9 Questions for…’Politically Incorrect’ Historian Thomas E. Woods
“FDR made the Depression worse”? “The Marshall Plan didn’t get Europe back on its feet; free markets did”? “American workers prospered without labor unions”? “During the decade of greed,” charitable giving grew at a faster rate than it had during the previous 25 years”? In 2004, Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Ph.D, shocked the chattering classes when his book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History hit the bookstores, and raced up the New York Times bestseller list.
So, who is Woods? Evil cartoon villain or libertarian-minded Catholic? And, why are some academics so jealous of his success?
The Alabama-based author holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and a master’s and Ph.D. from Columbia University – but don’t hold that against him. His writings from the colonial origins of American liberty, to the dangerously “centrist” Clinton years are thought-provoking and fascinating. They inform, and entertain – a rare quality.
Wide-ranging and compelling, the history buff’s text is even happy to defend the “racist” Puritans, as liberals choke on their vegan Thanksgiving meals. Yes, “by its second decade Harvard College welcomed Indian students. Colonists could and did receive the death penalty for murdering Indians. Indian converts to Christianity in the ‘praying towns’ of New England enjoyed considerable autonomy,” writes Woods, and they even had the best breweries, according to some other sources I’ve read.
Ben-Peter Terpstra: Thanks for your valuable time. What are you up to?
Thomas E. Woods: I just finished a book on the economic crisis in the United States. The publisher is giving it the title Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse.
BT: March 11, 2005: Slate’s David Greenberg, a politically correct historian, points out that “conservatives such as Max Boot, Cathy Young, and the historian Ronald Radosh have attacked you.”
And yet, I for one, laugh at the very idea of the name Cathy “Soft on Drugs” Young and the word “conservative” in the same sentence. What’s your take?
TW: For one thing, none of those three are traditional conservatives by any stretch of the imagination. Boot, who’s just creepy, I answered in the pages of The American Conservative, which kindly offered me a platform from which to level the poor guy. You can read that piece along with all my other replies to critics in the “Replies to Critics” section of this page. I got the better of all of them, to put it mildly, if I may be permitted one boast.
One more thing about Boot: he’s thrilled with Barack Obama’s appointments. Boot writes, “Only churlish partisans of both the left and the right can be unhappy with the emerging tenor of our nation’s new leadership.” Normal people don’t talk like that. ...
Read entire article at http://canadafreepress.com
So, who is Woods? Evil cartoon villain or libertarian-minded Catholic? And, why are some academics so jealous of his success?
The Alabama-based author holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and a master’s and Ph.D. from Columbia University – but don’t hold that against him. His writings from the colonial origins of American liberty, to the dangerously “centrist” Clinton years are thought-provoking and fascinating. They inform, and entertain – a rare quality.
Wide-ranging and compelling, the history buff’s text is even happy to defend the “racist” Puritans, as liberals choke on their vegan Thanksgiving meals. Yes, “by its second decade Harvard College welcomed Indian students. Colonists could and did receive the death penalty for murdering Indians. Indian converts to Christianity in the ‘praying towns’ of New England enjoyed considerable autonomy,” writes Woods, and they even had the best breweries, according to some other sources I’ve read.
Ben-Peter Terpstra: Thanks for your valuable time. What are you up to?
Thomas E. Woods: I just finished a book on the economic crisis in the United States. The publisher is giving it the title Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse.
BT: March 11, 2005: Slate’s David Greenberg, a politically correct historian, points out that “conservatives such as Max Boot, Cathy Young, and the historian Ronald Radosh have attacked you.”
And yet, I for one, laugh at the very idea of the name Cathy “Soft on Drugs” Young and the word “conservative” in the same sentence. What’s your take?
TW: For one thing, none of those three are traditional conservatives by any stretch of the imagination. Boot, who’s just creepy, I answered in the pages of The American Conservative, which kindly offered me a platform from which to level the poor guy. You can read that piece along with all my other replies to critics in the “Replies to Critics” section of this page. I got the better of all of them, to put it mildly, if I may be permitted one boast.
One more thing about Boot: he’s thrilled with Barack Obama’s appointments. Boot writes, “Only churlish partisans of both the left and the right can be unhappy with the emerging tenor of our nation’s new leadership.” Normal people don’t talk like that. ...