Reading postmodern history can be frustrating, with its philosophical antipathy to facts and truth and its ideological priors. Here’s an example — Jean-François Lyotard on the rise of authoritarianism: Saddam Hussein is a product of Western departments of state and big companies, just as Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco were born of the ‘peace’ imposed on […]
Correcting postmodern history — imperialist version Read More »
How culture gets made. At the Library of Social Science, a selection of quotations — philosophers, poets, historians, and other intellectual leaders — on German militarism from Kant’s time to World War I. For example, who said this? War itself, if it is carried on with order and with a sacred respect for the rights of
Quotations on militarism in the lead-up to World War I Read More »
After my talks at the University of Kasimir the Great in Poland, I received a gift from Professora Ilona Błaszczyk: a book on Seneca on education. Professora Błaszczyk is a scholar of classical thought who has translated Seneca’s work into Polish. A striking feature of the book, though, appears on the title page: a Third
Third Reich stamp in Seneca book Read More »
A broken trough along an eave at Auschwitz Block 5Lets melting snow splash to the earth.Unruly escape from an assigned path. On a hundred other buildings the troughs function well.According to plan.Collecting every drop.Guiding them along gutters.To waiting drains.And into the anonymous darkness below. Snow is water,And water is life.Cycles of separation and absorption. A
Broken Trough, Block 5 Read More »
“Germany had the world’s strongest antismoking movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, supported by Nazi medical and military leaders worried that tobacco might prove a hazard to the race. Many Nazi leaders were vocal opponents of smoking. Anti-tobacco activists pointed out that whereas Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt were all fond of tobacco, the three
Anti-smoking activists — historical anecdote Read More »
The Decline of the West By Oswald Spengler Translated from the German by Charles Francis Atkinson New York: A. A. Knopf, 1918 Spengler’s Preface to the First Edition The complete manuscript of this book — the outcome of three years’ work — was ready when the Great War broke out. By the spring of 1917
Spenger’s Introduction to *The Decline of the West* [text] Read More »
One century ago, Adolf Hitler fighting in the Great War. He was a good soldier — he would be promoted to the rank of corporal, be wounded two times, and be awarded six medals. And with him during the war he had the writings of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The image of Hitler reading Schopenhauer is
How Smart and Well-read was Adolf Hitler? [Good Life series] Read More »
[This column is a part of the Theist vs. Atheist series debate between Stephen Hicks and John C. Wright. This is Hicks’s response to Wright’s column. Here are the links to other columns in the series.] To evaluate religion’s track record we need to specify our evaluative benchmarks and identify whether we are evaluating religion generically
Religion and the Verdict of History [Theist vs. Atheist series] Read More »