In Case You Missed It
Across parts of today’s right, a disturbing revision of World War II history is taking shape—one that seeks to soften Hitler’s evil while recasting Churchill as the war’s true villain. In this sharp and timely essay for Liberal Currents, Michael Tolhurst, director of academic relations at IHS, warns that such revisionism is more than an intellectual parlor game; it is an assault on the moral memory that anchors liberal civilization itself.
Michael Tolhurst says:
“You cannot admire Churchill and rehabilitate Hitler. The two stand on opposite sides of the story.”
Tolhurst argues that defending Churchill’s legacy does not mean denying his flaws. It means recognizing that, in a moment when much of his own political class flirted with authoritarianism, Churchill stood firm for democracy and freedom—and built a coalition broad enough to defeat fascism. Forgetting that example, he writes, risks losing the moral clarity that once united free peoples against tyranny.
Read the “A Popular Front of Memory” on Liberal Currents for a reminder of what it meant—and still means—to hold the line.
