TOTAL WAR AND THE HUMAN MIND

Read this in connection with Vlekke's EVOLUTION OF THE DUTCH NATION reviewed on P. 269, and you get a continuous picture of a hardy race, at their best in adversity. For Major Meerloo uses his two years in Occupied Holland as a springboard for his analysis of the effect of total war on the minds of men. This first part of his book -- showing Holland under occupation -- is the most interesting; the balance, and probably so him the vital part, surveys the pattern of Hitler's psychological weapons, -- fear, rumor, slander, bypnosis, propaganda -- shows the effect on mass thinking -- and outlines the psychological preparation for the next war, so that we may recognize the symptoms as they appear. He urges three steps as fundamental to reconstruction, -- internationalization of war strategy, international statement of the rights of man, and an active program of democratic education.