notsokrates

William Dalyrymple has written some decent books on the Indian sub-continent, notably “The Return of a King” and “The Anarchy”. But…

Of late, he has been collaborating with Anita Anand (I’d never heard of her, but here’s her Wikipedia entry) on the Empire podcast. Although they’ve had some good material, I’ve always found it slightly uneasy listening, with Anand irritatingly performing the role of “matron/fluffer” to Dalyrymple’s genially bluff public school colonialist persona.

A recent episode was on what they chose to label “The History of Putin’s War”, and as their guide the duo invited leading Neocon “thinker”, Anne Applebaum (I leave you, dear reader, to do your own research on her, but basically if you love Hillary Clinton, you’ll adore Applebaum). Cue diatribe against Evil Putin, glorious Ukraine: no mention of the OUN, Bandera, the Galician SS division, Ukrainian massacres of Poles and Jews, Victoria Nuland, Obama, US funding, the right-wing killings in Maidan, Minsk 2, Kiev’s banning of Russian language in the Donbas, the 14,000 dead killed in the insurrection after 2014 etc etc.

So, it’s kind of like inviting Tony Blair to be one’s neutral guide to the Iraq War, its causes and conduct.

I posted a number of tweets pointing out that for supposedly serious historians to present Applebaum’s claims as “objective history” was hogwash. At the very least, I suggested, they should invited Professor Ivan Katchanovski on the programme for some balance. Dalyrymple claimed in a tweet in response that he hadn’t seen my suggestion so I directed him to it.

Silence.

Others wrote on X/Twitter to note the imbalance. I cannot trace it now, but Dalyrymple claimed that he had known Applebaum for over 30 years and her husband, Radek Sikorski (ex-Polish FM and tweeter of that infamous post after Nordstream 2, “Thank you, USA”) for even longer and he trusted them implicitly: “And if I trust them, that should be enough for you plebs” was all but said out loud.

That tells you a lot about a “professional historian” such as Dalyrymple. It’s sad, really. I can’t understand how a person can plainly apply intellectual rigour in some areas and absolutely none in others. It’s obvious that he and Anand know nothing about the Donbas war, and that’s fine, but to breathlessly hang on Applebaum’s every word and claim it as “the truth” is just embarrassing.

If this pair can get this subject so wrong, how can one trust them about anything? One can’t, of course, so it’s goodbye, Empire Podcast.

In any event, it’s never been a patch on “The Rest is History” podcast with Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland.