Is History “Bunk”? “Big Business and Hitler”

How German/Austrian oligarchs portray themselves

“History is bunk” is what Henry Ford proclaimed one day. What he meant by that is that he did not bother to read history books, and that he found studying and writing history a waste of time. And he undoubtedly also felt that history was dangerous because it may enable the public to find out how huge fortunes, like his own, are amassed: all too often by trickery, fraud, crime and war. It is for the same reason that Ford arranged for masses of his firm’s documents to be shredded, so that they disappeared into the infamous “memory hole” mentioned by Orwell in 1984.

Ford would certainly not have liked the type of history featured in this book. And one may assume that the great majority of owners, shareholders and managers of American, German and other corporations and banks whose role was critically examined here would not be fond of this type of history. That is why they do not encourage people to study history or even to spend much time reading history books — and why they would certainly not want people to read critical books like this one, studies in which the links between big business and fascism are brought to light. At the same time, they do their best to recommend other books to the reading public, books in which the rise of Hitler and the function of fascism are explained in an entirely different fashion, in which the collaboration of German and American corporations and banks with the Nazis is not mentioned at all or, if this happens to be impossible, is interpreted benevolently and ultimately whitewashed. How do they manage to do this?  (more...)

Is History “Bunk”? “Big Business and Hitler”

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