Yet despite, or perhaps because of, the extreme harshness of his early life, he was innately opposed to any form of cruelty, and despite his lack of polish and refinement, he almost never stooped to crudity or vulgarity in political speech … It was once said that the Civil War was the last of the old wars and the first of the new: cavalry and infantry charges gave way to cannon and railways, and sail gave way to steam.
Perhaps not one of the best Christopher Hitchens books in terms of accessibility as his style is intensely academic as opposed to accessible, but the message is acerbically clear regardless.
And we all called him our own.