What a writer saw from his barn roof in September of 1938

"One’s perspective, at that altitude, is unusually good," wrote E.B. White concerning an agreement in Munich Germany

E.B. White was on his barn roof for a few days in late September of 1938, installing some new cedar wood shingles with the goal of fixing any leaks. Winter was fast approaching and this bit of maintenance, he felt, was a necessary project. He had only recently moved to the salt-water farm in Maine where the barn was located, having left his regular job as a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine and (as he would later write) uprooting his wife and young son from their comfortable life in New York City.

The farm, which had been a vacation getaway, was now the family home and the chores it required, like installing wood shingles on the roof, became part of his daily routine.

But even so he still wrote, with the bulk of his work now being published by Harper magazine in a monthly column. As a footnote, these columns would later be collected under the title One Man’s Meat.

Among his first offerings was a piece entitled ‘Clear Days’ where he told of this maintenance project, along with other topics of interest and concern. While he was probably not a complete stranger to rural life, he confessed to the readers of his general lack of experience and knowledge of what to do and how to do it.

“It is not likely that a person who changes his pursuits will ever succeed in taking on the character or the appearance of the new man, however much he would like to,” White said of this change in scenery and daily routine. “I am farming, to a small degree and for my own amusement, but it is cheap imitation of the real thing.”

But as a writer he had few peers, as evident with his description of being on top of the barn, the view of the surrounding countryside, and what was then happening in the larger world.

“…those clear days on the edge of the roof, with the view of pasture, woods, sea, hills, and my pumpkin patch stretched out below in serene abundance” was one of the passages.

He followed this observation with a more profound matter then at hand.

“I stayed on the barn, steadily laying shingles, all during the days when Mr. Chamberlain, M. Daladier, the Duce, and the Fuher were arranging their horse trade. It seemed a queer place to be during a world crisis, an odd thing to be doing—there was no particular reason for making my roof tight, as the barn contained nothing but a croquet set, some swallows ‘nests, and a stuffed moosehead. In my trance-like condition, waiting for the negotiations to end, I added a cupola to the roof, to hold a vane that would show which way the wind blew.

“In some respects, though, a barn is the best place anybody would pick for sitting out a dance with a prime minister and a demigod. There is a certain clarity on a high roof, a singleness of design to the orderly work of laying shingles, snapping the chalk line, laying the butts to the line, picking the proper width shingles to give an adequate lap. One’s perspective, at that altitude, is unusually good. Who has the longer view of things anyway, a prime minister in a closet or a man on a barn roof?”

The ‘dance’ White was referring was the negotiations going on in Munich between Germany, Great Britain, the French Republic, and Italy over the fate of Sudetenland—part of what was then Czechoslovakia. The prime minister was the Neville Chamberlain and the demigod, Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was threatening to invade his neighbor, claiming the large number of ethnic Germans who lived in this region should be part of the Fatherland. He had earlier occupied the Rhineland (a demilitarized zone between Germany and France) in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, had annexed Austria, and was opening building up Germany’s military forces.

Concerned with a war breaking out and perhaps with his country being ill-prepared, Chamberlain had flown to the German city, joined by the French leader Edouard Daladier, to meet with Hiter and his Italian ally Benito Mussolini.

The outcome, as is well known, was the Munich Agreement, reached on Sept. 30^th between the four nations. The pact stipulated that Nazi Germany be allowed to annex the Sudetenland in exchange for a promise of peace and an end to Hitler’s expansionist policies. Czechoslovakia was not a part of the talks, its fate decided by the more powerful European powers.

A cheering crowd greeted Chamberlain after his plane landed in Great Britain. “Peace with honor” was how the prime minister portrayed the deal.  Of course, the carnage of World War I was still fresh in the memory of many in Great Britain and other Europeans, so a desire to avoid another bloodletting is understandable.

Not everyone, though, was celebrating the agreement. Not Winston Churchill who gave a speech in Parliament, criticizing it, and famously said to Chamberlain: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

And not a writer in Maine who wrote “I’m down now, the barn is tight, and the peace is preserved. It the ugliest peace the earth as ever received for a Christmas present. Old England eating swastika for breakfast instead of kipper is a sight I had as lief not lived to see. And though I’m no warrior, I would gladly fight for the things Nazism seeks to destroy.”

As is well known, Hitler did not honor the agreement. A half year later he annexed all of Czechoslovakia and the following year invaded Poland, an act which brought on the second world war.

* * *

I thought of this history after hearing that Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy was meeting with former President Donald Trump. Zelenskyy was in the United States to address a meeting of world leaders at the United Nations. He had earlier met with Vice President Kamala Harris who expressed her unequivocal support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.

Trump, in his public comments, has not been as supportive.

Speaking to a small group of reporters ahead of their closed-door meeting, Trump said, “We’re going to work very much with both parties to try and get this settled and get it worked out,” saying that he wanted a deal “that’s good for both sides.”

"It has to end. At some point, it has to end. He’s gone through hell. His country has gone through hell," the former President added.

Trump said the two leaders "have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin." Zelenskyy added that he hoped they would continue to have a good relationship.

"It takes two to tango, and we will," Trump responded.

After their meeting, Trump told Fox News that he had not changed his position on the war. "We both want to see this end, we both want to see a fair deal made," he said.

Trump said that the war is a "complicated puzzle" and when asked what a fair deal would entail, he said it's "too early to say that."

Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Senator J.D. Vance, has been critical of Ukraine and called for a halt to American aid. Some in the Republican Party have suggested that NATO provoked the Russian aggression and also that Ukraine needs to give up portions of its territory as part of a peace deal, along with forgoing security relationships with other nations.

The prevailing judgment of history after the Munich Agreement was that appeasement—the diplomatic strategy of giving concessions to aggressors to avoid armed conflict—was a sign of weakness; that it more likely emboldened the aggressor. In its stead, the policy has been to stand up to such threats and to also avoid being put in a compromised position by maintaining a strong military and having treaties of mutual defense—like NATO.

As they say elections, have consequences. With a Harris win, Zelenskyy and his people have the assurance of continued support along current lines—the goal being to allow this nation its right of self-determination and territorial integrity. With a Trump victory, there’ll likely be a different strategy pursued by the United States—a new ‘dance’ if you will (or tango) that decides Ukraine’s fate in a different manner.

Steve Horton is a mid-Michigan journalist. He recently published a collection of selected writings entitled ‘What Say I—Social Commentary & Personal Reflections.’