5 comments about Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism.

1. This is the first biography of Savitri Devi. For a long time, it was the only biography. Thus I recommended it in spite of the author's dry style and evident distaste for his subject.
   
   But HITLER'S PRIESTESS is no longer the only game in town. Most of its biographical information is drawn from ten hours of interviews taped by Savitri Devi in New Delhi in 1978. These interviews have now been transcribed as And Time Rolls On: The Savitri Devi Interviews. The interviews are mostly autobiographical, but Savitri Devi also discusses her ideas on religion, history, National Socialism, and contemporary society. They are lively and entertaining reading.
   
   It is interesting to check HITLER'S PRIESTESS against the original. Some, however, might wish to skip the copy and go directly to the original. For me, the primary interest of HITLER'S PRIESTESS now lies in its summaries of Savitri's books, its account of her last four years, after the 1978 interviews, and the connections it draws between Savitri's ideas and their historical context and influence.



2. Devi was more or less completely insane, especially her wacky ideas about Hitler being an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu but if your smart enough to weed out the psychosis she did write some good stuff. Her anti-monotheism, ecological and animal rights stuff in particular is very good.
   
   So much about her reflects how nutty and contradictry she was. For example she was obsessed with Nazism and Aryan racial purity but she married a man of Indian ancestry. She had a genius level IQ and a phd in a hard science but had her strange ideas about Hitler being a Hindu God. This book is worth reading because, whether you like her or not, she did live an interesting life. For what it was worth at least she was an original thinker.



3. Since this book has been well reviewed by others, I'll refrain from writing much about the content of the book. I've started to notice a tendency from the author to repeat himself a LOT in his books. Large parts of the various chapters are word for word taken from other places. My point is that if you buy the "Black Sun" book by the same author, you'll get everything about Devi you need to know in a condensed form, AND you get some bonus chapters. That being said, I did enjoy the book, but that is because I'm into the subject at hand, but I don't think most people will need to read a whole book about her, the chapter in "Black Sun" is quite enough, and the words are exactly the same, so.
   
   All in all, recommended but unecessary.



4. The back cover claims this book to be a study, but information is only given and not analyzed or "studied", the information given, if concerning Savitri Devi (SD) is taken directly from her own books or does only very indirectly, around many corners, concern her.
   The author keeps calling her pagan beliefs "amoral" (of course they are, i.e. not fitting Christianity), SD's religious beliefs are portraied as only serving political ends, and the last chapter is a general, rough summary of all the bad things that various left/green/right/ufo/new age/satanist etc. groups have perpetrated, or tried to, over the last 30 years.
   Conclusion: Information given can easily be obtained freely by using an internet search enginge, and money spent on this book is lost money.



5. _Savitri Devi_ by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke is an extremely bizarre read on one of the more mystical figures in the neo-Nazi movement. Devi was born Maximiani Portas of Greek and English heritage in the south of France, and earned a Ph.D. in mathematics. She grew up feeling disillusioned with Western liberalism, and set out to India in the 1920's to study India's caste system as an example of racial segregation and the Hindu scriptures, in particular the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita, which she considered the most ancient examples of Aryan wisdom. She found India, the world's last Aryan pagan nation, to be a place poor but with an unbroken spirit, especially among the high caste Brahmins. She also viewed it as being under cultural assault by British colonization and its growing Muslim population. She joined the ant-British, anti-Muslim Hindu Mission (to spread Hinduism) and the Hindu Nationalist movement in India (groups which were to the right of Gandhi and favored militancy) which was under the leadership of V. D. Savarkar. Devi married a Brahmin, Asit Krishna Mukherji, who was well traveled in Europe and published a racialist and pro-Nazi magazine under the auspices of the German Consulate in India. Following the defeat of Germany in WWII, Devi went on three Nazi propaganda missions in Germany and even spent time in prison for subversive activities. During this time and the 1950s and 60s, Devi made contact with well known British and American neo-Nazis, among whom were George Lincoln Rockwell, Colin Jordan and John Tyndall. She also became aquainted with ex-Nazis such as the ace Hans Ulrich-Rudel and Leon Degrelle and others who had fled Germany and set up a networks in Spain, Latin America and the Middle East. She returned to India in 1971 and corresponded with Holocaust revisionist Ernst Zundel and the South American Nazi occultist Miguel Serrano. Devi published a number of books popular among the far-right and and also far-left environmentalist groups: _The Impeachment of Man_ (an argument for animal rights against a human-centered outlook), _A Warning to the Hindus_ (some of the aims of the Hindu Nationalist movement), _Pilgrimage_ (her reflections on her visit to post-WWII Germany), _Son of the Son_ (a study of Akhnaton who initiated the solar cult in Egypt, which Devi considered to be a forerunner of Nazism), and _The Lightning and the Sun_. _The Lightning and the Sun_ is Devi's most notorious book, in which she argues that Hitler is an incarnation of the god Vishnu the
   Preserver, a "Man Against Time" who intervened and fought against the process of decay in today's modern world, which is known as the Kali Yuga of the Hindus. Thus Savitri Devi managed to provide a theological justification for outright Hitler-worship in the context of an Aryan/pagan revival. Altogether, this is an even-handed book on a highly controversial and eccentric woman.

No comments about Alina: Memorias de La Hija Rebeled de Fidel Castro.

1 comments about Colin Powell: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies).

1. The latest title in the simply outstanding "Greenwood Biography Series", Colin Powell: A Biography by Richard Steins is a straightforward narrative of the life and career of one of the most powerful African-Americans to have ever served in the United States military. Intended especially for use in high school and undergraduate research assignments, yet also suitably presentable for non-specialist general readers who simply want to know more about who Colin Powell is and how he came to hold the political authority in the Bush Administration that he does today, Colin Powell: A Biography is a superb biographical resource and strongly recommended for inclusion into school and community library Biography Collections.

1 comments about The Courage And Character Of Theodore Roosevelt: A Hero Among Leaders.

1. Please be aware: This volume is a retitled reprint in paperback (at the same list price) of the hardcover Carry a Big Stick: The Uncommon Heroism of Theodore Roosevelt (Leaders in Action Series). Below is my review for that edition.
   
   An insatiable reader of books on TR, I was immediately drawn to Grant's TR book by its wealth of quotes from the President (something many authors neglect). Grant is unabashedly hero-worshipping here: no negatives are to be found. If one begins with this in mind it can be accepted and tolerated. Though it is often colored by Grant's conservative ideology (he tags turn of the 20th century politicians with turn of the 21st century labels - and greatly underrepresents some of TR's progressive leanings), it does reveal some facts about Roosevelt's religious convictions and church activities - something that is absolutely ignored in most modern biographies of historic figures. The book is not a chronological account but a look by turns at each facet of the multi-talented and constantly moving President.

2 comments about Victor Serge: The Course is Set on Hope.

1. Long neglected by critics and historians, Victor Serge was one of the last century's greatest political novelists and a participant in some of its most epochal events. This is the first full-length biography and Weissman brilliantly mines the newly-opened Comintern archives to recount Serge's heroic battle against Stalinist lies and deceptions.



2. Victor Serge was one of the few early Bolsheviks who had the honesty to speak out when he saw the revolution degenerate into totalitarian oppression accompanied by hysterical witch hunts, brutal repression of dissent, forced transfer of entire populatons, massive economic failure and the murder of millions.He was lucky to escape with his life after an internal exile. He was a prolific writer of both political essays and fiction. He had complete integrity and, it appears, utter fearlessness.

   The author is devoted to her subject and clearly has devoted much time and attention to locating and reviewing the primary sources. She seems to be at the forefront of scholarship in this area. The book, however, was a bit disappointing. There was little or nothing about Serge's childhood and early years--when we first encounter him in the book it is 1919 and he is almost 30 (although there is a very little about his activities as an anarchist in France and Spain). I would have liked to know about his youth and young adulthood. Also, the narrative is not smooth. There were a few instances where (I think) virtually the same passage was repeated a few pages after it first appeared. Does anyone edit these books anymore? On a related point, the style is not elegant.

   In addition, the author's perspective is clouded by her evident position as a true believer in socialism, albeit an opponent of tyranny a la Stalin. The result is that the author simply assumes that Serge's political and economic thought was sound and never stops to explain it, much less to subject it to any form of critical analysis.

   That said, it is important that we read about Serge and the author has really done a commendable job. You will want to read more about him and by him when you have finished!

3 comments about Carl B. Stokes and the Rise of Black Political Power.

1. Leonard Moore tells the story of the life of Carl B. Stokes in his book CARL B. STOKES AND THE RISE OF POLITICAL POWER. However, the book is much more than the political life of Stokes. There is in a sense a cursory perspective of his life. You don't get a clear view of his personality or his life style. The book is more about urban politics. Moore's essential theme is that Stokes represents the transition of the politics of protest to the politics of political power for blacks. He demonstrates how Stokes, like virtually all blacks who become mayors of large urban areas inherit dying cities created by white flight, deindustrialization and large populations of urban poor. These are tough battles no matter what your race. But in Stoke's election, Moore demonstrates how black voters came together to use their combined power to attempt to change their status.
   
   By showing the intricacies of Cleveland politics, Moore shows how Stokes was never able to take control of City Council and the police departments. Those two obstacles along with several major scandals made life of Carl Stokes as Mayor difficult.
   
   While the majority of the book deals with local politics and are particularly interesting to Cleveland natives, like myself, the conclusion is extremely powerful. In it Moore shows how Stokes essentially set the standard for future black mayors and how many of them had very similar problems. Although Stokes created the 21st District Caucus in an attempt to have a political powerbase outside the Democratic party, the Causus evenually lost its clout when Stokes was no longer in the picture. Moore also shows how neither Stokes or other Black mayors are able to pass on their political power to a chose successor.
   
   An underlying thesis of the book is the maturation of the black voter. As Stokes saw in his many battles, a candidate cannot just rely on his race to draw votes. The black community and the black voter is no longer a single voting block. Just as white voters have varying interest, so do black voters.
   
   There is one additional thing that is important about the life of Carl and also his brother former Congressman Louis Stokes. They grew up in poverty but also learned that they had to work. Both Stokes often tell the story of how they came to live in public housing and how it was the first time that each of them was able to sleep in their own bed. Prior to that the two boys and their mother all slept together. As a result, their mother was able to make a better life for them. It shows how they, like millions of other veterans, used the GI Bill to go to college and law school. In many respects, the Stokes brothers represent a part of the American dream. They used federal programs to better themselves. Their father died when they were young but they did not use the fact that they grew up without a father hold them back. They used what was available to them and make a better life for themselves and a better life for millions of American.



2. Carl B. Stokes And The Rise Of Black Political Power by Leonard N. Moore (Assistant Professor of History and Director of the African and African American Studies Program, Louisiana State University) is a meticulous portrayal of Mayor Carl Stokes of Cleveland and the impact his tenure has had on local and national African-American politics. Individual chapters address a range of issues such as "the making of a mayor"; black capitalism; internal political power struggles; and much, much more. A well-researched and scholarly examination of executive government in microcosm in general, and its reflections in the broader scope of African-American politics in particular, Carl B. Stokes And The Rise Of Black Political Power is a welcome and highly recommended addition to academic Black Studies and Political Science reference collections and reading lists.



3. Carl B. Stokes And The Rise Of Black Political Power by Leonard N. Moore (Assistant Professor of History and Director of the African and African American Studies Program, Louisiana State University) is a meticulous portrayal of Mayor Carl Stokes of Cleveland and the impact his tenure has had on local and national African-American politics. Individual chapters address a range of issues such as "the making of a mayor"; black capitalism; internal political power struggles; and much, much more. A well-researched and scholarly examination of executive government in microcosm in general, and its reflections in the broader scope of African-American politics in particular, Carl B. Stokes And The Rise Of Black Political Power is a welcome and highly recommended addition to academic Black Studies and Political Science reference collections and reading lists.

5 comments about The Other Mrs. Kennedy : An Intimate and Revealing Look at the Hidden Life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy.

1. Personally, I thought the book was awful as most of the people interviewed were people(fired maids,disgruntled cronies/lackeys or employees who were not with them for long) with axes to grind against the Kennedy's or people who were mislead about the purpose of the book. He interviewed my father who was gravely ill at the time for the book and told him it would be a very nice portrait and it turns out to be nothing more than a slam piece on her which I think speaks volumes of his character and his desire to write or attempt to write a salacious book that didn't sell much so I feel vindicated in that respect.



2. This book has a lot of information about the Skakel family and Ethel's relationship with the Kennedys, but the gratuitous sniping and mean, judgmental tone wholly undermine it. It is mostly readable although some of the paragraphs seem to be collections of random sentences that don't have much to do with each other. Jerry Oppenheimer is quick to condemn and slow to praise; while some of the background and information is enlightening, I would caution the reader to use his or her own judgment rather than Mr. Oppenheimer's as to how how the anecdotes reflect on Ethel Kennedy's life. By the end, one has the feeling that Mr. Oppenheimer is working entirely from sour-grapes rather, and instead of any insight into the complicated life of Ethel Kennedy, we're left with a bunch of old news headlines from the scandal sheets. If you're interested in the Kennedys, there are better authorized and unauthorized biographies; if you're interested in the Skakels, stop reading when Ethel marries Bobby, because the book slides terrifyingly downhill from there.



3. I first became interested in the Skakel family in 1999 when I first heard of the Martha Moxley case. (I'm actually about 3+ years late reviewing this book)
   
   I can see how some Kennedy-philes would be ultra shocked and not want to believe some of the things in this book but just because something is shocking doesn't mean it's not true. As for the genius that said that she'd never believe anything in a book that completely changed her opinion of a person or told things that they'd never heard about a person...I'm speechless. I thought you were *supposed* LEARN new things by reading!
   
   ANYWAY, it's a fun and fairly well researched read. As well as an interesting view into a more unknown and less publicized part of the Kennedy/Skakel families.



4. i don't think the author means to portray mrs. kennedy as good or bad,i just feel he put all of the facts out there and lets the reader take it all in...i was amazed by this woman and i still am! what she endured is incredible! i ask you,if you were left alone with 11 children would you not suffer? having lost your parents,brother,husband and later two children-wouldn't you lose your faith? well,she never did and if you ask me,she is 100 more times interesting than jackie 0. her devotion to her husbands memory is testament to who she is!!!!



5. THE OTHER MRS. KENNEDY is not a flattering biography, but this seems more reflective of its subject than it does of the author. Certainly, Ethel Skakel Kennedy's reputation as a difficult woman pre-dated the publication of this book; all that author Jerry Opppenheimer seems guilty of is of fashioning a coherent report.

   Insofar as little has been written about Ethel, widow of Senator Robert Kennedy, THE OTHER MRS. KENNEDY fills a void, and fills it well.

5 comments about Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why.

1. What makes this book so great is its limited focus on the Warren Commission itself, and not alternative theories of the JFK Assassination.
   
   The political origins of the Commission are described incredibly well. Virtually no objective reader can have any doubt whatsoever that the Warren Commission went into the investigation already armed with an assigned and foregone conclusion.
   
   This is the book that non-academic namecalling authors, such as Vincent Bugliosi, are afraid to tackle in an open forum.



2. This is a well written and welcome addition to the seemingly Himalayan pile of works on the world's biggest unsolved murder case and a subject that still haunts America to this day. It is fair to say that the FBI never closed the case and it is no surprise then that works such as this continue to appear. So many however are poorly written, cover the same old ground and present largely unsubstantiated theories of conspiracy. Whilst I disagree personally with the authors stance that Oswald could not have been the lone assassin on the assumption that the single bullet theory must be incorrect, I found much of the text on the on the Commission's work generally to be of high value. Of the many recent ie, post 2000 publications on the subject, I would recommend this book as a good example of a well written pro conspiracy text. It is frustrating though to find yet another author who fails to analyze the magic bullet theory in an open minded fashion - ignoring the ground breaking work of the Discovery Channels documentary "Unsolved History: JFK - Beyond the Magic Bullet DVD" including the work undertaken by a team of Australian medics and wound ballistics experts who reconstructed the shot meticulously to show that it was indeed possible and highly probable that all the non fatal wounds of Kennedy and Governor Connally were caused by the same bullet.
   An interesting exercise would be to compare this to Earl Warren's chapter on the JFK assassination in his 1977 memoirs. One would find a resolute assurance that the Commission acted honorably in all aspects from Warren himself, this book however contests that whilst the Commission acted benignly in its path to the conclusion that there was no conspiracy, it failed to investigate properly some key aspects of the case and that had they done so we would have been left with a much less murky past and a rather less suspecting general public.



3. Groupthink is defined as `a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.' If one reads McKnight's exhaustive book about the Warren Commission, this definition would fit precisely to this group of men. In a recent survey, it was revealed that over a third believe that 9/11 was the efforts of a government conspiracy. Be that as it may, it is not a stretch then to assume that more Americans believe that the Kennedy assassination was a result of a conspiracy. However, the harm that that belief can cause now is minimal at best, because it is more then 40 years after the event, and our citizenry has become predisposed to ignore history. McKnight's large book presents very persuasive arguments that the Commission itself was flawed at the outset, by bureaucratic infighting and persistent groupthink. Early on in the investigation, McKnight argues, the FBI and the White House knew that the answer to the murder must be Oswald acted alone. This is justifiably the way that the new administration should have acted, since we must remember that November 1963 was very near the mid-point of the Cold War, and any thought of a Soviet plot would have stirred a massive amount of unrest.
   
   When the Warren Commission was formed, the Commission at the very least should not have assumed anything when it came to ballistics, suspects, witnesses or foreign connections. Instead, it became merely a rubber stamp for the Hoover-Johnson `official' story that began taking shape even before Kennedy was buried. The very disturbing aspect of the whole investigation is that early on, the FBI and other agencies knew that there were more then 3 shots. How this was swept aside immediately has led some people to believe that a government conspiracy was in effect to hide a previous conspiracy. McKnight contends that dissatisfied elements of the CIA who were incensed with Kennedy's Cuba policy executed the killings as sort of a bureaucratic grudge match. The point, McKnight contends, is that the CIA was trying to force the new administration's hand in dealing with Cuba from a more hard-line perspective. McKnight writes that they were disappointed, because Johnson merely continued the Kennedy policy of politely ignoring Cuba. Not the most well thought out plan! While I find this theory interesting, it does not account for the fact that Central Intelligence, throughout several administrations, has had long standing grudge matches with the executive branch. Yes, the CIA operated with impunity in Iraq, Nicaragua and the Congo, but it should not be assumed that just because the CIA executed these missions that they would have showed the same kind of impunity against an American president on American soil. When McKnight sticks to the leads and the information that the Warren Commission choose to ignore, the book can be very good, but the careless postulating later on becomes a drag on the books' central topic.



4. McKnight's book contains little that is "news" those familiar with this case. This is not a book of new disclosures, or examinations of trails gone cold, but perhaps something that will be valued more for it's refusal to move outside it's narrow focus: the conduct of the Warren Commission, and it's relationship with the various investigatory agencies and the handling (and mis-handling) of those who testified and their information. This is a "safe" book, in that there is no speculation (or even examination) of the motives of the WC or possible explanations for the many gaffs pointed out in the committee operations. This is a well documented examination of the flaws in the structure and function of the WC , and ultimately an interesting book for those students of history or government who may be less interested in the results than in the process. This is Meagher or Weisberg without the passion, but very well documented, and of use to those seeking a more recent view of WC activities and participants based on current information.



5. Everything you read in this book has been published or aired before. However, the writer has a certain flair and is a tremendous story-teller. It is ten times the book that Joan Mellen wrote about Jim Garrison -- which was an embarrassment to thinking people.

No comments about The Art of Command: Military Leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell (None).

No comments about Jesse Jackson: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies).