Ronald Reagan perfected the subtler version long ago by talking about "welfare mothers" - a code phrase for people of colour. Adam Hochschild More Quotes by Adam Hochschild More Quotes From Adam Hochschild Even [Ernst] Hemingway, perhaps the most intentionally non-political of American writers, became passionately partisan during the Spanish Civil War. Adam Hochschild partisans political war How many really great writers are there who are totally non-political? You can hear the French Revolution in the poetry of [Percy Bysshe] Shelly and [John] Wordsworth; you can sense the vast inequalities of Tsarist Russia in [Anton] Chekhov and [Lev] Tolstoy. Adam Hochschild russia revolution political If your real wages are declining, your job is at risk, you fear your children will be worse off than you are, it's tempting to want to blame it all on an easily identifiable target: Muslims, immigrants, refugees, blacks, Jews. Adam Hochschild real jobs children I think one thing writers can do is point out that you don't have to say openly racist things, like [Donald] Trump, to be a racist or a xenophobe. Adam Hochschild trump racist thinking Someday, I have no doubt, the dead from today's wars will be seen with a similar sense of sorrow at needless loss and folly as those millions of men who lie in the cemeteries of France and Belgium - and tens of millions of Americans will feel a similar revulsion for the politicians and generals who were so spendthrift with others' lives. Adam Hochschild loss war lying No international court can ever substitute for a working national justice system. Or for a society at piece. Adam Hochschild substitutes pieces justice Newt Gingrich seldom misses a chance to note that he is a historian. Adam Hochschild notes chance missing I'm after a snake and please God I'll scotch it. Adam Hochschild snakes please scotch In his fierce, bold determination to see the lives of modern-day slaves up close, Benjamin Skinner reminds me of the British abolitionist of two hundred years ago, Zachary Macaulay, who once traveled on a slave ship across the Atlantic, taking notes. Skinner goes everywhere, from border crossings to brothels to bargaining sessions with dealers in human beings, to bring us this vivid, searing account of the wide network of human trafficking and servitude which spans today's globe. Adam Hochschild determination two years For the better part of two centuries, outsiders have been offering explanations that range from racist to learned-sounding - the supposed inferiority of blacks, the heritage of slavery, overpopulation - for why Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Adam Hochschild better slavery heritage country No international court can ever substitute for a working national justice system. Or for a society at peace. Adam Hochschild system society justice peace I think the tradition of well-written history hasn't been squashed out of the academic world as much in Britain as it has in the United States. Adam Hochschild think tradition history world I think that, in almost all human beings, there is buried a profound tribal instinct that makes us very susceptible to being aroused to patriotic fervour. Adam Hochschild us human being think As the First World War made painfully clear, when politicians and generals lead nations into war, they almost invariably assume swift victory, and have a remarkably enduring tendency not to foresee problems that, in hindsight, seem obvious. Adam Hochschild problems victory war world