Fareed Zakaria interviews Historian Niall Ferguson about War of the World
Monday, July 7th, 2008
Harvard and Oxford historian Ferguson wrote the companion book to the documentary series, which provides a controversial angle on WWII. The second installment of the series, “A Tainted Victory”, airs tonight on Thirteen at 10pm.
Fareed Zakaria interviewed Ferguson on Foreign Exchange back in 2006, when the book and TV series were originally released (TV in Britain only, this run in 2008 is the TV series’ American debut). Watch here:
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Charlie Rose also interviewed him about the book in 2006. Watch interview:
See more from Charlie Rose here.
(see all airings of War of the World on the Thirteen schedule. )
This history documentary series originally aired in summer of 2006 on Channel 4 in Britain.
27 Responses to “Fareed Zakaria interviews Historian Niall Ferguson about War of the World”
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Ferguson needs to realize that Armenians are not Orthodox…two different churches with different beliefs. They are not in communion with each other.
Ferguson needs to go back to 8th grade to learn what he tries to teach about recent Turkish history. If not lack of knowledge he either lies or he is a paid puppet of Greco-Armenian capital. Fifteen minutes would be enough to prove him wrong about all of his mispresented garbage regarding so called ‘Armenian Genocide’ Greek expulsion, Izmir fire, population exchange etc. I am horrified about your channel’s irresponsible broadcasting and possible ill effects on young Americans.I protest Ferguson and believe that you can only make fair broadcasting by granting right to respond to a Turkish historian at the same channel. The seeds of hatred that is costructed by lies will only serve to increased bitterness between peoples and prepare ground for future hostilities.
Full of bias and undocumented “Documentary!”. Historian Ferguson claims killing of Greek & Armenian minorities during the World War 1 as genocide despite to the fact that these ethnic groups were already fighting against the Turkish troops at the World War I. The historian said in one of his part as “Ataturk (The mastermind of the Turkish Militarial Defense and the Founder of the Modern Turkey.) did not see for a need to have a MASSACRE on Greek.” What a despisable statement!, a first time viewer can easyly interpret such a statement as Ataturk being a killer of innocent people who just did not see a need to kill Greeks for some reason. Turks never killed innocent Greeks during the war, yet he was very respectfull to his enemies. Seeing an alien flag laying on the ground, he asked his subordinates to raise it respectfully, he had then added “The blood to keep that flag stand was not different than that of ours, so show the same respect to it as if it’s ours”. How can these “Historians” call such a internationally acclaimed war and and the defense of a sinking nation as “Massacre”??? I was just shocked to see this program was being aired in Channel 13.
john ruskin wrote, “planning for the future without a sense of history is like planting cut flowers.”
I am the commentator with NO NAME above; I just wanted to show my true name under with this new header. I am requesting either the historian or the Channel 13 to apologize Turkish people for this biassed documentary. I also strongly support Mr. Aygen’s true observations and comments above.
The Armenian genocide was a genocide. It was the wholesale slaughter of a group of people. Armenians had been victims of Ottoman violence before WWI and had been discriminated against and oppressed throughout the 1800s. It is no surprise, then, that Armenian soldiers were not the most reliable for the Ottomans. The Ottomans used the pretext of treasonous acts of Armenian soldiers to murder a large chunk of the Armenian population. We don’t need a “Turkish” historian to give “their” side of the story. The fact that a poster above me thinks we do proves Niall Ferguson’s point about the tribalism of the 20th century. We need historians who know what happened, not so-called scholars who let petty tribal loyalties cloud their professional judgment.
Genocide talk about Ottoman Imperial is a total lie to damage Turkish Culture and the people. The Ottoman helped Spanish Jews migrate to Turkey from Spain and there are thousands of similar religional hospitality examples in Turkish history.
This series is like a whack on the side of the head–lively, fascinating, and challenging. How lucky for me, with a newish interest in history, that I came across this vivid and thorough re-examination–and for anyone struggling to understand current world events. THANK YOU!
I was about to enjoy this documentary last night on WETA, till it hit me when Ferguson’s fictious story of the Ottomon/Greek/Armenian were all layed out at once; I was further shocked/horrified to watch Mustafa Kemal Ataturk being portraid as a murderer and massacrer on my Public television, the very television I support! How can WETA classifies this show as a history documentary!? Obviously Ferguson tries to distort the historic knowledge of events of the era with his(!) view. PBS should call the program ‘a Fiction of War of the World’ and should apologize for Ferguson’s view of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey, then an ethnic minority and a soldier himself). I sincerely would have expected WETA to be more careful and serious about its shows.
The fact that most if not all Turks deny there was an attempted genocide of Armenians suggests to me that whatever “evidence” exists is inconclusive or indecisive. Surely if there existed solid documentary evidence there’d be no denials. Can anyone recommend any literature on the subject from either side of the issue?
I started to watch this program last night, and could not believe the arrogant subjectivity of this guy and the unproven conclusions that he “preaches”. The more I watched, the more I realized what was going on. This guy, who looks like he just graduated from high school, is an extreme liberal with alot of time on his hands and his head up his butt, is using special effects to try and rewrite history. And then I came to this web-site and find out he’s from Harvard and Oxford. What the F#*%#*!!!!!!
It’s sad.
It really is.
Just watched the interview above, the most intelligent thing said, was Charlie Rose at the end.
For Alfredo,
Please read the article @ this link, if you need more ask again I can provide more detailed info books etc.
Please note all the Turkish archives are open for examination for everybody and the Turkish offer to constitute a joint Turkish-Armenian historian commitee to compare evidence and resolve the dispute is repeatedly rejected by the armenian side.
http://www.ttk.org.tr/index.php?Page=Sayfa&No=186
Source: Wikipedia (key word “Armenian Genocide”
“The Armenian Genocide (Armenian: Հայոց Ցեղասպանութիւն, Turkish: Ermeni Soykırımı), also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, the Great Calamity (Մեծ Եղեռն)—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction (genocide) of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterised by the use of massacres, and the use of deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of Armenian deaths generally held to have been between one and one-and-a-half million. Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Greeks, and some scholars consider the events to be part of the same policy of extermination.[1]
It is widely acknowledged to have been one of the first modern, systematic genocides,[2][3] as many Western sources point to the sheer scale of the death toll as evidence for a systematic, organized plan to eliminate the Armenians.[4]
The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case of genocide.[5]
The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, does not accept the word genocide as an accurate description of the events.[6] In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide. To date, twenty-one countries have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, and most scholars[7] and historians[8] accept this view.[9][10] The majority of Armenian diaspora communities were founded as a result of the Armenian genocide.”
Most of you people need to get over your own biased beliefs and try learning some history. Considering only 12% of the Turkish people have a favorbale opinion of America, it’s understandible for all you Turkish commentors to deny Ferguson’s critic. What’s more demonstrable is the idiot “Preston” who thinks this guy is a an “extreme liberal” because of the Educational Institutions he attended, which means that Bush must also be the same, considering he attended Harvard also. By the way, what the hell is a conservative moron like yourself doing watching public television? You don’t learn anyting from it and detest anyone who challenges your view of history. Go back to your propaganda station, (FOX), and entertain yourself with more “American Idol”!
I don’t think Mr. Ferguson is going to get very far with that kind of attitude.
http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/Armenia/mccarthy.html
Better source than wikipedia don’t you think?
Apparently, not if you’re Niall Ferguson.
correction for Mr Matson
It is not true that “12% of the Turkish people have a favorbale opinion of America”12% of the Turkish people have a favorbale opinion of current middle esat politics of America. Please check the last number before the ill fated Iraqi campaign. I was in Turkey in 2006 and the attetude towards American people was unchanged and very positive.
Truth is
I agree with you Mr. Aygen, the Americans and Turkeys were meant to be friends, otherwise why would turkey sandwiches with american cheese taste so good?. It wouldn’t make sense any other way, especially with the price of tea in China and all. Might start a war. Isn’t that right? Mr. Ferguson… Does that work for ya?, “Mr. Matson”.
Is that how you do it?… LOL
I apologize; I am an idiot. Now I know where you’re coming from, and America needs your mind.
I found that Mr.Ferguson contributed no new information, but his recognition of Communism as being equally as “evil” as National Socialism was at least better than the usual “progressive” presentation of the Soviet International Socialism as being acceptable as it was anti-fascist. But Ferguson’s always placing himself front-and-center as he presented his non-news was both irritating and pompous.
Robert Martin,
LOL… Say What? Honky!… You gotta listen to da man. I mean you really gotta listen to da man. He know something. What he knows.?. I don’t know,… but trust me. He knows something.
Actually Mr. Martin everybody knows that Communism is evil just like the Nazis. But at the time of the war they didn’t pose as much of a threat, especially when they started fighting the Nazis. Should we have attacked them after the war?, like General Patton suggested? Well I think everybody was pretty much tired of war by that point, especially the soldiers… But that’s not to say one can’t make a career thinking about it.
To S. Smith: Armenians are Orthodox. It is a bit different that other Orthodox churches like the Russian or Greek.. but Orthodox nonetheless. There are only three branches in Christianity- Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. The Armenian Church falls within the Orthodox branch.
Not sure why some Turkish people are blindly ignorant of the truth. They say that Armenians are liars and that we’ve made up this genocide. For anyone who has any doubt that this happened, please refer to the German and Austrian archives. If Turkish people don’t trust their enemies, then they should look at their allies and those records. The reason why I don’t say “Turkish government” is because they are well aware that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide. They are the ones working so feverishly to cover this up.
An entire race of people, the Armenians, didn’t make up their past. Every single one of us has a story of a great grandparent, uncle, etc. who was killed during the genocide. My grandmother’s father was sent to the Turkish army, as most Armenian men were during that time, only to be murdered. The Ottoman Empire at the time had VERY carefully planned out this genocide. They made sure that most of the young men were taken care of first, and then they dealt with the “deportation” of the elderly, women and children. And when the government at the time “deported” these people, it wasn’t to posh hotels or new towns. It was to the Syrian desert and to their deaths. Also along the way, Armenians were killed, raped, and children were kidnapped. The ones who survived the genocide were thanks to relief organizations that saved them. There is a huge Armenian graveyard in Deir El Zor which was the place where all of the remaining Armenians were massacred.
And I want to add that there were also some very good Turkish people during those times who saved Armenians. My grandfather and his family survived because of the humanity in some of their Turkish neighbours who didn’t think twice about saving their lives. There were laws in place at the time, if any Turkish person helped an Armenian, they would be put to death. So for a Turkish person taking that chance, it was huge.
Let’s stop this hate. Turkey should and must recognize the genocide. Only at that point will this hate stop.
Turkey needs to stop this blind support of only Muslim countries and Muslim genocides or massacres. As an Armenian, I recognize all genocides regardless of race, ethnicity or religion. Murder is murder. Genocide is genocide. There is no other words to describe these things.
And Niall Ferguson is a genius. His book The War of the World is absolutely brilliant.
The Armenian Genocide is a fact that is well documented in the archives of many world nations.
The only countries that deny it ever happened are Turkey and Azerbaijan (both with deep hatred for Armenians).
So to sum this up, does a murderer ever admit to their own crimes. No! So why is anyone surprised when they see so many Turkish people opposed to the word “genocide”? Because they don’t want their ancestors to be blamed for it.
You shouldn’t trust Turkish sources whatsoever on this subject. There are political reasons for them to deny the genocide.There are only a brave few like Taner Akcam and Orhan Pamuk who have spoken up about the genocide.
And if you don’t trust the Armenian sources, then I would say that you should look up the following:
Armin T. Wegner
U.S. Ambassador in Turkey Henry Morgenthau
Bodil Biorn
The trial of Soghomon Tehlirian (in Germany by a German court)
And look up the three pashas- Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha and Djemal Pasha. Talat being the equivalent to Hitler for Armenians. All three were tried in absentia at the Turkish Court Martial 1919-20 and sentenced to death. But all fled the country, only to be later assassinated. Look up “Operation Nemessis”.
It seems that there are Turkish people who live only for the sake of going online and commenting on every single Armenian Genocide article that is out there. They try and discredit every historian or intellectual who calls it a genocide. You will find with any Turkish source that all they do is deny, but they never have any concrete evidence. They only have opinions. The Turkish government sends so much money to the US to lobby certain senators and congressman to oppose the Armenian Genocide recognition.
When Senator Obama was running for president, he gave a famous speech speaking about how he would recognize the Armenian Genocide. But the fact is, as soon as he became president, he couldn’t say it. Because the pressure from Turkey is huge. The U.S. does not want to lose their Turkish ally by recognizing this genocide. You have to realize that governments only recognize those genocides that don’t hurt them politically. This is a fact, this is the truth. Once you accept it, then you will realize that this is the reason why genocides continue to this day. Genocide leads to denials and leads to other genocides. It’s a never ending cycle. Hatred breeds hatred.
I hope that one day people will have enough courage to say “enough is enough” and to stand up for justice. We must do what is ethically and morally right, regardless of politics.
And as an Armenian, I do not hate Turkish people. I hate the government and its policies. It is dangerous, and has shown itself so as it persecutes its Kurdish population today. They are also growing anti-Semitic, and will be a huge threat to Europe and the U.S. in the near future.