The Pacifists and the Trenches

The New York Times - Sunday Book Review
By Christopher Hitchens


"Woodrow Wilson’s fatuous claim about the European war of 1914-18 — sarcastically annexed by Adam Hochschild for the title of this moving and important book — was an object of satire and contempt even as it was being uttered. “A peace to end peace,” commented Sir Alfred Milner, that powerhouse of the British war cabinet, as he surveyed the terms of the Versailles treaty that supposedly brought the combat to a close."

Read more (nytimes.com)

Noam Chomsky responds to Hitchens' criticism

Original post (syracuse.com)

Red Rosa

The writings of the martyred socialist Rosa Luxemburg give a plaintive view of history’s paths not taken.
By Christopher Hitchens

"THE GENERALLY ACCEPTED verdict on 20th-century ideology—that its “totalitarian” character eclipses any of the ostensible differences between its “left” and “right” versions—is one that few wish to dispute. Indeed, the very term totalitarian was most probably coined by the dissident Marxist Victor Serge, to denote a uniquely modern form of absolutism that essentially sought to abolish the private life and the individual conscience." 

Read more (The Atlantic)

Think Inc 2011

Think Inc. Conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, September 18, 2011.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Christopher Hitchens, Michael Shermer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali...

"Due to his ongoing battle with esophageal cancer, Christopher will be appearing live via video link from New York."

More info (thinkinc.org.au)

Award winning columns and favorite authors

Vanity Fair


Christopher Hitchens Wins National Magazine Award for Columns About Cancer http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/05/christopher-hitchens-wins-national-magazine-award-for-columns-about-cancer.html

Audio: Christopher Hitchen’s Favorite Authors
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/05/unspoken-truths.html

Chomsky's Follies

The professor's pronouncements about Osama Bin Laden are offensive and ignorant.
By Christopher Hitchens

"Anybody visiting the Middle East in the last decade has had the experience: meeting the hoarse and aggressive person who first denies that Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center and then proceeds to describe the attack as a justified vengeance for decades of American imperialism."

Read more (Slate)

Unspoken Truths

Vanity Fair, June 2011
By Christopher Hitchens

"Like so many of life’s varieties of experience, the novelty of a diagnosis of malignant cancer has a tendency to wear off. The thing begins to pall, even to become banal. One can become quite used to the specter of the eternal Footman, like some lethal old bore lurking in the hallway at the end of the evening, hoping for the chance to have a word. And I don’t so much object to his holding my coat in that marked manner, as if mutely reminding me that it’s time to be on my way. No, it’s the snickering that gets me down."

Read more (vanityfair.com)

Christopher Hitchens opens his diary

The Spectator, 7 May 2011 issue


"I abhor the idea of taking a mobile-phone call at the dinner table but my friend Douglas Brinkley, eminent historian and editor (of Ronald Reagan and Hunter Thompson alike) has three small children and when his wife calls he rightly answers. So on Sunday night in Houston, Texas, at the home of the bountiful Michael and Nina Zilkha, we got an early notice that the President would soon be on the air."

Read More (spectator.co.uk)

Death of a Madman

What Obama does next will help define the legacy of Osama Bin Laden.
By Christopher Hitchens

"There are several pleasant little towns like Abbottabad in Pakistan, strung out along the roads that lead toward the mountains from Rawalpindi (the garrison town of Pakistani's military brass and, until 2003, a safe-house for Khalid Sheik Muhammed). Muzaffarabad, Abbottabad … cool in summer and winter, with majestic views and discreet amenities."

Read More (Slate)

A debate between Hitchens and Barry Brummett

University of Waterloo:

"Please join us for a debate between God is Not Great author Christopher Hitchens and Barry Brummett (University of Texas at Austin) on the resolution 'Religion, as a literary value, is a force for good.'

Saturday, June 4, 2011, 7 to 8:30 p.m. (reception with light refreshments to follow) Hagey Hall, Humanities Theatre, University of Waterloo.

More Info..

Go After Qaddafi

Stop worrying about an "exit strategy." What America needs in Libya is an entrance strategy.
By Christopher Hitchens

"The embarrassing failure of NATO's strategy with the Libyan "rebels" is easier to understand when it is contrasted with its closest parallel case, which is probably that of Kosovo."

Read More (Slate)

Amis on Hitchens

The Observer - April 24, 2011.
Martin Amis hails the peerless intelligence and rhetorical ingenuity of his exceptional friend, Christopher Hitchens.

"..Christopher is one of the most terrifying rhetoricians that the world has yet seen. Lenin used to boast that his objective, in debate, was not rebuttal and then refutation: it was the "destruction" of his interlocutor. This isn't Christopher's policy – but it is his practice." 

Full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/24/amis-hitchens-world

Hitchens' address to American Atheists

via PZ Myers / Pharyngula

"Christopher Hitchens was scheduled to appear at the American Atheist convention, but had to cancel because of his illness. He sent this letter instead.

Dear fellow-unbelievers,

Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on."

Read More http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/04/hitchens_address_to_american_a.php

Beware the In-Laws

Does Kate Middleton really want to marry into a family like this?
By Christopher Hitchens

"A hereditary monarch, observed Thomas Paine, is as absurd a proposition as a hereditary doctor or mathematician. But try pointing this out when everybody is seemingly moist with excitement about the cake plans and gown schemes of the constitutional absurdity's designated mother-to-be."
Read More (Slate)