WWI and the Lessons for Today - Victor Davis Hanson 

Is there a specific facet of WWI that you're particularly interested in?

No notes. A very eloquent speaker & easy to listen to.

It´s a joy to listen all of VDH lectures.

I remember as a boy sitting in my Grandfather's living room floor listening to him and Dad's brother's talk about WWI and Gpa's purple heart and how he earned it. Gpa had a helmet with a tall spike in a glass case on the book case...VDH has filled in a lot of holes in the story, thank you.

VDH starts talking at 9:16

In the lock down of the plague I have been going back and studying poetry. After 3 hours I always return to History. Mr. Hanson is such a gift to the imagination,his insight so clearly expressed, I resume being the sedulous mentee. Thank You.

VDH is probably one of the finest contemporaneous lecturers in the world. He REALLY KNOWS HIS HISTORY.

VDH is a great lecturer because he has the ability, rare among academics, of cutting to the chase. I love the way he cuts through endless hours of debate about who was "at fault" by simply pointing out that Germany, not Russia, France or the UK, that was the invader. I would add that Germany invaded through Belgium in 1914 even though Brits had repeatedly warned them that would bring Britain in because in typically German fashion the General Staff kept reminding the Kaiser "The Plan is the Plan!"

Every time I watch one of VDH's videos I learn something new, even if it is the same subject over again. My only complaints are that they're too short and there isn't enough time for questions.

Fascinating talk.

The man is brilliant

In 1919, Hindenburg told a parliamentary committee that was investigating the cause of the war, that Germany lost because it had been stabbed in the back by civilians in Germany. In 1918, French general Charles Mangin had said that the Germans MUST be defeated in the field; otherwise, they wouldn't admit that they had lost -- which is precisely what happened. French general Ferdinand Foch said of the Versailles Treaty: "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years." (His estimate was wrong -- by 64 days.)

Why did Heritage have a man introduce a man who introduced a man who introduced the actual speaker? That's absolutely, farcically stupid.

This man has more wisdom then any I have ever heard.

This professor is one of the all too few professors to delineate the effects of the evil foreign policy of the Soviet Union on WWII. The quote of Churchill's rejoinder to Stalin, when Stalin was crying about the lack of a major second front was masterful: "When Hitler was bombing London during the Battle of Britain, Hitler's planes were being supplied with Soviet oil!" RU-vidrs take note!

I watch or read everything he does - he should be in trumps cabinet

No notes. Unreal! Brilliant

WOW! So much knowledge and so many insights packed into about 50 minutes.

Important Lesson of History on WWI WW2 Great Learning!

Thank you very much!

VDH gives a fresh perspective on the Treaty of Versailles, that it was the enforcement of it, and not the severity of it that made it fail. However I wonder if the allies could have gotten an agreement to enforce compliance either in word or practice, since Germany was never defeated. They were 70 miles inside France when they gave up and went home. The German military and industry was still in tact. There is a limit as to how much you can do when you don't have a decisive victory.

When I listen to Dr. Hanson I think back on my college history classes at a state run public school and realize how woefully inadequate, watered down and politically correct they were. I want a refund!

How much do you tip the guy, who introduces the guy who introduces the guy who introduces the actual Speaker, VDH?

what a conclusion to the dissertation, I do so much enjoy the attitude of this once he got rolling! It is a humbling experience to hear you speak

Even granting the Versailles treaty may not have been that bad objectively (which I would debate), what matters is that it was absolutely perceived that way by the German populace.

Best analysis I've ever heard on WW1, thank you for sharing.

Enough with the introductions - just start with VDH speaking !

How is it possible that one man, VDH, can have at his fingertips the vast amount of history that emanates from these wonderful speeches? God Bless

I learn each time victor Davis Hanson speaks !!!

Enjoyed 👌

Lecture starts at 9:07.

9:15 Cut to the chase

Thank God for Harry Truman!

FYI. Group fawning and mutual adulation ends at 9:16 when the actual talk begins.

One of the great things about looking at stuff that has been fermenting for 5 years is to visualize what took place afterward. 49:13 is a very telling moment, in light of April 1975 and the rerun in August 2021. Thank you Mr. VDH

Thank you for the lecture on 1st and 2nd World War Professor Victor Davis Hanson.

"I just want to introduce a guy who's going to introduce the guy who's going to introduce our speaker for this evening".

Superb.

reading "A World Undone" now the amount of casualties and mass slaughter is unbelievable. I cant get my head around the numbers.

An hour well spent. Thank you, Dr. Hanson.

VDH = the lifeform which emerges when one completes the following simple equation: scathing intellect + from-the-roots-up education + logical thought process

Just came back to this gem after years. He claims Germany wanted to take "50, 60 percent of France". This is a phantastical claim in itself. I am not aware of any German govenment document that came even remotely close to this. He is phantasyzing. "France did not invade Germany". Yes, she did, as early as August 7th 1914 French troops invaded the Elsass and the battle of Mühlhausen ensued. French troops remained entrenched in the southwest of the Elsass for the remainder of the War.

Brilliant!

He starts at 9:14

He’s an American treasure. Brilliant man.

The Czar was our ally, not the bolshevist's.

Thank you VDH! Please explain to everyone how legalizing one plant will help 7.5 billion poor people eliminate hunger, homelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction, etc,etc,etc. U.S. savings of 5 Trillion annually!

Jump to 9 min (introductions till then)

Starts at 9:12

Without peaceful democracies and republics willing to use their economic powers and appear to be 100% willing to be equally belligerent, the world will totally tear itself apart.

Yipping stops at 9:22

Need more introducers next time

It's true that the U.S. didn't help France or Britain with a declaration of war when Germany attacked them, but -- (1) Both France and Britain had pursued appeasement -- selling out Czechoslovakia in 1938 -- and they had stood idle while Poland was invaded; however, France and Britain were disappointed when the U.S. treated them similarly. (2) The U.S. did supply Britain with war materiel, even though it didn't have treaty obligations to do so. Eventually, under Lend-Lease, the U.S. essentially Gave materiel to Britain.

Alsace and Lorraine (the latter for the biggest part) are ethnically german. Taken by Louis XIV. in the 1680s along massive devestation of the whole upper rhine valley and the palatinate (just after the 30 years war devestated everything there). Just look at a map and read the names of cities there/...that never even gets mentioned... and while he was at it, he threw in luxemburg, too, and Holland. Because... why not as sun king?^^

VDH is great, and honest. In 2020, we have nearly lost the U.S. November we will find out, eh ?

Mistake in the title. "WWI and the Lessons for Today - Victor DAVIS Hanson" Named after one of his relations, who was in turn, was named after Jefferson Davis, I believe... correct me if I'm wrong, although I thought I heard him say this in an interview.

He hardly ever uses notes in his talks. Impressive his ability to wing it.

49:12 What is he referring to? Carmel? Karmele?

Gen. Taylor is an outstanding Marine and a great patriot.

What amaze me about Germany is why they declared war on the United States about four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Why?? The USA was halfway around the world for the most part and my guess is Germany, declare war, basically because of their alliance with Japan. Germany knew we had a very large navy, but they may or may not have known at the time with what little intelligent people had then, but I’m sure that Germany was aware that America had a rather small army.. after world war one the USA went back to being essentially like we were except that we continue to keep our navy large which with some thing with DON starting in the early 1800s after we became an independent country because the superior navy was needed then. It is still needed today in addition to air and ground forces, but the U.S. Navy and countries who have pretty good navies are in good military positions, because if they have a pretty large naval fleet, that is not as large, but they’re experts, and extremely subordinate and excel at their jobs, and what they do the US navy and any other larger or well trained staffed and stocked navy is necessary in order to transfer goods across the sea, in addition to troops and ammunition, plainest, & tanks. M3 what is the first tank made by GM I think and it was OK but they had problems with it in North Africa and within about six or eight months it was replaced with the M4 otherwise known as the Sherman!! The Sherman was a beast, but I still don’t know if it was up to the level of the tiger tanks Germany. According to different people, I get different opinions and some people say the Tigers we’re better and other people say they were actually about the same.. I’m aware that the Sherman tanks were so superior that the British were able to use them successfully in North Africa and win a battle against the Germans without the help of American soldiers helping them . Of course, that did a lot for British morale. In addition to the fact that it must’ve been a good tank and I’m not saying that British tank crews are any worse trained or not as good as Americans, but merely saying that I do think overall our tank units from America and World War II and the raptor were definitely better than the UK but it took a lot of hard work and training when building a barn U.S. Army, so it wasn’t just something that game natural except that a lot of Americans like to fight and scuffle One big thing that Hitler really underestimated about Americans he believed Americans to be to decadent and maybe sissy by viewing American women only to be housewives ! Mini world, but most so-called housewives had their hard jobs around the home to do, unless they lived in the city, or they were wealthy . professional, because we really weren’t pro military at all and we weren’t , but sadly that was before the great big DOD and military industrial complex became too big for their pants, and really just a money making machine. Sadly, it’s a Castro Bennington, American lives i& sadly,,innocent people in other countries, especially from the Vietnam war and there after.. I totally understand when the military is in another country and they’re amongst local civilians. They really don’t know exactly who is friendly and who’s though so they really do have to watch their backs all the time and be looking over their shoulder because just like in Vietnam little kids would walk up to soldiers asking for candy and of the sea with a strap the bomb to this little kid just to blow the kid up in order to kill for five American GIs. It’s despicable, but that’s how some cultures are. Taylor made comments, especially about the women in America and said that they didn’t work hard white German women and they were thinner and always worried about their make up and panty hose and dancing. Where is German women wear a good stock 😂 German women would work they’re hard labor jobs in addition to having three or five superior, Aryan, race, children and taking care of their husbands, etc. Wow.!! Hitler was really not just an antisemitic and a bigot racist, but also very shallow minded and shortsighted. It goes to show how little he knew about Americans because he made fun and laughed at our big plants making hundreds of thousands of automobiles every year but never once did he ever consider that all of these huge automobile industrial plants expanded and built to be bigger and turned into complete and utter war. Making machines ran by women and older men who were off at war.. it was terrible to identify women like that because Americans are a little bit of everything, and an American woman could wear her dresses, pantyhose, high heels and her make up and love dancing, and yet at the same time they can put on their house, cleaning attire & be wearing those culottes or jeans in addition to having their hair, pulled back and bandannas and scarves, doing hard-core, have any labor and especially on the farms and in the south. I’ve talked to so many people on social media over the years and if they’re 40 and older Europeans and even people in North Africa and certainly still talk today about how the Brief, Britishthat, Canadian, American, and French resistance, soldiers and French soldiers, and especially the ones in France after having been liberated by the allies in July 1944!! That helped a son to defeat Germany even though I believe a lot of the French military, and their weaponry has been mostly taken by the Germans or destroyed, are the four years they’d been occupied. it’s just nice to hear people around the world say that of course it was our brave men fighting together in the military, who worked in sacrifice there lives in limbs to free Europe as a dictatorship, but IF NOT for the massive empowered, industrialized plants in America, where mostly women were working because the men were drafted, and the women worked from the ages of 16 happened to their 50s-60s, along side men who were older and had fought in World War I as older men, but either didn’t get drafted or they had health problems and stayed back, but they were all working in factories, building weapons and planes, tanks, ships Sure women did like to wear make up and panty hose in some areas of America by Hitler was overgeneralizing American an American women as a whole, and that wasn’t lies because our country has always been so Vasiliy diverse !!

I also believe the friendship between America and allies are always important.

Russia, the Mac of the World Wars. "I'm playing both sides"

can someone add the caption? this is a great talk!

:I hope I don't sound as crazy as I feel". LOL

Germany vs USA, like wine and water.

Doc, what ever do you mean by saying that there probably would not have been a WWII if Russia had been luke warm to it's former allies?

The treaty ending the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1) required France to pay an indemnity of 5 billion francs, to be occupied until that indemnity was paid, and to cede territory (Alsace-Lorraine) to Germany -- terms that were not drastically different from those of the Versailles Treaty.

Why is this man not Secretary of State !?

Wonderful presentation but I wish Dr. Hanson would learn to control his arms. He hit the mike nearly a dozen times.

Wilson forced the Kaiser to abdicate by refusing to negotiate an armistice unless Wilhelm was gone. Was this a mistake?

Lecture starts around 9:15 time spot

Blitzkrieg is a battle winning tactic, in support of a larger war winning strategy which requires large numbers of men, and materiel. Much like the U.S. Civil war when Sherman and Sheridan divided up the South. Maneuver elements, backed by a big, grinding, occupation force. we did it right in the Gulf War, but didn't have the numbers for it in OIF.

Germany didn't have double the industrial base of the UK approaching WW2, they were roughly even, small edge to Germany in GDP size and industrial output but more financial muscle and higher wealth per adult to tap into in the UK.

Britain was a land power during WW1 because there was not a large air force as there was during WW2 which required over 2 million men and women to operate and maintain. Britain sent over 2 million men to France during WW1. Hence the army was small simply because the manpower was not available, especially when you consider the Royal Navy also required about the same in manpower. Between those two services, nearly 5 million personnel were used. This left the army with very little in the way of men and material.

Three guys introducing each other and eight minutes congratulating one other on being great Americans before we finally get to it. Is this an American thing?

a book, that may be of interest is...You are the general...of the Great Decisions Series...it talks of this...and more...

NINE MINUTES of opening?!?!

So much of war is psychological

Good lecture but the name should really be "WWII With a Few Comments about how the Experience of WWI Influenced Expectations During WWII".

11, 11, 11, 1918

Short version of why VDH is the man: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-czZlb7LshN0.html

Fourteen points? Even God only had ten points...

How is it that VDH always gets these absurdly long introductions?

I'll tell you the lesson that should be learned from WW1 and the others that followed if the politicians and their controllers try what they did before they're going to find it won't be nation citizen vs nation citizen but native citizens vs native politician.

MacArthur only landed with cameras rolling

I can't help but think that last supper must have been a bit tense, with Jesus relating the bread to his broken skin and the wine to his own blood. I bet no one touched the meatballs.

Lol The questioner seemed to have high hopes for Italy. But Victor Hansen deflated any Italian ego in under 2 Mins

Lesson to be learnt from war? Don't screw up the peace . Mike drop....

All in his head, events, year, month, day, details, summary, lessons, numbers, statistics. No notes.

Hanson is not entirely right. France DID try to invade Germany but failed (or just withdrew, I do not remember) and Germanys African colonies were NOT small. Todays Tanzania for instance is not small, it is a big country. Kamerun and Namibia were not small in size either.

I cannot believe he says Nu Cue Lar.

You would never know from this lecture that the Soviets were responsible for destroying 75-80% of the Nazi Wehrmacht. The Americans only entered when Germany’s defeat was inevitable. By then most of the Nazi elite army groups had already been destroyed by the USSR. The US only agreed so 1) we could prevent Stalin from capturing most of Europe and 2) a promise by Stalin to invade Japan at the Tehran Conference, and specifically on August 9th at Yalta, 3 months after the European theatre was won. Which was honored and pivotal. But the West still fails to give Russia credit.

He seems to have forgotten that USSR was not the only one two fight on two sides. And Italy?

BUT THE NOT TRANSLATING OF LIVE SHOWS AFFECTED THE VOTTING RIGHT OR THE VOTING PRIBILIGE? I CONSIDER IT A PRIVILEGEI

War machine full on.

The issue with anyone learning any 'lessons' you think you are teaching, is the student, if he or she is an idiot or just plain stupid, you will teach them nothing.

Morganthau -- Evil Guy.... Read more about him.

Oh come on....some of this WWI "info" is very very wrong....the Maginot line, with ANY technology or troops was a BADLY outdated concept and stood NO chance in WWII...the technology of war had moved decisively to MOBILITY, after it's long decline into immobile trench warfare from about the time of the Civil War. And, yes, the French had far more and better tanks than the Germans but that's not what decided, nor could it have decided, the battle. They farmed most of their tanks out to infantry units for infantry support! You can go back at least as far as the American Civil War to see that the lesson NOT to do this had been learned LONG AGO. German DOCTRINE gave them victory in France 40. And the Treaty of Versailles wasn't imposed harshly enough?!?!?! Are you KIDDING ME? And he mentions a couple little things but leaves out the theft of the Sudetenland, the DISMEMBERMENT of Prussia, French military on German soil with the occupation of the Rhineland! He mentions Germany's "intentional policy of inflation"....they HAD to, the Weimar Republic was failing both economically and politically...communist gangs rioting in the streets, communists taking over German states and threatening to secede from the country! There was Nothing "not harsh" about the Versailles Treaty, short sighted and vengeful yes

inoapasadonada

a lil bit too simplistic in that US had a laisefaire attitude towards the war is incorrect.....FDR had a huge "hard on" for Hitler....