"When the planes struck, they gave reality to a passion for tragic events that already existed. Young artists with no experience of war were already designing monuments with an intensity that Lutyens only found after the horror of the western front. The rage for memorials betrays a truth about our culture: deep down, we were eager for the depth and gravitas of great events. And we got them."
E ainda o "problema com o triunfo do Holocausto na cultura popular":
The problem with the triumph of the Holocaust in popular culture - it doesn't seem exaggerated to call it that - lies not in any excessive emphasis: how could the most successful attempt at genocide in recorded history ever be talked about and mourned too much? It has to do with turning it into a spectacular, unexplained fact divorced from historical context. Far more people have heard of Sobibor and Treblinka today than 30 years ago. But I suspect fewer than ever know about the Treaty of Versailles, and other episodes on the road to Nazism.
