Nicholson Baker: On War and Peace May 1, 2008

Festival of Ideas Director, Andrew Kelly, introduces American novelist, commentator and journalist, Nicholson Baker. Baker's new book: Human Smoke, The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization, about the build up and early years of the Second World War, is a controversial tour de force of research and writing challenging some of the treasured myths we hold about how war came about and how atrocities like the Holocaust were able to happen. For Baker, the war was not just, the west were not provoked into war, the allies can be accused of war crimes and the pacifist cause was the right one.

Official Website: http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/nicholson_baker.html