The ominous parallels

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Uwe Döhn

**Die verborgene Utopie** ist ein theoretisches Buch, das trotzdem unmittelbar verständlich ist. Es als Aufschrei der Empörung und Anleitung für Aussteiger zu verstehen, gelingt mit wenig Mühe. Flucht und Verweigerung, Wiedergeburt und Freiheit, Natur und Glück sind die bewegten und bewegenden Themen, die da ausgebreitet werden. Provozierend wie die Wahrheit und komplex wie das Leben wird es zwar manchen Etablierten schockieren, den Driftern und Suchern aber aus der Seele sprechen. Wem aufgegangen ist, daß es so wie bisher nicht weiter gehen kann mit dem Lauf der Welt, der wird hier mehr von den verdrängten, untergründigen Mölichkeiten unserer Geschichte erfahren und ihr gegenwärtiges Drängen verstehen. Statt romantischen Hader mit der fortschreitenden Entfremdung oder dem hilflosen „Zurück zur Natur“ bietet das Buch einen Zukunftsausblick, der ohne Kulturvandalismus auskommt. Es stellt die Möglichkeit einer „erotischen Kultur“ in Aussicht und zeigt die Tendenzen zur Wiederherstellung der Balance zwischen humanitärem und technischem Fortschritt auf. Die Kräfte, weiche zum Wiedererstarken einer menschlichen Vernunft taugen, sind im „ökologischen Motiv“ ausgedrückt, das als historisches Mosaik freigelegt wird. Insofern jenes Mosaik des ökologischen Motivs an realgeschichtlichen Umständen und literarischen Werken der „Neuen Welt“ entwickelt wird, gibt das Buch einen neuen und faszinierenden Einblick in die angloamerikanische Kulturgeschichte. Ein Buch für Ökologen und sozial engagierte Menschen ebenso wie für Literaturwissenschaftler und Philologiestudenten, Historiker und Gesellschaftswissenschaftler, die den herben Wind der Wirklichkeit noch manchmal spüren.

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Kevin P. Spicer

"Shaken by military defeat and economic depression after War World I, Germans sought to restore their nation's dignity and power. In this context the National Socialist Party, with its promise of a revivified Germany, drew supporters. Among the most zealous were a number of Catholic clergymen known as "brown priests" who volunteered as Nazi propagandists. In Hitler's Priests, Kevin P. Spicer introduces the principal clergymen who participated in the Nazi movement, examines their motives, details their advocacy of National Socialism, and explores the consequences of their political activism." "Some brown priests, particularly war veterans, advocated National Socialism because it appealed to their patriotic ardor. Others had less laudatory motives: disaffection with clerical life, conflicts with Church superiors, or ambition for personal power and fame. Whatever their individual motives, they employed their skills as orators, writers, and teachers to proclaim the message of Nazism. Especially during the early 1930s, when the Church forbade membership in the party, these clergymen strove to prove that Catholicism was compatible with National Socialism, thereby justifying their support of Nazi ideology. Father Dr. Philipp Haeuser, a scholar and pastor, went so far as to promote antisemitism while deifying Adolf Hitler. The Fuhrer's antisemitism, Spicer argues, did not deter clergymen such as Haeuser because, although the Church officially rejected the Nazis' extreme racism, Catholic teachings tolerated hostility toward Jews by blaming them for Christ's crucifixion." "In addition to this intriguing history about clergymen trying to reconcile faith and politics, Spicer provides a master list verified by extensive research in Church and government archives - of Catholic clergy who publicly supported National Socialism."--BOOK JACKET.

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Richard Waswo

"This book attempts to tell the history of a story, and to show how it is of central importance to western culture because it defines both what 'culture' is and who possesses it," Richard Waswo begins in this impassioned, humane, and compelling reinterpretation of western civilization. The story Waswo refers to is a legend commonly regarded as fact for two millenia: the descent of all European for peoples from emigrant Trojans. But this study, astonishing in its range and fascinating in its vision, does not merely trace the theme through history. Instead, Waswo examines the way the legend influenced western perception and behavior and became embodied in our literature, religion, law, philosophy, history, science, social theory, and film. Implicit in this legend of perpetual colonization, Waswo says, is a distinction between "culture," with its settled agricultural and urbanized communities, and the "savage," with its hunting, gathering, and nomadic pastoralism. Waswo examines the powerful influence of the legend from its first expression in the Aeneid itself to The Faerie Queene to the fiction of Conrad and Forster, and also considers such widely disparate manifestations as the films of John Ford, the defoliation of Vietnam, and the policies of the World Bank. Both polemical and thought-provoking, the book shows how "legendary images defining our civilization determine our conduct toward other cultures: the fictions are both enacted in history and at the same time used to justify such action morally."

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Karl Galinsky

Grand political accomplishment and artistic productivity were the hallmarks of Augustus Caesar's reign (31 B.C. to A.D. 14), which has served as a powerful model of achievement for societies throughout Western history. Although much research has been done on individual facets of Augustan culture, Karl Galinsky's book is the first in decades to present a unified overview, one that brings together political and social history, art, literature, architecture, and religion. Weaving analysis and narrative throughout a richly illustrated text, Galinsky provides not only an enjoyable account of the major ideas of the age, but also an interpretation of the creative tensions and contradictions that made for its vitality and influence. Galinsky draws on source material ranging from coins and inscriptions to the major works of poetry and art, and challenges the schematic concepts and dichotomies that have commonly been applied to Augustan culture. He demonstrates that this culture was neither monolithic nor the mere result of one man's will. Instead it was a nuanced process of evolution and experimentation. Augustan culture had many contributors, as Galinsky demonstrates, and their dynamic interactions resulted in a high point of creativity and complexity that explains the transcendence of the Augustan age. Far from being static, its sophisticated literary and artistic monuments call for the active response and involvement of the reader and viewer even today.