I can certainly sympathize with writers who don’t want to put themselves or their loved ones at risk.
ADAM HOCHSCHILDOne of my favourite contemporary fiction writers is a Texan, Ben Fountain. His extraordinary novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk, all takes place within the half-time show at a Dallas Cowboys football game.
More Adam Hochschild Quotes
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Many of the principle weapons that the Nazis used during World War II had their first trial in combat in Spain
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Because they wanted a sympathetic ally in power. So I think it really was the opening act of World War II.
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Five years ago, who would have thought this possible?
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Compared with how we’ve ducked it in the United States, Canada should be really proud of how you have welcomed a significant number of refugees – far more, in fact, than we Americans have, even though our population is vastly larger.
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The late Nadine Gordimer in South Africa, for example, had a wonderful ability to get her country’s injustices and contradictions down on paper.
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And tens of millions of Americans will feel a similar revulsion for the politicians and generals who were so spendthrift with others’ lives.
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I think in many ways, the Spanish Civil War was the first battle of World War II.
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Skinner goes everywhere, from border crossings to brothels to bargaining sessions with dealers in human beings
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I think one thing writers can do is point out that you don’t have to say openly racist things, like [Donald] Trump, to be a racist or a xenophobe.
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Ditto for her countryman the great playwright Athol Fugard.
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And American soldiers were the victims of these things in Spain, American volunteers. So this war was really a testing ground for Hitler.
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Speaking of Germany in 1933, I don’t think you can remove yourself from politics when, in so many countries – the United States, Poland, Hungary, and many others
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If your real wages are declining, your job is at risk, you fear your children will be worse off than you are
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Hitler and Mussolini jumped in on the side of Francisco Franco and his Spanish nationalists, sent them vast amounts of military aid, airplanes, tanks and Mussolini sent 80,000 ground troops as well.
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Things have gotten openly more extreme in the last few years. I was lecturing in Hungary, whose prime minister, Victor Orban, is an example of this trend.
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