An able analysis by Breitman (History/American Univ.) of Heinrich Himmler and the Holocaust he helped to spawn. By examining the roles played by major Nazis other than Hitler-Goering, Frank, Goebbels, and particularly Himmler- Breitman seeks to shed light on some of the major points of contention among historians: Was the Final Solution always in contemplation, or was it improvised? Was it planned by Hitler, or did he merely set the engine in motion? Breitman concludes that the idea of executing Jews was an essential element of Nazi strategy from the beginning, but a comprehensive plan-The Final Solution-came only later. The evolution of the Holocaust had more to do, Breitman believes, with the terrain the Germans were fighting for (and the peoples that land contained), and the subsequent scope and methods of killing, than with any change from a moderate to radical goal. The author finds Himmler a much more formidable bureaucratic infighter than has previously been thought, easily outmaneuvering Goering and Frank and using his close relationship with Hitler-whom he consulted on matters large and small-and his ability at concealment and deception to attain his objectives. It is particularly striking to note the extreme care with which Himmler concealed what was actually happening in the Holocaust. This, Breitman shows, reflected Himmler's own attitude, which combined an accurate assessment of the political damage knowledge of the Holocaust would cause with an utterly unrelenting pursuit of his final objective. Chilling, expert history, which fails only in Breitman's apparent-and understandable-difficulties in trying to comprehend human beings capable of a Holocaust.
Pub Date: May 9, 1991
ISBN: 0-394-56841-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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