World Ended

“larrikinism”
― Paul Ham, Kokoda

“There is a quiet sort of Australian man who, in obscurity, achieves great things for which a few people are eternally grateful; he then fades away unsung and is soon forgotten.You can see him on weekends tinkering in his shed, or sanding a little boat, or pursuing an odd hobby. He does his duty, fails with dignity and, when he succeeds, succeeds without trumpeting his success. He is remote, and self-absorbed, and is liked by his grandchildren. His life is one of ceaseless curiosity within his chosen field, of which he is a supreme expert. He is scarcely comprehensible to women — one of whom, tolerating his self-absorption, rewards his devotion and loyalty with her unstinting love. 'Silent' Cyril Clowes, commander at Milne Bay, seems to have been such a man.”
― Paul Ham, Kokoda

“atomic bombs should be used: (1) as soon as possible; (2) without warning; and (3) on war plants surrounded by workers’ homes”
― Paul Ham, Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath

“By the end of 1913 progressive Europeans were calling for social reform and better conditions for the poor. They seemed to have won the emotional argument, as historian Roy Hattersley rightly concludes. But the material and political fulfilment of such reforms were much slower in coming. The question was when, and how, to introduce them. Many conservatives were determined to delay or throttle altogether the role of government intervention in education, health and the workplace, declaring reforms of basic humanity that we take for granted today ‘socialist’. The Lords rejected the Education Bill of 1906, for example. Between”
― Paul Ham, 1913: The Eve of War

“Only by understanding the past may we free ourselves from its tyranny.”
― Paul Ham, 1914: The Year the World Ended