"Your mission, should you choose to accept it...."

[phylo_roadking]

"This historian will self-destruct in five seconds..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-ha ... 58017.html

Has anyone seen the plot? For Mr. Irving appears to have lost it...

Although painful to read, I haven't seen anything quite so remarkably funny and sad at the same time come out of the UK since David Icke said he was the Son of God on live telly...in the middle of a parliamentary election interview!

[Tom Houlihan]

And he says his father was the fantasist?

[John W. Howard]

It is sad to see Irving going off the rails; I just finished his THE TRAIL OF THE FOX about Rommel, and I can truly say it was one of the very best pieces of writing and research I have ever read. It reads like a novel and is packed with information. I would like to read more of his work, Göring was good too, but I am not sure at what point he stopped being objective and his facts might be suspect.

[pzrmeyer2]

you know, Ive gotten to know Mr Irving quite well, and this interview certainly doesnt do him any favors. Im surprised he agreed to it knowing that he would not be given an even take. Then again, if it is truly only publicity he is seeking --"mischief making" then he has succeeded. I had a private dinner with him several months back, and he was quite lucid, candid, and humorous, not to mention sensical. He is indeed a meticulous and thororough original researcher, and I find it hard to disagree with the cental thesis of "Hitler's War", but this casts him in a very poor light.

[phylo_roadking]

One has to seriously question the self-destructive nature of his quest for publicity...if it comes at "any" cost like this. And therefore you have to likewise seriously question how much of it CAN be laughed off. Let's face it - due to events, "David Irving" the brand generates publicity enough WITHOUT stepping on a bright-pink painted landmine like this.

[pzrmeyer2]

One has to seriously question the self-destructive nature of his quest for publicity...if it comes at "any" cost like this. And therefore you have to likewise seriously question how much of it CAN be laughed off. Let's face it - due to events, "David Irving" the brand generates publicity enough WITHOUT stepping on a bright-pink painted landmine like this.

concur

[phylo_roadking]

British readers will remember another similar and very public decline into madness and delusion nearly two decades ago....THIS man;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sNE20Dj ... re=related

...Davd Icke, sports commentator, who ended up as figurehead of the national Green party, for a short space of time as pwerful a political lobby in the UK as the Green party in Germany was - then it went to his head...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-29cdosj ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMuI2vpV ... re=related

Despite everything regarding global warming etc. that has happened since, the Green Party here has NEVER recovered from the level of damage he did.

[jerijerod]

I had a friend who wrote his dissitation on the Lipschitz (Excuse spelling) vs. Irving trial and he actually spoke via email to David Irving about his work and the trial...
Matt said he was quite bi-polar. Somedays he was exceptionally helpful and others down right rude and dismissive. I must say that the brief conversation I had with him concerning his book "The rise and fall of the Luftwaffe" I had a similiar expieriance. He started very helpful, even offered to lend me a copy and when i asked his opinion on the topic I had chosen he just dismissed me with "Do you're own research!"

Who knows

[John W. Howard]

Hello Gents:
An untreated mental issue may very well be the cause. It certainly sounds like Mr. Irving has had more than one traumatic event in his life, which would be enough to trigger an underlying problem. TRAIL OF THE FOX just impressed me to no end; I found more answers to more questions about the Normandy invasion than I could ever hope for. I intend to read more of his books, especially his earlier works, provided I can find them. Best wishes.

[jerijerod]

Rise and fall of the Luftwaffe is an excellent account of Milch's career and the Luftwaffe's decline.

[John W. Howard]

Hi JJ:
My local library just purged it from their shelves, along with another of Irving's works. Inter-library loan to the rescue

[jerijerod]

its a shame really, its a good book but its the author that gives it taint. I started reading it on the train to work in the mornings but got so many disapproving looks i felt guilty.

"Look at that guy reading a book with an eagle holding a swastika written by David Irving... I don't know what Luftwaffe is but I am sure its evil!!!"

[phylo_roadking]

I intend to read more of his books, especially his earlier works, provided I can find them

its a good book but its the author that gives it taint.

...and the process is accelerating -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... bsite.html

One has to seriously question the self-destructive nature of his quest for publicity...if it comes at "any" cost like this

...and the cost is the final vestiges of his credibility One can't help but remember those hundreds of tons of badly-dyed hair that appeared on the Internet within hours of Britney Spiers shaving her head...it's sad to see someone self-destructing like this.

(John, I'd say if you look carefully, you'll increasingly pick up his books cheap in 2nd-hand bookshops now....)

[John W. Howard]

Hi Phylo:
Thanks for the heads up; I'll be looking!!