Eric P. Wijnants and the problem of pseudo-scholar...

Back in April 2005 I wrote a blog entry titled “How Not to Write Occult History” about a website I came across the was full of information, but free of footnotes. As a historian, I commented that the site was useless, because without citations it was just a bunch of opinions that could not be verified. The whole thing had a suspicious feeling to it, which I summarized as: The irony is immense. For someone who purports to...

Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First Wo...

Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War
By Annika Mombauer
Reviewed by Daniel Hindes

Explanations for the start of the First World War fall primarily into three categories. Fault is assigned either to the Germans, the English, or to everybody. The heart of the case against the Germans is that they clearly wanted a war and conducted their diplomacy accordingly. The case against England is built around evidence that the British Empire intentionally provoked Germany. And the case for blaming all sides incorporates the above facts and more. Frequently the view you find correct depends on national background, with the Allies blaming Germany exclusively, which is easy enough to do. Germans frequently point out the central role England played, especially in not de-escalating. And sober heads everywhere can see how it is possible that both views contain elements of the truth.

Star in the East: Krishnamurti, the Invention of a...

Star in the East: Krishnamurti, the Invention of a Messiah By Roland Vernon Reviewed by Daniel Hindes I got this book off half.com for a dollar (plus shipping). I got it because I am generally interested in Krishnamurti and the early history of the Theosophical Society through my interest in Rudolf Steiner. Steiner got his start as the General Secretary of the German branch of the Theosophical Society, before he and his...

More thoughts on Holocaust Denial

Question everything… but then listen to the answers. Recently I’ve come across a few vague Holocaust denials. Rather than explicitly state that the Holocaust did not happen, they simply "raise questions" about the "accepted versions" about what happened. When outrage ensues, they do the intellectual equivalent of shrugging innocently and say, "What’s wrong with asking...

On Willy Lochmann and Bondarev

Below is something I wrote to the Anthroposophy email list over at Yahoo Groups. It is in response to a lengthy german message from Willy Lochmann to Robert Mason, that Robert posted there. The original post was in German, so I won’t reproduce it here. I’ll try to make my comments comprehensible without reference to the original, since all but a few German speakers won’t know what it was about anyway. So...

Der Andere Rudolf Steiner

Der Andere Rudolf Steiner: Augenzeugenberichte, Inteviews, Karikaturen.
[The Other Rudolf Steiner: Eyewitness Reports, Interviews, Caricatures]
By Various Authors, Edited by Wolfgang G. Vögele
Reviewed by Daniel Hindes

Published April, 2005, and available in German only.

Wolfgang G. Vögele of the Rudolf Steiner Archives in Dornach has assembled a book of 67 eyewitness accounts, 8 interviews and 12 other contemporary references to Rudolf Steiner. They have been edited and arranged in approximate chronological order. The longest is 8 pages, the average about 3. Together they create a mosaic impression, vivid and rather incomplete. Vögele has added

Surprise, Security, and the American Experience

Surprise, Security, and the American Experience By John Lewis Gaddis Reviewed by Daniel Hindes This short and excellent book provides a 200 year overview of the history of national security policy in the United States, in context of the events of September 11, 2001. Gaddis examines how the United States has reacted to security threats in the past, and whether the current reaction is different from past reactions. The first...

Rudolf Steiner and the Great War

Journalist Robert Fisk was interviewed in The Progressive recently (June 2005) about Iraq . One paragraph in particular caught my attention. "My father was a soldier in the First World War. When he died at the age of 93 in 1992, I inherited his campaign medal, on the back of which was written "The great war for civilization." In the 17 months that followed the Great War, the victorious powers created the...

Rudolf Steiner and the Great War

Journalist Robert Fisk was interviewed in The Progressive recently (June 2005) about Iraq . One paragraph in particular caught my attention. "My father was a soldier in the First World War. When he died at the age of 93 in 1992, I inherited his campaign medal, on the back of which was written "The great war for civilization." In the 17 months that followed the Great War, the victorious powers created the...

Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib

Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib By Seymour M. Hersh Review by Daniel Hindes This is a very interesting book. Hersh writes to catch your attention, and to raise your sense of indignation. And quite often he succeeds. Using an amazing array of mostly unnamed an anonymous government sources from all levels, he brings to light all the criticisms of the US Government that you don’t usually read in the...

A World to Gain: The Battle for Global Domination ...

A World to Gain: The Battle for Global Domination and Why America Entered WWII By Thomas Toughill Review by Daniel Hindes I’m not sure exactly why this book caught my attention. I’ve read a lot of books on World War Two. Most go into great detail in some area or other. They touch on the bigger questions, but few have done what this one does, and that is to focus relentlessly on only the big – the really big – questions. How...

Ada: A Life and a Legacy

Ada: A Life and a Legacy By Dorothy Stein Reviewed by Daniel Hindes Ada Augusta Lovelace was an unusual woman. This much everyone can agree on. How unusual is an interesting question. One person, a professor of math at a local college, upon hearing that I was researching Charles Babbage for a course on the History of Technology, said something to the effect of, “You have to look up Ada Lovelace! You know, she really...