The Witch’s Cauldron of the 1940s
“The roles of the journalist and the historian are distinct. Journalists do not write history; rather, they seek out and present the sources upon which historians can draw.
The historian’s task is different. In writing history, historians rely on memoirs and documentary evidence. Many memoirs about the 1940s have been published. Nearly every event of that period deserves to be examined as a subject in its own right.
My aim was, even if only from a bird’s-eye view, to take a closer look at the 1940s and help readers see them more clearly. The 1940s continue to shape the present. The witch’s cauldrons are still boiling today. Those who burn in them, and those who feed the fires beneath them, are different people now. But has the outcome changed? No.”
Uğur MUMCU
