Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Michael Haag: Vintage Alexandria

Photographs of the City, 1860-1960

American University in Cairo Press, 2008     Amazon.com

Book Description:

This is an intriguing collection of archival photographs that reveals the forgotten heart of a great cosmopolitan city. Using vintage photographs from the second half of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth, many of them from private family albums, this book brings to life the world of that vanished Alexandria, a vibrant, stylish, and cosmopolitan city, the largest port in the Mediterranean, that was the prosperous gateway between Egypt and the world. Seen here in the setting of their homes and gardens, and on the city’s streets and beaches, the faces of those forgotten Alexandrians come to life: the Greeks, Italians, Jews, and all those others from around the Mediterranean whose energy and expertise helped modernize and develop Egypt, and who planted their family roots in the city. This was the luxuriant and evocative city celebrated by Constantine Cavafy, E. M. Forster, and Lawrence Durrell, and they too are included in these pages along with photographs of scenes and people that were familiar to them. Vintage Alexandria traces the development and growth of the city, follows its story through the dramatic events of two world wars, and above all provides a background to the city’s place in twentieth-century cultural history, through the eyes of Alexandria’s cosmopolitan citizens themselves.
About the Author:
Michael Haag is a writer and photographer based in London. He has photographed and written Alexandria Illustrated (AUC Press, 2004) and Cairo Illustrated (AUC Press, 2006), and he is the author of Alexandria: City of Memory.

Ilana Mercer: Into the Cannibal’s Pot

Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa

Stairway Press, 2011     Amazon.com

Book Description:

Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa is a polemical work anchored in history, reality, fact, and the political philosophy of classical liberalism. It is a manifesto against mass society, arguing against raw, ripe, democracy, here (in the US), there (in South Africa), and everywhere. Into the Cannibal’s Pot follows Russell Kirk’s contention that true freedom can be found only within the framework of a social order. It is a reminder that, however imperfect, civilized societies are fragile. They can, and will, crumble in culturally inhospitable climes. The tyranny of political correctness, so unique to the West, plays a role in their near-collapse. Advanced societies don’t just die; they either wither from within, or, like South Africa, are finished off by other western societies. Ilana Mercer delivers a compelling book; it is required reading for thinking people who care about the destiny of western civilization.
Reviews:
“The Western press promptly forgot all about South Africa after Nelson Mandela assumed the presidency. The commissars of allowable opinion pretend atrocities have not been taking place, and smear anyone who mentions them. Ilana Mercer will have none of the lies and omissions of the commissars and the cowards. For the sake of white and black South Africans alike, her compelling account deserves a wide and sympathetic audience.”  Thomas E. Woods, Ph.D., historian, author of the New York Times best-sellers Nullification, Meltdown, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, and the critically acclaimed The Church Confronts Modernity
“Ilana Mercer calls her book ‘a labor of love to my homelands, old and new’. The old is South Africa, which the author left in 1995. The new is the U.S.A. In both nations the founding European stock yielded up their dominance in the interests of justice and liberty. Instead of moving to equal citizenship under fair laws, however, both nations – in different style and measure but with similarly dire results – have embraced official tribalism (‘multiculturalism’) and state-enforced racial favoritism (‘affirmative action’). For South Africa the transformation has been fatal – brutally so for victims of the nation’s swelling social disorder, as Ms. Mercer documents in heartbreaking detail. For the U.S.A. it is not too late to change course. The lesson of South Africa, if widely known, will help to open American eyes. Here is the lesson, in a compelling and important book.”  John Derbyshire, novelist, National Review columnist, pop-math writer, author most recently of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism, and all-round bon vivant
“‘The truth shall set you free’, a memorable Biblical phrase tells us. It does not say the truth shall make us comfortable or happy. Into The Cannibal’s Pot fits this mold: it is an interesting, important, well-written and well-documented book that informs the reader but is likely to upset, perhaps even anger, some or many of them.”  Thomas Szasz, the author of The Myth of Mental Illness, Psychiatry: The Science of Lies, and many other books
“Egalitarianism leads to democracy; democracy leads to socialism; socialism leads to economic destruction; and democratic socialism in multicultural societies leads to death and democide. This, in shocking detail, is what Ilana Mercer illustrates superbly in her case study of post-apartheid South Africa. America’s political and intellectual ‘elites’ will ignore this book, because it is politically ‘incorrect’. We can only do so at our own peril.”  Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Austrian school economist, libertarian political philosopher, emeritus professor of economics, University of Nevada, distinguished fellow, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, author of Democracy: The God That Failed, and The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
“If you want to witness the end result of what in America is called ‘diversity’, you must read Into the Cannibal’s Pot. ‘Diversity’ is a euphemism for racial retribution administered mostly by guilty white liberals in universities, corporations, and government. It is a thoroughly collectivist notion that condones punishing the current generation of white males for the sins of the past. It’s most extreme form is practiced in post-Apartheid South Africa, and its effects are meticulously documented by Ilana Mercer (who also writes marvelously): rampant black-on-white crime, racist labor laws that have created ‘The world’s most extreme affirmative action program’; the confiscation of private property; economic socialism; state-sponsored terrorism; and, most sickeningly, the idolization of the corrupt and murderous Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe. The Western media ignore all of this because of their ideological love affair with the communistic African National Congress and, frankly, their support for many of these same policies.”  Thomas J. DiLorenzo, professor of economics, Loyola College, Maryland, author of the best-selling The Real Lincoln, Lincoln Unmasked, and most recently, Hamilton’s Curse
“Ilana Mercer’s well-documented, encompassing study is at once heartbreaking, infuriating, illuminating and instructive. Ethnic cleansing is underway in the once great nation of South Africa, but Americans hear nothing of it; they are deliberately shielded by the same parties that served to bring it about, the liberal elites in Western governments and the press who believe that white South Africans ‘have it coming’. It is white guilt and the so-called right of black reprisal extrapolated to ghastly extremes; political correctness on steroids, and all in the name of craven progressive ideology. If the West is ever to occupy anything resembling moral high ground – not to mention avoiding this fate itself – it will have to come to terms with its part in South Africa’s demise, and the misery, degradation and naked horror of those who now suffer.”  Erik Rush,columnist and author of Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal-America’s Racial Obsession. Erik was the first to break the story of President (then Senator) Barack Obama’s ties to the militant, Afrocentric, Chicago preacher Reverend Jeremiah Wright
Into the Cannibal’s Pot is well-written, courageous, and is clearly a strong socio-political tract on South Africa.”  Irving Louis Horowitz, Hannah Arendt distinguished professor emeritus, Rutgers University, New Jersey
“An unflinching take on South Africa. This is well done.”  Jed Donahue, Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI)
Into the Cannibal’s Pot is brilliant, exceeding all my expectations. It is very courageous of Ilana Mercer also to attack the whole notion of ‘democracy.’ This is a much-needed shot at a holy cow.”  Dan Roodt, Ph.D., noted Afrikaner activist, author, literary critic, director, PRAAG
From the Publisher:
This is a book about ideas and ideology. When losing an intellectual argument, there are despicable people who point an accusing finger and shout racism. In our dark times where mob rule and collectivist ideas resonate with so many, this appalling strategy can be very effective. To those who support colorblind civil discourse, rule of law, equality of opportunity, freedom, the golden rule (do unto others as you wish them to do unto you), liberty, freedom of expression and religion and private property rights…regardless of skin color or ethnic background (black, red, white, yellow, brown, green or violet), we extend the hand of friendship. To those who support all forms of thuggery – including totalitarianism, collectivism, fascism, extremist fundamentalism, unequal treatment under law, income redistribution, nanny state government programs and the soft bigotry of low expectations - your skin color and ethnicity are irrelevant…and your ideas belong in the dustbin of history.
From the Author:
Dedicated to my Afrikaner brothers betrayed, and to my African sisters, Nomasomi Khala and Annie Dlahmini, whose lives touched mine.
From the Inside Flap:
The daughter of a leading anti-apartheid activist blows the lid off the new South Africa
About the Author:
Ilana Mercer is a widely published classical liberal (or libertarian) writer, and a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies. She pens WorldNetDaily’s popular “Return to Reason” column. “The titular tease”, writes Ms Mercer in the Introduction to Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa, “is meant as a metaphor, and is inspired by Ayn Rand’s wise counsel against prostrating civilization to savagery”.
JOB’s Comment:
Classical liberalism (libertarianism) and Ayn Rand are of course far from sufficient for dealing with the situation described in this book. And it is not possible to be a consistent follower of both Ayn Rand and Russell Kirk.

Sibel Edmonds: Classified Woman

The Sibel Edmonds Story: A Memoir

Sibel Edmonds, 2012     Amazon.com

Book Description:

In this startling new memoir, Sibel Edmonds – the most classified woman in U.S. history – takes us on a surreal journey that begins with the secretive FBI and down the dark halls of a feckless Congress to a stonewalling judiciary and finally, to the national security whistleblowers movement she spearheaded. Having lived under Middle East dictatorships, Edmonds knows firsthand what can happen when government is allowed to operate in secret. Hers is a sobering perspective that combines painful experience with a rallying cry for the public’s right to know and to hold the lawbreakers accountable. With U.S. citizens increasingly stripped of their rights in a calibrated media blackout, Edmonds’ story is a wake-up call for all Americans who, willingly or unwillingly, traded liberty for illusive security in the wake of 9/11.
From the Back Cover:
“Edmonds must feel a bit like Alice at the tea party, where justice is not being served, and where a secret is a secret but why it’s a secret or who says it’s a secret is a secret, and we can’t tell you why because it’s a secret.”  Editorial, Seattle Post
“She’s credible. And the reason I feel she’s very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story.”  Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), 60 Minutes
“Sibel Edmonds would not let an intimidating FBI shut her mouth, and as a result, suffered grievous consequences, but she has persevered and we are better off for her sacrifices.”  Paul Newman
About the Author:
Sibel Edmonds is the editor of Boiling Frogs Post and the founder-director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. She is the recipient of the 2006 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award. Ms. Edmonds worked as a language specialist for the FBI where she reported serious acts of security breaches and cover-ups, and for that she was retaliated against and ultimately fired. The court proceedings on her case were blocked by the assertion of State Secrets Privilege, and the U.S. Congress has been gagged and prevented from taking up or even discussing her case through retroactive classification issued by the Department of Justice. Ms. Edmonds has a MA in Public Policy from George Mason University, and a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.

Ellen Hodgson Brown: Web of Debt

The Shocking Truth About Our Money System And How We Can Break Free

Third Millennium Press, 2010 (2007)     Amazon.com

Back Cover:

EXPLODING THE MYTHS ABOUT MONEY
Our money system is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been privatized, or taken over by a private money cartel. Except for coins, all of our money is now created as loans advanced by private banking institutions, including the “private” Federal Reserve. Banks create the principal but not the interest to service their loans. To find the interest, new loans must continually be taken out, expanding the money supply, inflating prices, and robbing you of the value of your money. Web of Debt unravels the deception and presents a crystal clear picture of the financial abyss towards which we are heading. Then it explores a workable alternative, one that was tested in colonial America and is grounded in the best of American economic thought, including the writings of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. If you care about financial security, your own or the nation’s, you should read this book.
“The real truth is…that a financial element in the large centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.”  President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933
“The sack of the United States by the Fed is the greatest crime in history. Every effort has been made by the Fed to conceal its powers, but the truth is the Fed has usurped the government.”  Charles McFadden, Chairman, House Banking and Currency Committee, 1932
Blurbs on the Back Cover:
“Ellen Brown has applied her training as a litigating attorney, researcher and writer to the monetary field, unearthing facts that even the majority of banking and financial experts ignore: ranging from the privatization of money creation, to the Plunge Protection Team, to the Federal Reserve’s ‘Helicopter Money’. Read it; you’ll get information you need in order to understand what is going on in our financial markets today.”  Bernard Lietaer, former European central banker, author of The Future of Money and Of Human Wealth
“Literacy on the topic of money is at an all-time low. This book is tremendously important not only in its presentation, but by drawing attention to an age-old topic that should have a major presence in the public mind.”  Benjamin Gisin, senior loan officer for a top ten bank, author of Farmers and Ranchers Guide to Credit, publisher of Touch the Soil magazine
Reviews:
“Ellen Hodgson Brown may have done the impossible. She wrote a book about the most stupefying subject in the world money, where it comes from and how it is manipulated and made it readable, compelling, even suspenseful. Web of Debt is a page-turner that explains the origin of the Federal Reserve, the functioning of our money supply, currency speculation, capital flows, and the rest…Her overarching theme, that money must be made to serve the public good instead of private masters, carries the force of conviction.”  Acres USA
“Most people need backing of some sort to break through and capture a share of the public mind, but Ms. Brown has seemingly accomplished this all by herself, without funding of any kind. It almost defies comprehension. If we wore a thousand hats, they would all be doffed in respect to Ms. Brown’s courageous and apparently independent intellectual journey. We are impressed enough with Ms. Brown’s approach to award her a title all her own, in fact. There are in our opinion, in modern economic thought, now Keynesians, Austrians and Brownians.”  The Daily Bell

“It’s frankly difficult to find a good book that will help a person become literate about our modern money supply. Most that are accurate are hopelessly dense and written for graduate students in economics…Ellen Brown has translated a dense subject into a readable and fascinating story…Web of Debt by Ellen Brown not only demystifies money, but provides some thought-provoking and realistic solutions to our nation’s dangerous dependence on a for-profit banking system that is sucking the financial lifeblood out of our nation…Buy it, read it, and get active!”  Thom Hartmann’s Review of the Month for Buzzflash

“Ms. Brown has taken two subjects considered boring - history and monetary policy - and turned them into a book as thrilling as any Tom Clancy novel, except that this book is true…If you are looking to have an understanding of the monetary mess we are in, this is an excellent historical overview with some truly elegant and ingenious ideas about correcting the problems we presently face. As you read this book you may find yourself feeling like ‘Neo’ in The Matrix, newly awakened from the slumber of ignorance and deceit. Best of all, she offers viable solutions to the problems that have plagued our planet for millennia. This may well be one of the most important books you will ever read.”  American Free Press

“If there is one book, one newspaper, one blog, one article, that one should read to understand the current economic crisis, to understand the root of the problem, and to understand the solution, it is The Web of Debt…The only ideology presented is one of fairness, integrity, and common sense.”  Online Journal Reviews

About the Author:
Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest book, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and the money trust. She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Brown developed an interest in the developing world and its problems while living abroad for eleven years in Kenya, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. She returned to practicing law when she was asked to join the legal team of a popular Tijuana healer with an innovative cancer therapy, who was targeted by the chemotherapy industry in the 1990s. That experience produced her book Forbidden Medicine, which traces the suppression of natural health treatments to the same corrupting influences that have captured the money system. Brown’s eleven books include the bestselling Nature’s Pharmacy, co-authored with Dr. Lynne Walker, which has sold 285,000 copies.
JOB’s Comment:
I have commented briefly on the book here (in Swedish). See also this post.

Svante Nordin: Historia och vetenskap

En essä om marxismen, historicismen och humaniora

Zenit, 1981

Baksida:

Historia och vetenskap handlar om de humanistiska vetenskaperna, deras egenart och uppgifter. Den handlar också om marxismen i dess egenskap av humanvetenskaplig teori.

I en historisk exposé tecknar Svante Nordin den klassiska historiefilosofiska traditionen vars idag viktigaste avläggare är marxismen. I ett systematiskt avsnitt gör han ett försök att ge konturerna av en filosofi om historien där de trådar följs som knyter samman konsten, filosofin, politiken och den sociala strukturen. Därvid genomför Nordin vad som både är en tolkning och i vissa avseenden en kritik av marxismen utifrån ett historicistiskt perspektiv.

Syftet med denna bok står att finna i ett försvar för ett klassiskt kulturideal och för en teoretisk tradition där historiefilosofiskt tänkande betraktas som både respektabelt och nödvändigt.

JOBs kommentar:

Nordins viktigaste filosofiska bok - i den meningen att medan hans senare verk är filosofihistoriskt viktiga, filosoferar han själv i denna, även om det i stor utsträckning formuleras i termer av teori. Vid denna tid var Nordin fortfarande verksam som filosof, vid filosofiska institutionen i Lund. Han hade ännu inte flyttat över till idé- och lärdomshistoria.

Den uppgörelse han här företar med åtminstone de mest ohållbara riktningarna inom marxismen - främst den strukturalistiska Althusser-skolan med dess vetenskapliga anspråk - var av historisk betydelse i den svenska vänstern vid denna tid och därmed för det intellektuella klimatet i Sverige överhuvudtaget. Jag läste den med största intresse när den kom ut, som alldeles färsk recentior i Uppsala men medförande andliga och rudimentära filosofiska övertygelser av ett slag som gjorde det omöjligt för mig att acceptera den alltfort vitt utbredda marxismen.

Den humanistiska bredden och perspektivrikedomen, den formella och stilistiska friheten från de marxistiska esoterismernas krampaktiga jargonger som ofta bara dolde kulturlöshet, försvaret för det klassiska kulturidealet - allt detta imponerade. Men det fanns också mycket jag inte höll med om, och som jag omedelbart började brottas med. Nordin kvarstannade ännu i ett allmänt marxistiskt influerat tänkande, liksom inom ett mer allmänt kulturradikalt paradigm.

Samtidigt pekade hans immanenta kritik av marxismen i själva verket långt utöver marxismen som sådan, något som inom kort bekräftades av hans egen fortsatta utveckling. Hans grundliga tillägnelse av ännu idag i Sverige otillräckligt absorberade tanketraditioner långt bortom marxismen, huvudsakligen med anknytning till den i boken dominerande historicistiska tematiken, den tillägnelse som är vad som framtvingade uppgörelsen, var redan här uppenbar, och skänker boken bestående värde och relevans.

Historia och vetenskap erbjöd en möjlighet till den sanna humanistiska filosofins frigörelse från marxismen och till humanioras återupprättelse i Sverige. Men fastän den på ett självständigt och nyskapande sätt lyfte fram nödvändiga och av marxismen undanträngda tänkare och traditioner och från dem hämtade insikter av största betydelse för den humanistiska filosofins och den humanvetenskapliga teorins nyformulering, utgjorde den inte själv denna nyformulering som ett fullt, positivt alternativ.

För det första var den - och gjorde på intet sätt anspråk på att vara något annat än - fragmentarisk och essäistisk (undertiteln säger att den är en essä; mer exakt är den en sammanställning och tematisk gruppering av en mängd korta fragment, man kanske kunde tillåtas kalla dem “essäetter”), på intet sätt en utförlig, systematisk framställning.

För det andra skulle krävts för den kompletta nyformuleringen både en mer fullständig frigörelse från de allmänna marxistiska tankelinjerna och det kulturradikala paradigmet, och en djupare och utvidgad tillägnelse av den nämnda ickemarxistiska tankevärlden. Begränsningen till humanvetenskapernas teori, om än i hög grad filosofiskt förstådd, hade - samtidigt som denna fortfarande också täcktes in - behövt överges till förmån för filosofin i sig i fullaste traditionella mening.

Alltunder det jag under de kommande åren fortsatte följa Nordins författarskap, som nu alltså övergick till att ägnas filosofihistorien, sökte jag förstå mer exakt detta som krävdes. Under åttiotalets lopp mognade gradvis de slutsatser fram i enlighet med vilka jag sedan dess försökt utveckla min verklighetsförståelse. Jag började tänka i termer av idealism, personalism, och värdecentrerad historicism.

Nordins fortsatta arbete hade stor betydelse för mig även i detta sammanhang. Han slutade förvisso inte att själv bedriva filosofi. Med den historiefilosofiska förståelse och uppfattning av historievetenskapen som han ådagalade redan i Historia och vetenskap var det naturligtvis oundvikligt och självklart för honom att göra det också som historiker: filosofin kan inte skiljas från den medvetet reflekterade historieskrivningen, historiemedvetandet inte från filosofin. Och några senare uppsatser och artiklar är också av samma typ som texterna i Historia och vetenskap, och avspeglar Nordins fortsatta rent filosofiska utveckling.

Men Historia och vetenskap förblir alltså än idag Nordins enda bok som i sin helhet uttrycker enbart eller i första hand hans eget tänkande.

Kevin DeAnna: European Conservatives’ Self-Destruction

WorldNetDaily

“Why are conservatives always trying to save their enemies?

Leftists around the world are jubilant at the downfall of Sarko L’Américain, as the Socialist François Hollande decisively defeated the “center-right” Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency of the French Republic. The supposed conservatives have no one to blame but themselves. Sarkozy’s demise is the logical consequence of the forced austerity he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shoved down their peoples’ throats in order to maintain the euro, whatever the cost.

At a time when mass Islamic immigration is transforming the Western character of the continent, self-government has been taken away and transferred to an increasingly autocratic European Union and unemployment is skyrocketing in southern Europe, supposed conservatives have taken the suicidal position of lining up with the very bankers, bureaucrats and financiers that created the crisis.”

Geoffrey Hughes: Political Correctness

A History of Semantics and Culture

Wiley-Blackwell, 2009     Amazon.co.uk

From the Back Cover:

Political Correctness is now an everyday phrase and part of the modern mindset. Everyone thinks they know what it means, but its own meaning constantly shifts. Its surprising origins have led to it becoming integrated into contemporary culture in ways that are both idealistic and ridiculous. Originally grounded in respect for difference and sensitivity to suffering, it has often become a distraction and even a silencer of genuine issues, provoking satire and parody. In this carefully researched, thought-provoking book, Geoffrey Hughes examines the trajectory of political correctness and its impact on public life.

Exploring the origins, progress, content, and style of PC, Hughes’ journey leads us through authors as diverse as Chaucer, Shakespeare and Swift; Philip Larkin, David Mamet, and J.M. Coetzee; from nursery rhymes to Spike Lee films. Focusing on the historical, semantic, and cultural aspects of political correctness, this outstanding and unique work will intrigue anyone interested in this ongoing debate.

Reviews:

“Prof. Hughes′ Political Correctness deals with both its history and its use at present. And he deals with both aspects in a masterly fashion. Consequently, this book is highly recommendable because of what it says as well as, what is probably more important, because of the multitude of suggestions and questions it inspires.”  Australian Journal of Linguistics

“Some books are written to be read, and other books are reference works. Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture is unusual in that it is both jam-packed with detailed information and yet makes for a good read. Everyone should read this book and also keep it on the shelf as an excellent reference work. This informative and well written book covers more than just the notion of political correctness (PC) in the narrow sense. It encompasses far more than the problem of increased, PC kinds of concerns, as discussed in Part I, Political Correctness and Its Origins.”  PsycCritiques

“Hughes ultimately comes down against artificiality, suggesting that political correctness is a form of social engineering that arises from good intentions coupled with Puritanism. A useful book for anyone interested in language and culture.”  CHOICE

“Hughes′ book provides a wide-ranging examination of a phenomenon that has had an immense influence on our culture, for both good and ill. Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture is an entertaining, thought-provoking foray into an interesting and important area.  Hughes focuses mainly on the effect of P.C. in contemporary Britain, America and South Africa, but he looks at earlier historical periods (such as the Reformation) too. This is the best book written on the subject, and that by some distance.  It is an essential study, rigorous and critical and absolutely indispensable.”  Compulsive Reader

“Focusing on the historical, semantic, and cultural aspects of political correctness, this brilliant and unique work will intrigue anyone interested in this ongoing debate.”  Lavoisier

“One must maintain a sense of humour when entering this arena, where voices of the global cultural elite sometimes present themselves as brave and daring for taking potshots at the sidelined or powerless. An emeritus ′historian of the English language′, Hughes knows a lot about dictionaries of every stripe, whether orthodox or slang. He can provide the history of innumerable words, enabling readers to follow semantic changes, neologisms and other evolutions in the ′word field.′”  Times Higher Education

“Geoffrey Hughes has brought together with great panache the very many manifestations of political correctness, both absurd and vicious, and shown how they express a single collective mind-set. His book establishes beyond doubt that there is such a phenomenon, that it has become dominant in our culture, and that it represents a growing tendency to censor public debate and to prevent people from questioning orthodoxies which we all know to be false.”  Roger Scruton, American Enterprise Institute

“What a joy this book is! Hughes’ study traces, with unflagging zest, the modern history of PC. Sumptuous in data, in judgment precise, this is the latest and fullest of Hughes’ series on the social history of language.”  Walter Nash, Professor Emeritus, University of Nottingham

About the Author:

Geoffrey Hughes graduated from Oxford, was an Honorary Research Associate at Harvard, and is Emeritus Professor of the History of the English Language at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is the author of An Encyclopedia of Swearing (2006), A History of English Words (Wiley–Blackwell, 2000), Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English (1998), and Words in Time (1988). He is currently Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cape Town.

JOB’s Comment:

I have defended my occasional use of the term political correctness in this post, where I refer to Hughes’s book.

Michael Oakeshott: Experience and Its Modes

Cambridge University Press, 1986 (1933)     Amazon.com

Book Description:

This classic work is here published for the first time in paperback in recognition of its enduring importance. Its theme is Modality: human experience recognized as a variety of independent, self-consistent worlds of discourse, each the invention of human intelligence, but each also to be understood as abstract and an arrest in human experience. The theme is pursued in a consideration of the practical, the historical and the scientific modes of understanding.
Review:
“Mr Oakeshott’s thesis…is so original, so important and so profound that criticism must be silent until his meaning has been long pondered…the chapter on history is the most penetrating analysis of historical thought that has ever been written…the whole book shows Mr Oakeshott to possess philosophical gifts of a very high order, coupled with an admirable command of language; his writing is as clear as his thought is profound, and all students of philosophy should be grateful to him for his brilliant contribution to philosophical literature.”  R. G. Collingwood, The Cambridge Review
JOB’s Comment:
A central work in twentieth-century idealism. I will comment briefly on it, and show how I think Oakeshott’s positions must be modified in view of other idealist positions I defend (not least with regard to the “independence” of the modes of experience), in my series of posts entiteld ‘Idealism and the Renewal of Humanistic Philosophy’. Oakeshott was also a - probably the - leading twentieth-century British conservative philosopher, and I should say something on occasion about the relation between his idealism and his conservatism too. However, I find this early work to be his most important, and have problems with some of his own later revisions of his philosophical positions.

Tage Lindbom: Otidsenliga betraktelser

Norstedts, 1968

Baksida:

I sin 1962 utgivna bok Sancho Panzas väderkvarnar analyserade fil. dr Tage Lindbom nutidsmänniskans situation. Mot idéhistorisk bakgrund underkastade han där det moderna samhällslivet en närgången granskning utifrån helt andra utgångspunkter än de som är gängse i folkhemmet och angrep särskilt de politiska jämlikhetssträvanden som endast leder till nivellering. Många brännande samhällsfrågor kom emellertid där att blott beröras antydningsvis. Under de år som gått sedan dess har författaren i tidskriftsartiklar och radioföredrag tagit upp vissa ämnesområden till närmare granskning, och det är dessa som han här samlat i bokform.

Den fortgående centraliseringen och därmed hotet mot det medborgerliga lekmannastyret sätts under belysning liksom hotet mot den personliga mognadsprocessen. Skolreform och likriktning, jämlikhetsraseri och frihetsförlust är några andra av de ämnen som Tage Lindbom behandlar. Den röda tråd som går genom uppsatserna är författarens visshet om att frihet och trygghet i människornas liv icke står att vinna genom att förneka eller förinta varje fast ordning, varje bjudande norm.

Paul Klebnikov: Godfather of the Kremlin

The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism

Mariner Books, 2001 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000, with the subtitle ‘Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia’)       Amazon.com

Book Description:

From nuclear superpower to impoverished nation, post-communist Russia has become one of the most corrupt regimes in the world. Paul Klebnikov pieces together the previous decade in Russian history, showing that a major piece of “the decline of Russia’ puzzle lies in the meteoric business career of Boris Berezovsky. Transforming himself from a research scientist to Russia’s most successful dealmaker, Berezovsky managed to seize control of Russia’s largest auto manufacturer, largest TV network, national airline, and one of the world’s biggest oil companies. When Moscow’s gangster families battled one another in the Great Mob War of 1993-1994, Berezovsky was in the thick of it. He was badly burned by a car bomb and his driver was decapitated. A year later, Berezovsky emerged as the prime suspect in the assassination of the director of the TV network he acquired. Although plagued by scandal, he enjoyed President Yeltsin’s support, serving as the personal financial “advisor” to both Yeltsin and his family. In 1996, Berezovsky organized the financing of Yeltsin’s re-election campaign-a campaign marred by fraud, embezzlement, and attempted murder. Berezovsky became the President’s most trusted political advisor-playing a key role in forming governments and dismissing prime ministers. Based on hundreds of taped interviews with top businessmen and government officials, secret police reports, contractual documents, and surveillance tapes, Godfather of the Kremlin is both a gripping story and a unique historical document.
Amazon.com Review:
“Paul Klebnikov tells the incredible story of Boris Berezovsky, a one-time Russian car dealer who assembled a huge – and illicit – fortune after the collapse of Communism. ‘This individual had risen out of nowhere to become the richest businessman in Russia and one of the most powerful individuals in the country,’ writes Klebnikov, a respected reporter for Forbes. ‘This is a story of corruption so profound that many readers might have trouble believing it.’ Yet Godfather of the Kremlin is a careful work of journalism in which Klebnikov documents the business dealings of a man who once bragged to the Financial Times that he and six other men controlled half of the Russian economy and rigged Boris Yeltsin’s reelection in 1996. Berezovsky survived both an assassination attempt and a murder investigation, and paved the way to power for Vladimir Putin. He and the other crony capitalists of post-Soviet Russia like to rationalize their deeds, writes Klebnikov: ‘Whenever I asked Russia’s business magnates about the orgy of crime produced by the market reforms, they invariably excused it by pointing to the robber barons of American capitalism. Russia’s bandit capitalism was no different from American capitalism in the late nineteenth century, they argued.’ Yet nothing could be further from the truth: Carnegie, Rockefeller, and their peers transformed the United States into an economic superpower. Berezovsky, on the other hand, has ‘produced no benefit to Russia’s consumers, industries, or treasury.’ It’s not that he didn’t have an opportunity. To pick one example among many, he took over Aeroflot when it had a monopoly position in a booming market. But the company barely grew, and instead experienced myriad problems. Berezovsky controlled many businesses, but he was a lousy business manager; his only authentic success – as an auto dealer – depended on collusion. His real skill is shady dealmaking, especially with corrupt government officials. That’s the way to success in modern Russia, as this well-told but troubling book reveals.”  John J. Miller
Reviews:
“Well informed…A richly detailed account of the emergence of a new Russian oligarchy.”  The New York Times
“Graphically exposes the tragic corruption and cynicism of Russia’s political and economic leadership in the past decade.”  St Louis Post-Dispatch
“Fascinating, well-written narratives of how a corrupt, oligarchic capitalist system has evolved since Yeltsin and his team first launched economic reforms in 1992.”  Business Week
“[An] indispensable as well as riveting account of the rise of this cunning, rapacious, and ruthless figure.”  The Washington Monthly
About the Author:
Paul Klebnikov holds a Ph.D. in Russian History from the London School of Economics. He is a senior editor at Forbes and has reported on Russia since 1989. A fluent Russian speaker, he has won four press awards for his writing on Russian business.
JOB’s Addenda:
Berezovsky of course fell out with Putin. The author was murdered in 2004.

Yves-Marie Adeline: 1914

Une tragédie européenne

Ellipses, 2011     Amazon.fr

Présentation de l’éditeur:

En 1914, l’Europe gouverne le monde; un habitant sur quatre est un Européen ou de souche européenne. Mais cette civilisation est la proie de tensions idéologiques, culturelles et territoriales graves, et pour remédier à ces tensions, elle ne dispose que de valeurs qu’elle croit fortes mais qui se révéleront superficielles. Ce livre raconte le déclenchement de la Grande Guerre de 1914 comme une tragédie, au sens que lui donnaient les Grecs antiques: dès le commencement de l’histoire, toutes les conditions sont réunies pour que les événements tournent au pire. Il n’y a donc rien à faire pour l’éviter. D’autant qu’aux tensions habituelles va s’ajouter un engrenage technique imprévu qui emporte tous les acteurs vers la catastrophe. Après une présentation générale complète du théâtre du drame et des puissances d’alors, aussi bien mineures que majeures, ce récit raconte les événements depuis la fin juin à Sarajevo jusqu’au milieu du mois de novembre (quand le piège se referme tout à fait), mettant au jour des vérités ignorées, analysant les événements sans parti pris, offrant une vision panoramique jamais atteinte, et créant peu à peu un climat de suspense qui tient le lecteur en haleine. Plutôt qu’un requiem pour une Europe défunte, il est écrit dans un esprit équitable, réconciliateur, résolument européen.

Biographie de l’auteur:

Yves-Marie Adeline, docteur de l’université de Paris 1, auteur d’une vingtaine d’ouvrages philosophiques ou littéraires, a publié chez Ellipses une monumentale Histoire mondiale des idées politiques, une Pensée antique et une Pensé médiévale.

Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath

George H. Nash, ed.

Hoover Institution Press, 2011     Amazon.com

Book Description:

The culmination of an extraordinary literary project that Herbert Hoover launched during World War II, his “magnum opus” - at last published nearly fifty years after its completion – offers a revisionist reexamination of the war and its cold war aftermath and a sweeping indictment of the “lost statesmanship” of Franklin Roosevelt. Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath originated as a volume of Hoover’s memoirs, a book initially focused on his battle against President Roosevelt’s foreign policies before Pearl Harbor. As time went on, however, Hoover widened his scope to include Roosevelt’s foreign policies during the war, as well as the war’s consequences: the expansion of the Soviet empire at war’s end and the eruption of the cold war against the Communists.

On issue after issue, Hoover raises crucial questions that continue to be debated to this day. Did Franklin Roosevelt deceitfully maneuver the United States into an undeclared and unconstitutional naval war with Germany in 1941? Did he unnecessarily appease Joseph Stalin at the pivotal Tehran conference in 1943? Did communist agents and sympathizers in the White House, Department of State, and Department of the Treasury play a malign role in some of America’s wartime decisions? Hoover raises numerous arguments that challenge us to think again about our past. Whether or not one ultimately accepts his arguments, the exercise of confronting them will be worthwhile to all.

From the Back Cover:
Herbert Hoover’s magnum opus - part memoir, part diplomatic history - raises questions that continue to be debated to this day

A window on the mind and worldview of one of the twentieth century’s preeminent leaders, Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath represents the culmination of an extraordinary literary project that Herbert Hoover launched during World War II. At last published nearly fifty years after its completion – Hoover’s “magnum opus,” as it has been called, offers a revisionist reexamination of the war and its cold war aftermath and a sweeping indictment of the “lost statesmanship” of Franklin Roosevelt.

Freedom Betrayed originated as a volume of Hoover’s memoirs, a book initially focused on his battle against President Roosevelt’s foreign policies before Pearl Harbor. As time went on, however, Hoover widened his scope to include Roosevelt’s foreign policies during the war, as well as the war’s consequences: the expansion of the Soviet empire at war’s end and the eruption of the cold war against the Communists. On issue after issue, Hoover raises crucial questions that continue to be debated to this day – in the process offering many arguments that challenge us to see our past in a different light. Whether or not one ultimately accepts his arguments, the exercise of confronting them will be worthwhile to all.

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) was president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. An internationally acclaimed humanitarian, he was the author of more than thirty books and founder of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace.

From the Inside Flap:

Nearly seventy years ago, during World War II, Hoover began to scribble the first words of what was later to be called his “magnum opus.” He did so in the shadow of three great disappointments: his inability to win the Republican nomination in 1940; his failed crusade to keep the United States out of World War II; and his frustrated bid to become the Great Humanitarian in Europe for a second time. But after a career extraordinarily rich in achievement and honors, only one accomplishment eluded him at the end: the publication of this book, Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath. After Hoover’s death, his heirs decided not to publish his magnum opus. Since then, for nearly half a century, it has remained in storage, unavailable for examination – until now.

In this book, perhaps the most ambitious and systematic work of World War II revisionism ever attempted, Hoover offers his frank evaluation of Roosevelt’s foreign policies before Pearl Harbor and policies during the war, as well as an examination of the war’s consequences, including the expansion of the Soviet empire at war’s end and the eruption of the cold war against the Communists. Throughout the work, Hoover raises critical questions, many of which are still under scrutiny today: Did Franklin Roosevelt deceitfully maneuver the United States into an undeclared and unconstitutional naval war with Germany in 1941? Did he unnecessarily appease Joseph Stalin at the pivotal Tehran conference in 1943? Was Roosevelt’s wartime policy of “unconditional surrender” a blunder? Did communist agents and sympathizers in the White House, Department of State, and Department of the Treasury play a malign role in some of America’s wartime decisions?

On these and other controversies Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath takes it stand. Hoover’s work reflects the foreign policy thinking not just of himself but of many American opinion makers during his lifetime and beyond. As such, it is a document with which we should be acquainted today. The intrinsic interest of Hoover’s book remains strong, in part because it insistently raises issues – in some cases moral issues – with whose consequences we live even now.

Reviews:

“What an amazing historical find! Historian George H. Nash, the dean of Herbert Hoover studies, has brought forth a very rare manuscript in Freedom Betrayed. Here is Hoover unplugged, delineating on everything from the ‘lost statesmanship’ of FDR to the Korean War. A truly invaluable work of presidential history. Highly recommended.”  Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University and editor of The Reagan Diaries

“Finally, after waiting for close to half a century, we now have Hoover’s massive and impassioned account of American foreign policy from 1933 to the early 1950s. Thanks to the efforts of George H. Nash, there exists an unparalleled picture of Hoover’s world view, one long shared by many conservatives. Nash’s thorough and perceptive introduction shows why he remains America’s leading Hoover scholar.” Justus D. Doenecke, author of Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939–1941

“A forcefully argued and well documented alternative to, and critique of, the conventional liberal historical narrative of America’s road to war and its war aims.  Even readers comfortable with the established account will find themselves thinking that on some points the accepted history should be reconsidered and perhaps revised.”  John Earl Haynes, author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America

Freedom Betrayed offers vivid proof of William Faulkner’s famous dictum that “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” For those who might think that history has settled the mantle of consensus around the events of the World War II era, Hoover’s iconoclastic narrative will come as an unsettling reminder that much controversy remains. By turns quirky and astute, in prose that is often acerbic and unfailingly provocative, Hoover opens some old wounds and inflicts a few new ones of his own, while assembling a passionate case for the tragic errors of Franklin Roosevelt’s diplomacy. Not all readers will be convinced, but Freedom Betrayed is must-read for anyone interested in the most consequential upheaval of the twentieth century.”  David M. Kennedy, professor of history emeritus at Stanford University and the author of Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945

“Herbert Hoover’s Freedom Betrayed is a bracing work of historical revisionism that takes aim at U.S. foreign policy under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Part memoir and part diplomatic history, Hoover’s magnum opus seeks to expose the “lost statesmanship” that, in Hoover’s eyes, needlessly drew the United States into the Second World War and, in the aftermath, facilitated the rise to global power of its ideological rival, the Soviet Union.  Freedom Betrayed, as George Nash asserts in his astute and authoritative introduction, resembles a prosecutor’s brief against Roosevelt - and against Winston Churchill as well - at the bar of history.  Thanks to Nash’s impressive feat of reconstruction, Hoover’s “thunderbolt” now strikes - nearly a half-century after it was readied.  The former president’s interpretation of the conduct and consequences of the Second World War will not entirely persuade most readers.  Yet, as Nash testifies, like the best kind of revisionist history, Freedom Betrayed “challenges us to think afresh about our past.” Bertrand M. Patenaude, author of A Wealth of Ideas: Revelations from the Hoover Institution Archives

“Nearly fifty years after his death, Herbert Hoover returns as the ultimate revisionist historian, prosecuting his heavily documented indictment of US foreign policy before, during, and after the Second World War. Brilliantly edited by George Nash, Freedom Betrayed is as passionate as it is provocative. Many no doubt will dispute Hoover’s strategic vision. But few can dispute the historical significance of this unique volume, published even as Americans of the twenty-first century debate their moral and military obligations.”  Richard Norton Smith, presidential historian and author, former director of several presidential libraries, and current scholar-in-residence at George Mason University

About the Editor:

George H. Nash is a historian, lecturer, and authority on the life of Herbert Hoover. His publications include three volumes of a definitive, scholarly biography of Hoover and the monograph Herbert Hoover and Stanford University, as well as numerous articles in scholarly and popular journals. A specialist in twentieth-century political and intellectual history, Nash is also the author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945 and Reappraising the Right: The Past and Future of American Conservatism. A graduate of Amherst College and holder of a PhD in history from Harvard University, he received the Richard M. Weaver Prize for Scholarly Letters in 2008. He lives in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Paul Brunton: The Secret Path

A Technique of Spiritual Self-Discovery for the Modern World

Rider, 1934

Book Description (from one of the later Rider editions):

“The treasure-trove of the real self is within us, but it can be lifted only when the mind is still.”

Paul Brunton was one of the 20th century’s greatest explorers of, and writers on, the spiritual traditions of the East. He travelled widely throughout India (in particular) and met gurus and teachers who enriched his life immeasurably. By passing on to us the wisdom he learned directly from these holy men, he is widely credited as having introduced yoga and meditation to the West.

In The Secret Path, Paul Brunton explains in simple language how to meditate, and how this will transform your everyday existence. He also describes the remarkable experiences and understandings he himself gained from meditation and how, by making this ancient practice a part of your life, you will be able to experience a valuable kind of freedom and a deep inner peace.

The classic work - which has been reprinted many times - is a very special pointer towards your inner world, and one written by a most unusual and adventurous man of insight.

Praise for Paul Brunton (from the same edition):

“Paul Brunton was surely one of the finest mystical flowers to grow on the wasteland of our secular civilization. What he has to say is important to us all.”  George Feuerstein

“…a great gift to us Westerners who are seeking the spiritual.”  Charles T. Tart

“A person of rare intelligence…thoroughly alive, and whole in the most significant, ‘holy’ sense of the word.”  Yoga Journal

“Paul Brunton was a great original and got to a place of personal evolution that illumines the pathways of  a future humanity.”  Jean Houston

“A simple, straightforward guide to how philosophical insights of the East and West can help create beauty, joy, and meaning in our lives…His keynote is balance, and his uplifting message encompasses all phases of human experience.”  East West Journal

“…sensible and compelling. His work can stand beside that of such East-West bridges as Merton, Huxley, Suzuki, Watts and Radhakrishnan. It should appeal to anyone concerned personally and academically with issues of spirituality.”  Choice

“Any serious man or woman in search of spiritual ideas will find a surprising challenge and an authentic source of inspiration and intellectual nourishment in the writings of Paul Brunton.”  Jacob Needleman

About the Author (from the same edition):

Born in London in 1898, Paul Brunton published thirteen books between 1935 [according to my edition of The Secret Path, the first edition was published in 1934 - JOB] and 1952. He is generally recognized as having introduced yoga and meditation to the West, and for presenting their philosophical background in non-technical language. He died in Switzerland (where he lived for 20 years) in 1981.

Contents:

I     With a Wise Man of the East

II    Man - Science’s Greatest Riddle!

III   The Mysterious Overself

IV    The Practice of Mental Quiet

V     A Technique of Self-Analysis

VI    A Breathing Exercise to Control Thoughts

VII   The Awakening to Intuition

VIII  The Awakening to the Overself

IX    The Way of Divine Beauty

X     The Gospel of Inspired Action

XI    Spiritual Help in Material Affairs

XII   The Epilogue

JOB’s Comment:

It is difficult to choose modern books on spirituality to recommend. No one expresses only my own views. But most of course contain some of them. Brunton’s were among the first I read, back in the 1970s. See also my earlier Brunton posts, in the Spirituality category.

David Kupelian: The Marketing of Evil

How Radicals, Elitists and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom

WND Books, 2005     Amazon.com

Book Description:

Americans have come to tolerate, embrace and even champion many things that would have horrified their parents’ generation – from easy divorce and unrestricted abortion-on-demand to extreme body piercing and teaching homosexuality to grade-schoolers. Does that mean today’s Americans are inherently more morally confused and depraved than previous generations? Of course not, says veteran journalist David Kupelian. But they have fallen victim to some of the most stunningly brilliant and compelling marketing campaigns in modern history. The Marketing of Evil reveals how much of what Americans once almost universally abhorred has been packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped and sold to them as though it had great value. Highly skilled marketers, playing on our deeply felt national values of fairness, generosity and tolerance, have persuaded us to embrace as enlightened and noble that which all previous generations since America’s founding regarded as grossly self-destructive – in a word, evil.
About the Author:
David Kupelian is the managing editor of WorldNetDaily.com, the world’s largest independent news Web site. He is also a widely read online columnist and the driving force behind the acclaimed monthly news magazine Whistleblower. Growing up in Washington, DC, Kupelian was heavily exposed to the issues of the day by his father, one of the nation’s top missile defense scientists. After spending years immersed in the fine arts as a noted young violinist, Kupelian’s fascination with the news world led him in a different direction. After serving as managing editor of the national news analysis magazine New Dimensions (where he met WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah), Kupelian became the co-founder and creative director of TriMedia Communications, an advertising-marketing firm established to help traditional values-oriented organizations present their messages effectively. He lives in the Northwest with his wife and children.
JOB’s Comment:
The publisher now advertises this as a modern classic, in its 11th printing; and there are currently 268 customer reviews on Amazon.com. As with many analyses of American culture and society of this kind, much of it is just as relevant in a Europe that was long systematically Americanized. Not quite all. There are, naturally, some elements in his vision of the America he defends against the marketed evil that are foreign to most Europeans. I also find the unqualified, derogatory use of “elitists” in the subtitle problematic. The author should have spoken not just of “pseudo-experts” but also of “pseudo-elitists”. There are true and false elites, good and evil. But on the whole, this is probably one of the most important recent critical works in this genre, for Americans and Europeans alike, and indeed for much of the rest of the world.

Stig Strömholm: Miniatyrporträtt

Mest romantiker

Norstedts, 1981

Baksida:

När Stig Strömholm på våren 1978 gav ut sin första volym med Miniatyrporträtt hälsades den som en stor händelse i det svenska kulturlivet där denna art av lärda essayer hade blivit mycket sällsynt. Men boken var någonting mer än lärd underhållning. “Stig Strömholm är inte bara kvick, underhållande och lärd”, skrev Thure Stenström i Svenska Dagbladet. “Han är i sitt umgänge med vissa viktiga värden också djupt allvarlig.”

Som “en bildad vägledning genom en personlig och rikhaltig boksamling” karakteriserade Madeleine Gustafsson Stig Strömholms första Miniatyrporträtt. Med den nya volymen utökas vägledningen på en serie väsentliga punkter. Bland de viktiga författaröden som Strömholm denna gång tar sig an kan nämnas: Keats, Byron, Chateaubriand och Charles Lamb.

Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider: Die Rechtswidrigkeit der Euro-Rettungspolitik

Ein Staatsstreich der politischen Klasse

Kopp, 2011     Amazon.de

Kurzbeschreibung:

Milliardenschweres Unrecht! Wie die fatale Euro-Rettungspolitik gegen Verträge und Verfassung verstößt.

Die Europäische Währungsunion ist - zumindest in ihrer derzeitigen Form - gescheitert. Doch Politiker und Eurokraten schnüren weiterhin gigantische Rettungspakete, um das Siechtum des Euro zu verlängern. Dafür werden die Steuerzahler der Geberländer über Jahre hinaus mit Hunderten von Milliarden belastet. Politiker nennen die Rettung “alternativlos”. Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider nennt sie hingegen “Unrecht”. Der Autor des vorliegenden Buches gehört zu den fünf Professoren, die vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht gegen die Griechenlandhilfe und den sogenannten Euro-Rettungsschirm klagten. Sie eint die Überzeugung: Die Fatalität des Euro-Abenteuers ließe sich rasch beenden, wenn einfach bestehendes Recht verwirklicht würde. Dann wäre Europa wirtschaftlich und politisch zu retten.

Die logische Gliederung des Buches erlaubt es dem Leser, sich abseits der Aufgeregtheiten tagespolitischer Diskussionen ein eigenes Bild von den Risiken der vermeintlichen Euro-Rettung zu machen. Im ersten Teil legt Schachtschneider präzise den Sachverhalt dar und dokumentiert die beschlossenen Hilfsprogramme. Breiten Raum nimmt dabei der umstrittene Europäische Stabilitätsmechanismus (ESM) ein, der im Jahr 2013 an die Stelle der Europäischen Finanzstabilisierungs-Faszilität (EFSF) treten soll. Für die EFSF und den ESM gebe es weder eine Vertrags- oder Verfassungsgrundlage noch eine ökonomische Begründung, kritisiert Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider.

Die Transfer-Milliarden zur angeblichen Euro-Rettung drohten, die bereits heute zu hohen Staatsschulden der Geberländer weiter eskalieren zu lassen. Die deutsche Kreditwürdigkeit werde dadurch ein leichtes Opfer unverantwortlicher Politiker, schreibt der Autor.

Im zweiten Teil des Buches listet Schachtschneider minutiös die Vertrags- und Verfassungsverletzungen im Zusammenhang mit den Griechenlandhilfen und den Euro-Rettungsprogrammen auf. Im dritten Teil stellt er den Rechtsschutz der Deutschen dar.

Wohin das Unrecht der Euro-Rettungspolitik führt, daran lässt der Autor keinen Zweifel: Der Versuch, die Lebensverhältnisse in ganz Europa mit Milliardentransfers und ohne Rücksicht auf die Leistungen der einzelnen Menschen und Völker zu vereinheitlichen, werde zu einem Europa der “sanften Despotie” und zu einer “Diktatur der Bürokraten” führen.

Ein Buch, das Hintergründe transparent macht und eine Fülle von überzeugenden und belastbaren Argumenten gegen die Euro-Rettungspolitik liefert. Nüchterne Fakten, die in dieser aufbereiteten Form bisher nirgends zu lesen waren.

Über den Autor:

Wikipedia

Ralph de Toledano: Cry Havoc

The Great American Bring-down and How it Happened

Anthem Books, 2006     Amazon.com

Back Cover:

In the last five decades was has been declared on America and its institutions, and we are losing it. Rape and violent crime have soared. Religion and morality have been under unremitting attack. Education, once among the world’s finest, has been “dumbed down”, threatening the country’s ability to compete against an increasingly technological world. Marriage and the family, the tie that binds a viable society, are under major assault. Drug addiction, sexual license, and teenage violence have become epidemic.

How did this happen? In Cry Havoc, journalist and social historian Ralph de Toledano documents in chilling detail how a cabal of intellecutals, educrats, and politicians, manipulated by a well-financed, world-wide conspiracy, organized the strategy to undermine the American system – and how this has been accomplished. His sources have been Presidents, government and academic leaders, top-level intelligence operatives, and the wreckers themselves – in a never-told-before and in-depth account.

Cry Havoc is must-reading. The writing is at Ralph de Toledano’s best, better than which no one gets. It focuses on the historical and the contemporary, casting a sharp light on the players and the events of our deeply troubled times. The emphasis is on education, ideology, and communications, and the onslaught on American institutions, principles, and way of life is both timely and significant. Toledano has the crack journalist’s eye for sidebar information, which enlivens the reading throughout the book.”  William F. Buckley, Jr.

“Cry Havoc is not only well written but absolutely right. As one of Ralph de Toledano’s great admirers, I read this book with great enthusiasm.”  Prof. Herbert London, pres. Hudson Institute

Cry Havoc is magnificently composed and is the product of enormous research. Although I have seen much on the subject, I learned a great deal from the book. Toledano uncovers continuities between the Frankfurt School’s conspiracy and the rampant cultural terrorism in America.”  Prof. Paul Gottfried

About the Author:

Wikipedia

Éric Zemmour: Le premier sexe

Denoël, 2006     Amazon.fr

Présentation de l’éditeur:

A quoi ressemble l’homme idéal? Il s’épile. Il achète des produits de beauté. Il porte des bijoux. Il rêve d’amour éternel. Il croit dur comme fer aux valeurs féminines. Il préfère le compromis à l’autorité et privilégie le dialogue, la tolérance, plutôt que la lutte. L’homme idéal est une vraie femme. Il a rendu les armes. Le poids entre ses jambes est devenu trop lourd. Certaines féministes se sont emparées de cette vacance du pouvoir, persuadées que l’égalité c’est la similitude. Aujourd’hui, les jeunes générations ont intégré cette confusion. Les fils ne rêvent que de couple et de féminisation longue durée. Ils ne veulent surtout pas être ce qu’ils sont: des garçons. Tout ce qui relève du masculin est un gros mot. Une tare. Mais la révolte gronde. Les hommes ont une identité à reprendre. Une nouvelle place à conquérir. Pour ne plus jamais dire à leurs enfants: “Tu seras une femme, mon fils.”

2e édition:

Après des décennies de féminisme forcené, que reste-t-il de l’homme? Il n’a pas disparu, non, il s’est métamorphosé. En femme. L’homme d’aujourd’hui s’épile et pouponne. Il est fidèle, sentimental, consommateur. Oublié, le macho viril, honni le Casanova à la mâle séduction, le “premier sexe” n’existe plus que de nom. Comment cela est-il arrivé? Dépoussiérant les vieux débats, pointant du doigt les faiblesses de notre société, Éric Zemmour démontre que les hommes ont une place à reconquérir.

Biographie de l’auteur:

Né en 1958, diplômé de Sciences Po, Eric Zemmour est journaliste politique et grand reporter au Figaro. Il est l’auteur de nombreux ouvrages à succès dont Petit Frère, son dernier roman, qui a déclenché une vive polémique.

F. William Engdahl: Full Spectrum Dominance

Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order

edition.engdahl, 2009     Amazon.com

Book Description:

For the faction that controls the Pentagon, the military industry and the oil industry, the Cold War never ended. It went on ‘below the radar’ creating a global network of bases and conflicts to advance their long-term goal of Full Spectrum Dominance, the total control of the planet: land, sea, air, space, outer space and cyberspace. Their methods included control of propaganda, use of NGOs for regime change, Color Revolutions to advance NATO east, and a vast array of psychological and economic warfare techniques, a Revolution in Military Affairs as they termed it. The events of September 11, 2001 would allow an American President to declare a war on an enemy who was everywhere and nowhere, who justified a Patriot Act that destroyed that very freedom in the name of the new worldwide War on Terror. This book gives a disturbing look at that strategy of Full Spectrum Dominance.
About the Author:
F. William Engdahl is author of the international best-selling book on oil and geopolitics, A Century of War: Anglo-American Politics and the New World Order. He is a widely discussed analyst of current political and economic developments whose articles have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines and well-known international websites. His book, Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda Behind Genetic Manipulation, deals with agribusiness and the attempt to control world food supply and thereby populations. He may be reached at his website, www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net.
JOB’s Comment:
Some of Engdahl’s theories seem too speculative, in some cases he appears to be wrong. But there is clearly much essential truth in the overall picture he presents. For the concept of the “New World Order”, see my post (in Swedish) ‘Begreppet den nya världsordningen’.

Samuel Francis: Beautiful Losers

Essays on the Failure of American Conservatism

University of Missouri Press, 1993     Amazon.com

From the Back Cover:

“Why is the mindset of the Right changing? Because many have come to conclude that the system doesn’t work. Because many have come to accept the scalding indictment of Samuel Francis’ new book…’Nearly sixty years after the New Deal’, writes Mr Francis, ‘the American Right is no closer to challenging its fundamental premises and machinery than when Old Rubberlegs first started priming the pump and scheming to take the United States into a war that turned out to be a social and political revolution. American conservatism…is a failure.’”  Patrick Buchanan

“This collection of provocative articles and review essays by a Washington Times columnist deals variously with the quarrel between the Old Right and the Neoconservatives, the emergence in the last decade of multiculturalism and political correctness, as well as the shifting of traditional moral, sexual, and social norms.”  Publishers Weekly

“In Beautiful Losers Samuel Francis stakes his claim as one of the most important conservative thinkers of our time. His work complements the efforts of an earlier generation of American conservatives who focused on defining and celebrating the ‘social and cultural substratum’ on which our freedom rests. His unique and valuable contribution has been to define the forces that threaten that freedom, while offering a framework within which we can fight to preserve it.”  Chronicles

Andreas Mölzer & Bernhard Tomaschitz: Europa – Traum und Albtraum

Vom Heiligen Reich zur Europäischen Union – Ein Kontinent geeint in seinen Gegensätzen 

Zur Zeit, 2007     Amazon.de

“50 Jahre nach der Unterzeichnung der Römischen Verträge am 25. März 1957 legen der Europaabgeordnete Andreas Mölzer und sein Mitarbeiter Bernhard Tomaschitz eine grundlegende Betrachtung der Europäischen Union vor. Am Anfang des Buches analysiert Mölzer die “real existierende Europäischen Union” mit all ihren Fehlentwicklungen.

Im anschließenden, historischen Teil beleuchtet Tomaschitz, wie sehr die Idee, Europa zu vereinen, sei es auf kriegerischem, sei es auf friedlichem Wege, die Herrscher in ihren Bann zog. Im dritten Teil geht Tomaschitz näher auf die Fehlentwicklungen in der EU sowie auf die Gefahren für Europa, wie etwa den Bevölkerungsschwund ein und zeigt Auswege aus der Krise auf.

Abgerundet wird dieses Buch mit Essays von Andreas Mölzer über die kulturhistorische Substanz Europas.”

Max Scheler: Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik

Neuer Versuch der Grundlegung eines ethischen Personalismus

Gesammelte Werke, 2

Bouvier, 2008 (1913-16)     Amazon.de

English translation:

Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values: A New Attempt Toward the Foundation of an Ethical Personalism

Northwestern University Press, 1973     Amazon.com

JOB’s Comment:

It could, I think, perhaps by now be possible, in retrospect, to understand this work to have been the most important of all in twentieth-century European personalism. There is much to say about it, and may have to add some of it here later, not least since the publishers say nothing by way of promotion of these editions that can be quoted in the way I normally do.

Tage Lindbom: Sancho Panzas väderkvarnar

Norstedts, 1962

Baksida:

Fil. dr Tage Lindbom är chef för Arbetarrörelsens arkiv. Från denna utsiktspunkt har han som få andra kunnat följa de politiska ideologiernas framväxt och förverkligande – sådant det nu blivit. Mot idéhistorisk bakgrund analyserar han här nutidsmänniskans situation: hans framställning har både bredd och djup – och en betydande skärpa. Han konstaterar att liberalismens oförmåga att hävda det andligas primat lett till intressemänniskans seger, till en samhällsutveckling där liberalismens inre moraliska frihetskrav är tillspillogivna värden. Med frenesi angriper han de nivellerande jämlikhetssträvandena, de som leder ut i de stora vegetativa träsken:

“Aldrig har väl i mänsklighetens historia avstånden mellan de proklamerade avsikterna och de praktiska strävandenas verkliga riktningar och resultat varit större. Aldrig har väl storhet och ömklighet levat i en sådan fantastisk symbios som i den moderna socialistiska arbetarrörelsen.”

Huvudtemat i hans skrift är att förkunnelsen om människan som tillvarons härskare är falsk. Liksom Sancho Panza får uppleva tomheten i den tillvaro, där man fått allt man önskat sig, står nutidsmänniskan utan fotfäste. Först när människan underkastar sig det gudomliga herraväldet kan  hon återfå sitt värde och sin värdighet.

Elliot S. Valenstein: Blaming the Brain

The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health

Free Press, 2002     Amazon.com

Book Description:

Over the last thirty years, there has been a radical shift in thinking about the causes of mental illness. The psychiatric establishment and the health care industry have shifted 180 degrees from blaming mother to blaming the brain as the source of mental disorders. Whereas experience and environment were long viewed as the root causes of most emotional problems, now it is common to believe that mental disturbances - from depression and anxiety to schizophrenia - are determined by brain chemistry. And many people have come to accept the broader notion that their very personalities are determined by brain chemistry as well.In his award-winning, meticulously researched, and elegantly written history of psychosurgery, Great and Desperate Cures, Elliot Valenstein exposed the great injury to thousands of lives that resulted when the medical establishment embraced an unproven approach to mental illness. Now, in Blaming the Brainhe exposes the many weaknesses inherent in the scientific arguments supporting the widely accepted theory that biochemical imbalances are the main cause of mental illness. Valenstein reveals how, beginning in the 1950s, the accidental discovery of a few mood-altering drugs stimulated an enormous interest in psychopharmacology, resulting in staggering growth and profits for the pharmaceutical industry. He lays bare the commercial motives of drug companies and their huge stake in expanding their markets. Prozac, Thorazine, and Zoloft are just a few of the psychoactive drugs that have dramatically changed practice in the mental health profession. Physicians today prescribe them in huge numbers even though, as several major studies reveal, their effectiveness and safety have been greatly exaggerated. Part history, part science, part exposé, and part solution, Blaming the Brainsounds a clarion call throughout our culture of quick-fix pharmacology and our increasing reliance on drugs as a cure-all for mental illness. This brilliant, provocative book will force patients, practitioners, and prescribers alike to rethink the causes of mental illness and the methods by which we treat it.
Back Cover:
“Once again, Elliot Valenstein challenges contemporary dogma - this time by combining a lively, informative history of the growth of psychopharmacology with a critique of its deepest assumptions. The controversy this book will surely provoke reflects the significance of its arguments. Those who are friendly to or suspicious of the claim that all mental illness is primarily a biochemical disorder will profit from this bold, clearly written book.”  Jerome Kagan, Ph.D., author of Nature of the Child and Professor of Psychology, Harvard University

“Elliot Valenstein has provided us with a fast-moving and eye-opening account of why the brain story is but a part of the puzzle of mental illness. He has to be right.”  Michael S. Gazziniga, Ph.D. Director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College

“This book does something long overdue: It puts psychotropic drugs into historical and scientific perspective without being too technical. It should help prescribers and patients work together and use these drugs more carefully.”  Andrew Herxheimer Emeritus Fellow, United Kingdom Cochrane Centre

“Valenstein swings a heavy bat at the conceptual basis of biological psychiatry. The book will surely shock psychiatric patients and will lead to soul searching amongst psychiatrists. Biological psychiatry will come out of the controversy that’s sure to emerge either badly wounded or much stronger, but will never be the same.”  Joseph LeDoux, Ph.D., author of The Emotional Brain

“Valenstein shows how the current theories of depression and schizophrenia arose, makes the case for them seem more persuasive than their original proponents did, but then in devastating fashion shows where their problems lie. More importantly, he goes on to show why we continue to hold such beliefs that do no good for patients, that are no longer believed by neuroscientists and that hamper the development of more effective treatments…”  David Healy, M.D., Ph.D., author of The Antidepressant Era

About the Author:

Elliot S. Valenstein is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Michigan.

JOB’s Comment:

See my comment on Joanna Moncrieff’s The Myth of the Chemical Cure.

George Walden: New Elites

A Career in the Masses

Allen Lane, 2001     Amazon.co.uk (2006 ed.)

Book Description (2006 ed.):

When New Elites was first published five years ago, it was suggested the book was before its time. In five years, however, reality has turned out to be a caricature of Walden’s forecast. Had he predicted that an Etonian of three years parliamentary standing whose experience of life had been predominantly as a PR executive for a TV company notorious for its low standards would be elected leader of the Conservative party, Walden would have been denounced as a cynic.

Far from being classless as the recent election and fan-treatment of David Cameron shows, or a functioning meritocracy, Britain is further and further dominated by a small group of professional caste. Their aim is not to raise popular aspirations but to exploit mass taste, mass gullibility, or mass spending power for their own advantage. As Walden predicted in New Elites David Cameron’s populism is in fact “a perversion of democracy, the sickness of the age.”

Reviews:

“You have to read it.”  Andrew Marr, The Telegraph

“Rousing, funny.”  John Tulsa, The Independent

About the Author (from Wikipedia):

George Gordon Harvey Walden (born 15 September 1939) is a British journalist and a former Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) who served as the Minister for Higher Education from 1985-87.

Walden worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1962–83, where he specialised in the Soviet Union, China and France. He was elected as the MP for Buckingham at the 1983 general election. He served as Minister for Higher Education between 1985 and 1987. He retired from parliament at the 1997 general election. His memoirs, entitled Lucky George, were published in 1999. His other books include Time to Emigrate, New Elites: A Career in the Masses, Who Is a Dandy and God Won’t Save America.

Walden was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London, and at Jesus College, Cambridge. He also spent periods in Moscow, Hong Kong and Harvard universities, as well as the École nationale d’administration in Paris.

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