Niall Ferguson, Christopher Hitchens: Darlings of the right

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The story of American writers and artists who decamped to Paris is a familiar one that's been recently recast in golden hues by Woody Allen in “Midnight in Paris.” The story of British intellectuals who decamped to the United States is less familiar — and perhaps less colorful. In recent years it has consisted mainly of writers and professors. They prosper in part because of deep-seated American Anglophilism. We hear an Oxford accent and conclude the individual must be more educated, charming — and articulate — than we are. It might be true. Simon Schama, the British historian, recalls that English students practiced debating as well as impersonating 19th century orators. The tradition of debating has all but disappeared from American education, and this may have left us more tongued-tied than our British brethren.

Salon.com > Alexander Cockburn

Niall Ferguson, Christopher Hitchens: Darlings of the right