Reviews (7)

First rate book on the abortion issue
I found this book to be extremely engaging, interesting, and substantive on the morality of abortion. Dennehy, a philosopher, writes for the general educated reader here, and the result is a very useful and practical book for those interested in the moral issues surrounding abortion. Dennehy presents strong and very clear philosophical (not religious) arguments against abortion, in addition to many great insights on the tactics of pro-abortionists for obfuscating the moral issues. He also replies to typical objections to his arguments with insight and clarity. There is much more besides this, including accounts of his many years debating abortion, and fascinating stories of how people have reacted to his arguments. I would recommend the book highly for all those who want a down to earth, and very clear, discussion of the arguments against abortion.

Sound Advice for Debating Abortion
For Dennehy, "how to argue intelligently about abortion" means what can one realistically expect to accomplish before a live audience in the space of a lecture: give them the minimal number of ideas that are necessary and sufficient to show the immorality of abortion. So he wisely explains how to argue that the mere probability that the fetus is a human being means that abortion implies a willingness to kill innocent human beings. The temptation is to try for more than that, which in that context would be self-defeating. The author's decision to write the book as an autobiographical account of "war stories" - against enemies on both sides of the abortion debate - makes the book down-to-earth, practical and an enjoyable read, despite his substantial academic credentials. Who says philosophers have their heads in the clouds?

The Inside Story of the Fight for Life
This book is an adventure into what motivates, sustains, and illuminates the serious defender of innocent human lives, especially those tiny persons before birth.

Philosophical insight marks every page of Dr. Dennehy's story of the conflict over legal abortion in the United States. It amounts to a history of the defense of human dignity and personhood over the past four decades.

As someone with a background and experiences similar to Dennehy's over the same period of years, I can attest, from a mid-Westerner's perspective, to the validity and depth of his claims about the escapism and false rhetoric of the opponents of the right to life movement and about many other aspects of the struggle.

His treatment of the abortion issue is developed in accord with classical natural law theory and is not an appeal to any particular religious belief. The book remarkably sets a calm, deliberate tone for the sincere seeker of truth, who will have little to do with sophistic, slick, emotional appeals.

Anyone who is active in the pro-life/anti-abortion movement would find this book an absorbing and inspiring work of love and reason in the service of the truth. Those who are opposed to the anti-abortion position in the present debate will find, in Dennehy's dogged determination to clarify and illuminate the issues, grounds for increased respect for their opposition.

The presentation is clear and engages the reader in his endeavor of refining common sense in order to discover meanings for defending babies who are the most defenseless of our human community.

The title might bother pro-lifers. But the author, while he does not reject being called pro-life, likes to say in public that he is not pro-life, but anti-abortion. He calls the appellation short, clear, and emphatic. It gets attention and lets people know that he is dead set against the special evil of killing that abortion really is.

Anti-Abortionist at Large is virtually a manual for speakers and advocates for the pre-birth child and the post-birth bearers of severe handicaps. Professor Dennehy constantly refers to his experiences, both positive and negative, in speaking before large groups. He conceives his book as an autobiography, an anecdotal history, a debate manual, and as a personal testament, in which he hopes to give witness to the gadfly of Athens, Socrates, by being the gadfly of the San Francisco Bay area.

The work has been a long and lonely challenge, for the most part. And he speaks for many advocates when he says the silence from the Sunday pulpits has been "thunder in our ears."

The author is quite conversant with the work of some of the bigger theorists of the abortion movement, such as Judith Jarvis Thompson, Marianne Warren, and Michael Tooley. He chooses to dramatize his debate experiences with Dr. Marianne Warren. He also offers tips on how to relate to the usual speaker-types from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, ACLU, and other such organizations.

Many other aspects of pro-life, anti-abortion work are revealed. Dennehy became astute regarding the typical tactics of politicians as they dealt with the abortion issue and with pro-lifers. He gives examples of his efforts to write elected officials on the subject and compares it to fighting smog with a crowbar. Particular commentaries are included on the intransigence of legislators like Cranston and Edwards of California, and on the "demoralizing betrayal of Jesse Jackson." There are also bright spots, such as the courageous Presidential candidacy of pro-life advocate Ellen McCormack from New York.

Various highlights and "lowlights" from the abortion struggles of the 60's and 70's are mentioned. Quite notable was the "landmark" editorial in the California Journal of Medicine (1970). Now called the Journal of Western Medicine, the editor wrote about "A New Ethic for Medicine and Society," remarkably claiming that the Judeo-Christian ethic was decaying and needed replacement. And, as I recall, the article admitted quite frankly that everyone knows human life begins at conception and that it was necessary to use rhetorical subterfuge in order to let people gradually become accustomed to the new ethic.

He touches upon some of the critical legislative history of the year 1972, by which time the anti-abortion movement started to turn around the various legislatures. He mentions the overwhelming victories for the anti-abortion cause in the referenda that year held in North Dakota and Michigan. My recollection is that in 1972 not a single State fell for an abortion bill among the 33 States that entertained such legislation. Then the rug was pulled on the whole movement in January of 1973, when seven judges on the United States Supreme Court toppled the legal protection for pre-birth children throughout the nation.

In the jaws of the holocaust that was unleashed, Dr. Dennehy patiently and persistently has continued to expose the deceptive messages that the abortion culture gives young people. In fact, he says that in his 36 years of debating abortion, he does not recall more than two who were willing, in any serious way, to address the fundamental question: Is the unborn baby a human being?

The duplicity of the media is deftly dealt with, including observations such as how abortion proponents are being called "abortion rights" advocates in the same vein as one might refer to proponents of slavery as "slavery rights" advocates. He also duly notes the repressive behavior of the media in not showing photos and films of abortions, while indulging in many kinds of depiction of killing and mayhem in connection with warfare and street crime. And he cites various other ploys, conscious or unconscious, that serve to protect a "woman's right to choose" homicide for any one of her children at the peak of their vulnerability.

In deeply regretting the violence of a small minority of so-called "pro-lifers" against abortionists and abortion centers, the author calmly notes that "respectable, law abiding" abortionists deliberately kill millions of innocent human beings, usually for profit. An abortionist today might be called a "good citizen," but, the author says, that it is not the same as being regarded as a "good human being," as Aristotle once observed and as the Nuremberg Court noted in 1946.

In all of his speaking endeavors, Dennehy always tries to be sure that, after his presentation, the audience members never think the same way about abortion. He is determined to stay on message: Abortion is the direct killing of an innocent human being.

Slowly but surely, this courageous speaker and author says, the trend in this country is going anti-abortion. But every day, week, month, and year thousands of babies die in the womb of a careless culture. People who care will want to read this book. It lays out a remarkably thoughtful path to peace with our most intimate neighbors-a path determined to end their silent screams.

Definitely delivers!
This is unquestionably one of the most enlightening, unusual, thought-provoking and original books that I have read in years. With so much of the public abortion debate in the hands of our so called media experts and academic opinion-makers, Professor Dennehy's honest and moving account of his 30 year defense of innocent, unborn babies forces all of us to question the assumptions and lies we have so easily embraced concerning one of the central issues of our time. And Dennehy minces no words when he says that "abortion is the bone in the throat of contemporary American society that slavery was in the 19th century." What happens in the following 200 pages is a fascinating, sometimes humorous, disturbing, but ultimately inspiring account of one courageous man's efforts to defend not only the innocent, but the values at the core of any decent culture: compassion and humanity. Dennehy has the intellect of a Socrates, the wit of a Jay Leno, and the overhand right of a Rocky Marciano, but he speaks to us over coffee at the kitchen table. With all there is to learn in this book the one thing I came away with more than anything else is a realization of how thorough the pro-abortion movement has succeeded in portraying people like Professor Dennehy and the pro-life movement as a threat to society when in fact they are indeed among the most compassionate and humane of all. Indeed, we learn how sophisticated and clever those in the pro-abortion movement have been in deflecting a serious consideration of their pro-death and cold-hearted agenda. In fact, we learn that in 1963 Planned Parenthood's official pamphlet noted that "an abortion kills the life of the baby after it has begun - birth control merely postpones the beginning of life." What happened in the last 40 years to transform Planned Parenthood from lovers of life into purveyors of death? How have they so easily convinced young women that their unborn babies are as disposable as a diaper? Why do they ignore the psychological effects that haunt these young women for years afterward? Professor Dennehy's fascinating and heart-pounding account of his years debating pro-abortion opponents in front of skeptical, sometimes hostile pro-abortion crowds at university campuses represents a college classroom in how to debate this issue with reason and honor in the face of overwhelming odds. It also represents a character study in courage and commitment. Chapter 7 on partial-birth abortion is one of the most shocking and moving essays I have ever read and it will bring any concerned reader to tears. Hopefully Professor Dennehy's inspirational book will seep into the fabric of our nation and warm enough hearts as well as convince enough minds, one by one, that yes, an unborn child is a human being.

Anti-Abortionist at Large
A refreshing perspective on a complex and emotionally charged issue. The author walks the reader through the chronology of his career and life-long devotion to debating against abortion. Keeps the audience focused on the real issue of life and its unjust ending versus "choice" and emotion. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

From Ilse Kussel to Ayya Khema
Ayya Khema (1923-1997)played an important role in the ongoing revival of Western interest in Buddhism. Her autobiography "I give you my Life" (1997), completed just before her death, tells the story of the development of her commitment to Buddhism and spirituality and of her decision at age 55 to become a Buddhist nun. Each chapter in her brief book is introduced by a verse from the Dhammapada, a seminal Buddhist scriptural text consisting of short poems, which illuminates in a telling way the portion of her life under discussion.

Ayya Khema ("Ayya" is an honorific title for Buddhist nuns while "Khema" was the name of a nun during the Buddha's lifetime) was born Ilse Kussel in 1923 in Berlin to a prosperous, assimilated Jewish family. The family fled Germany before the Holocaust and Ilse, as a teenager, travelled by steamer to Glasgow, Scotland before joining her family shortly thereafter in Shanghai. She married in her late teens and travelled to California with her husband where she worked in a bank, had two children, and appeared settled into an American middle-class life. As a result, she tells us, of a deepening sense of spiritual unrest, she divorced her husband and married a childhood acquaintance named Gerd, whose family had also fled the Holocaust. She and Gern lived a wandering type of life in South America and Asia, where her husband was an engineer. The couple ultimately settled in Australia, bought a farm and raised shetland ponies. This marriage too ended with Ilse's, continued search for spiritual wisdom and her growing interest in meditation. Ilse became a Buddhist nun at the age of 55, helped establish three Buddhist convents in Sri Lanka, Australia, and Germany, became a meditation master, worked ceaselessly to revive the Buddhist order of nuns, and wrote prolifically about Buddhism.

Ayya Khema lived an inspiring and full life on many levels and she tells her story well. Apart from her decision to become a nun, I learned a great deal from her willingness to make a radical change in mid-life. It is important to see how people may change and develop throughout their lives, and I was moved to see this realized in Ayya Khema's story.

In many ways, Ayya Khema's autobiography radiates sincerity and purpose and fulfills its goal of speaking directly to the reader. This is especially true in her introduction and in the sections of her book following her ordination where she explains what the Buddhist path has meant to her. The final pages of the book, written when Ayya Khema knew she would soon die, have a rare immediacy and poignancy.

Most autobiographies conceal as much about their subject as they reveal, and Ayya Khema's autobiography is no exception. The book gives a good picture of the externals of Ilse Kussel's life but, I thought, too little of what was going on inside. I found myself wanting to know more about Ilse's two marriages and the reasons for their failures. There is a brief discussion of Ilse's attempt to recover her spirituality through Judaism, and I would have liked to hear more. Beyond references to the suffering of life and to the inevitability of change, I would have liked more detail of Ilse's early study of spiritual texts. And I would have liked more details on the course she pursued during her meditation retreats and on what it was she learned from the Indian and Buddhist masters she reveres as her teachers.

This autobiography shows effectively Ilse Kussel's transformation into Ayya Khema. It shows what was important to Ayya Khema when she became a nun and how she worked to realize herself as a Buddhist nun. We see Ilse Kussel/Ayya Khema througout her life as an intelligent strong-willed and determined woman. I still do not fully understand, after reading this inspiring story, the internal process by which Isle Kussel became transformed into Ayya Khema.

inspirational
i've read some of her other instructional books and have always found them to be very helpful . that sort of piqued my interest in the person itself , which is why i bought this book .

i hadn't quite expected to read about someone with such a florid history . i half expected her to be someone with a dreary life bordering on the mundane . she's really compressed a great deal into that life of hers .

more importantly , she speaks of herself in a matter of fact manner . it is this detached manner that i found enlightening . i recommend this book to others because i think its inspirational . which one of us doesn't need some inspiration every now and then .

From second world war horrors to buddhist peace.
Easy to read and clearly written autobiography of a woman, who's life led here from nazi prosecution during the second world war through many intermediate states to finally becoming a buddhist nun of theravada buddhism. The english translation of the german original does not seem (to me) to be as good as it could be, but this should not be a reason not to read it. One might like to know, that half of the book describes Khema's regular life and that spiritual features are only showing up rather late. After she described so many details of her regular life, I was missing more information about her spiritual struggles after she became buddhist up to the point when she gained deeper meditative insights. The entire story is written from a very detached point of view. Maybe a buddhist ideal, but rather caused by Khema's experiences during the war. Nevertheless, the book is a great reading and one learns a lot about her times, herself and how a spiritual life can turn regular life upside down.

What a story!
Ayya Khema's beautifully written account of her life reads like a rocket ship! From barely escaping Hitler's evil in Germany as a young Jewish girl, through marriages, children, and a thoroughgoing journey of sparkling life through myriad cultures and continents, to Buddhist nun and founder of a monastery -Nun's Island in Sri Lanka- to the final beautifully poignant full circle back with the founding of Buddha-Haus in Germany, here is an authentic story of liberation and of a gifted woman's joy of religion. Spiritual-odyssey-memoirs are a dime a dozen these days, many of them barely worth the effort, but 'I Give You My Life' has a genuine spirit attending it; not only a wonderful memoir, it contains a few memorable moments of supremely confident religious experience conveyed without guile, and with admirable simplicity. It's a pleasure to read and ends too quickly, yet everything has been covered beautifully and fully. Khema effortlessly leaves her spirit with you, the mark of a true teacher - and probably of a buddha. It's a wonderful book.

what a story!
Ayya Khema's beautifully written account of her life reads like a rocket ship! From barely escaping Hitler's evil in Germany as a young Jewish girl, through marriages, children, and a thoroughgoing journey of sparkling life through myriad cultures and continents, to Buddhist nun and founder of a monastery -Nun's Island in Sri Lanka- to the final beautifully poignant full circle back with the founding of Buddha-Haus in Germany, here is an authentic story of liberation and of a gifted woman's joy of religion. Spiritual-odyssey-memoirs are a dime a dozen these days, many of them barely worth the effort, but 'I Give You My Life' has a genuine spirit attending it; not only a wonderful memoir, it contains a few memorable moments of supremely confident religious experience conveyed without guile, and with remarkable simplicity. It's a pleasure to read and ends too quickly, yet everything has been covered beautifully and fully. Khema effortlessly leaves her spirit with you, the mark of a true teacher - and probably of a buddha. It's a wonderful book. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

With an eclectic variety of soul-searching commentaries
Collaboratively and expertly edited by Marvin Meyer (Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies, Chapman University, Orange, California) and Kurt Bergel (Professor Emeritus, Chapman University and founder/co-director of the Chapman University Albert Schweitzer Institute), Reverence for Life: The Ethics Of Albert Schweitzer For The Twenty-First Century is an inherently impressive selection of profound essays by humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, enhanced with an eclectic variety of soul-searching commentaries on his thoughts and recommendations. Among Schweitzer's presented and scrutinized works are sermons, letters, as well as tidbits of his personal autobiography and deep philosophy. Reverence For Life is highly recommended as life-affirming, fundamental and thoughtfully constructed reading. ... Read more

Book Description

The celebrated Laurens van der Post made a life of lies. Those who know him as the advisor of Prince Charles and Margaret Thatcher, author of twenty-three popular, award-winning books, (several of which were made into films) and a speaker for the cause of African peoples will be startled by the revelations in this fascinating biography of a consummate fabricator. Among the romantic highlights in van der Post’s version of his life were an Afrikaner childhood that featured a Bushman nursemaid, decorated military service, a brutal stretch as a POW in the Pacific, his devoted friendship with Carl Jung, and his sympathetic chronicles of the Kalahari Bushmen. Peeling away van der Post’s stories, J. D. F. Jones’s biography shows that most of his tales were tall—designed to dazzle an all-too-gullible world. In reality, van der Post had no Bushman nanny; his World War II military service, for which he abandoned his wife and children, was not particularly distinguished; and his relationship with Jung was tenuous at most. He also advised Britain’s elite, although his credentials were only a tissue of invention that he kept aloft until his death at age ninety in 1996. While disclosing van der Post’s many fictions, Jones never loses sight of his very real charisma and the widespread devotion he inspired. At once probing and unsparing, Teller of Many Tales is also a model of biographic balance and illumination. “...a fantasist, a liar, a serial adulterer... It was to this man that Lady Thatcher turned for advice... Devastating...”—Sunday Telegraph ... Read more

Reviews (3)

boring and strangely subjective tone
Frankly, the book is long, costs a lot, and is boring. I would rather spend $20 on learning about Africa than reading a biographer who keeps an odd tone through the book that I would associate more with a polemic than with a balanced biography. I think ok when Joe Campbell died how creepy people came out of the woodword who had been jealous of his fame, and said creepy envy-ridden things about him that some who had an ax to grind took up as fact. I think this author does the same. The minuntae in the book is deadening. This book is in that style, petty gossip that the author inflates into many pages to slap a high price on the volume. I would suspect this book would not have been published if it didn't play on so much gossip. I would reather reaad Van der Post's books firsthand and decide for myself

DISILLUSIONING, YET COMPASSIONATE!
This is how the book leaves one.As a lifelong admirer of van der Post (I was even fortunate enough to briefly meet him once in New York and attend his lectures on the denigration of the feminine since the time of St. Paul, as well as the Bushman of the Kalahari myths), I have to admit I found his personal life to be quite shocking, especially his treatment of women close to him, and even more so, his total neglect of his illegitimate children, and that of his own son, John, who died prematurely in adulthood.

I found the many lies surprising, but was relieved that not everything was a lie, and many of the the truths in his writing stand the test of veracity.Even if some of the Bushman myths which he claimed to have learned directly from them were myths that he read in the books of Bleek, they still are very beautiful.Most surprising is that the Mantis is not to be found in Bushman cosmology.Wherever did van der Post find this non-Bushman god whom he accredits to their culture?

Oh well, he seemed to have a capacity to attract great and life-long love from others which one wonders if he could ever have returned in such proportion.His relationship with Jung was not so close that he should have called himself "Jung's messenger boy."

Above all, I feel a deep sympathy for his extremely loyal wife, who was kept much in the dark about his goings on.Although she intuited there was another woman (though not that they had had a 30 years affair, or that there were many others as well), and knew of at least one of his illegitimate children, she said she was not jealous.If you read her autobiography, "The Way Things Happen," the last two chapters actually written by Laurens van der Post as she had fallen into her dementia by then), much is revealing.For instance, she notes that she was aware of her first husband's (Jimmy Young) affairs, and states in that book as well that she felt no jealousy, but believed that was in the area of his reckoning with himself and was his own business.Her book is a fine one, from her childhood in India, her great love of her second husband, her work as a playwright and then after six month's study at the Jungian Institute in Zurich, her work as a not fully trained psychoanalyst (she had some professional meetings with Prince Charles, while Diana, Princess of Wales, had several sessions with van der Post's close friend and analyst, Dr. Alan McGlashan), up to her old age.

Unlike van der Post, Jung was honest with his wife about Toni Wolff.They all learned to live with it.But then, he was not a habitual liar.Ingaret thought of her husband as "a great man."I beg to disagree.Though I respect him for staying with her during her last years when she had sunk into dementia, instead of 'ducking out,' as he had a tendency to quickly do in sticky situations.

Jung was perhaps a great man.In my opinion, van der Post excelled in his non-fiction works.I do not think he reached any great heights in his books of fiction.But over and above all his faults and problems, he gave us the African myths one way or the other.And this helped some of us with our lives.

More Tales?
I found this book difficult to put down. It is very well written and impressively researched. The light it throws onto the times, places and people spanned by the life of Laurens van der Post are valuable indeed. But it simply is not a do-it-justice, adequately balanced biography. Even if 80 percent of the prevarication, lying, [misunderstandings], and hypocricy claimed by Jones against Van der Post is true, it simply doesn't cut it for any serious biographer to essentially attribute the profound impact of such a high quality literary figure, and half-century-long luminary, almost entirely to some quality of "charm" or honed talent to [mislead]... even some of the most sophisticated human beings of his time. Jones, of course, may deny that characterization of his work, but such is clearly the underlying impact of his ill-balanced treatment of Van der Post's life. To put it another way: to basically attribute the remarkable insightfulness, giftedness and international impact of Laurens van der Post's long and illustrious life so largely to a sort of hypnotic deceptiveness (The rather glib, satirical - or is it sarcastic? - title of the book advertizes just such a seriously limiting thesis) comes close to producing a biography that borders on a species of shallowness, even if the author claims that he wrote the book largely to disclose these realities. Of course Laurens had serious flaws, and I sincerely thank Mr. Jones for opening my eyes more fully to that fact; but to make such faultiness, serious as some of it is, the unrelenting theme of an "authorized biography" (see Foreword) on the life of a man as complex and obviously outstanding as Van der Post, is not to write a biography fully worthy of the art and science of biography writing, at least as I and many others might understand it. There are literally miriads of places to which one could go in Jones' book that call for alternative conjectures about the "facts," true or not, that Jones cites; alternative, that is, to Jones'monotonously predictable conclusion, page after page, that Laurens was invariably the consummate international and personal con man. But the tasteless, anecdotal quip Janet Campbell, Laurens' housekeeper, claims to have made to a "very old" Van der Post, that is quoted in the first sentence of the Introduction to Jones' book is quite damningly pace-setting for the book as a whole: That Laurens should remember he was, after all "just a farm boy from the Karoo." Is that really all he was? It's no wonder such a characterization is said to have "incensed" him. Once the book is read, it is almost inescapable to conclude that this describes pretty much how Jones would like to reduce the life of Laurens van der Post. And if a reader accepts the clear implication of this kind of "logic" (a species of implied hubris expressed elsewhere in the book) there'd be a lot of people who'd have to be stricken from the rosters of the great among us: Abraham Lincoln (back woods, log cabin, and all), Jesus Christ ("Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?") and William Shakespeare (son of a merchant in a diminutive village). All in all, it seems to me that J.D.F. Jones' approach to the on-balance greatness of the life of Laurens van der Post, is archtypical of the malady crouching in the spirit of contemporary, civilized humanity (mine included!); the malady Laurens van der Post himself so insightfully exposed: that developed human beings today are so "civilized," so "objectivistic," so "rationalistic," so starry-eyed about the capacities of research that we are left virtually untrusting of, and therefore unmoved by our own intuitive, spiritual and "primitive" powers. We have therefore become largely incapable of perceiving, or have lost much of our capacity to experience anything except that which we are able to skeptically and even cynically squint at through eyes only part way open. This, I'm afraid, describes much of the reason for J.D.F. Jones' inadequate, or should I say, truncated but brilliantly elaborate biographical "tale" of the life of Sir Laurens van der Post. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Kierkegaard: A Biography traces the evolution of a character who himself was made up of many characters of his own creation. Søren Kierkegaard's writings, published under various pseudonyms, were made in response to "collisions" with significant individuals (including his father, his brother, a fiancé whom he rejected, and a prominent Danish bishop). The development of these pseudonymous characters reflect Kierkegaard's growing sense of self, and his discovery of that self as being essentially religious. With considerable mastery of the political, philosophical, and theological conflicts of 19th century Europe, Alastair Hannay's biography also serves as an excellent introduction to Kierkegaard's philosophy and faith. From sentence to sentence, the book is full of small pleasures, particularly Hannay's judiciously employed, humanizing vernacular phrases. (As a young man, "Søren," like so many people, "blamed his father for messing up his life.") And like his subject, Hannay is a shrewd observer of the often-misleading relationship between appearance and reality. For instance, he suggests that "it does seem plausible to suppose that a main motivation behind the huge effort that writers put into their poetic products stems often from a sense of lacking in themselves the very substance that their works appear to convey." --Michael Joseph Gross ... Read more

Book Description

This brief text assists students in understanding Karol Wojtyla's philosophy and thinking so they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the Wadsworth Notes Series, (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON KAROL WOJTYLA is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the series, this concise book offers sufficient insight into the thinking of a notable philosopher, better enabling students to engage in reading and to discuss the material in class and on paper. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1945 Isaiah Berlin, working in Russia for the British Foreign Office, met Anna Akhmatova almost by chance in what was then Leningrad. The brief time they spent together one long November evening was a transformng experience for both, and has become a cardinal moment in modern literary history.

For Akhmatova, Berlin was a "guest from the future," her ideal reader outside the nightmare of Soviet life and a link with a lost Russian world; he became a figure in her cryptic masterpiece "Poem without a Hero." For Berlin, this "most memorable" meeting with the beautiful poet of genius was a spur to his ideas on liberty and on history. But there were tragic consequences: the Soviet authorities thought Berlin was a British spy, Akhmatova became a suspected enemy, and until her death in 1966 the KGB persecuted her family. Though Akhmatova was convinced that she and Berlin had inadvertently started the Cold War, she remembered him gratefully and he inspired some of her finest poems.

György Dalos--who inteviewed Berlin and many others who knew Akhmatova well, and who examined hitherto-secret KGB and Poliburo files--tells the inside story of how Stalin and other Soviet leaders dealt with Akhmatova. He ends with the touching story of her posthumous rehabilitation, when Russians astronomers discovered a new star and name it after her.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fear and the Muse
In 1946 the Russian born British philosoper Isaiah Berlin, then a diplomat at the British Embassy in Moscow, learned that Anna Akhmatova, one of the great poets of the 20th century, was still alive and living in Leningrad. He went to see her, spending a night talking about art, poetry, philosophy, and history. The night ended when the newspaper correspondent (and Winston's son) Randolph Churchill came to Akhmatova's house and, not knowing where to find Berlin, began bellowing Berlin's name at the top of his lungs in the building's courtyard. This may not seem like a terribly important incident; in the course of a normal life such days are usually forgotten within a few weeks of their happening...but in Stalin's Soviet Union there were no normal lives. The consequences of that night are the subject of this book, a harsh unblinking look into the workings of a paranoid society and one artist's reaction to it. For Akhmatova that night was one of the greatest of her life; unlike many other pre-Revolution writers and artists she refused to leave Russia. For her contact with someone from outside the four prison walls of Soviet society was like oxygen to someone suffocating; Berlin became "the guest from the future," the unnamed character in her great work 'Poem without a hero,' the reader she would have had if she lived in a normal society. But she did not. Dalos shows how all the forces of Stalinist repression swung into action against her; how she was publicly humiliated by the Central Committee, how her son was arrested and sent to the gulag, how Mikhail Zoshchenko, the satirist and popular writer who was condemned with her, was slowly driven mad by the government's denunciation of him and his work. If anyone is interested on the effect of totalitarianism on the lives of people this is the book to read. A great tribute to a great poet. ... Read more

Book Description

Some deep alternative current has begun flowing out of the spiritual adventures and identity struggles of recent generations. Of course, we didn't create the conditions or questions of this new age; we got caught in them. The ground shifted, the old gods departed, the economic and political utopias crumbled, and the traditional answers were washed away. We didn't leave home; home left us.

How did a nice Jewish boy from Nebraska become a Buddhist in California?

Join Wes "Scoop" Nisker as he takes us on a hilarious, wild ride from West to East and back again in his quest for true self and enlight-enment. Combining the best elements of memoir and social commentary, Nisker uses his own story to illuminate the Baby Boomers' roots of spiritual hunger in postwar America. His journey begins in middle America (Nebraska to be exact) in the middle of the twentieth century, travels through the heyday of the Beats and the Hippies, the birth of the modern environmental movement, and winds up in the current epi-center of Buddhism in the West -- California.

Full of colorful and immediately recognizable figures of art, religion, and popular culture -- from Alfred E. Newman to Allen Ginsberg -- The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom is a guided tour of both the outer and inner move-ments that have culminated in the growing culture of Western Buddhism -- a lasting, vivid picture of how the Baby Boom generation came to be identified with spiritual seeking, how they went about the search, what they have found and created, and what their true legacy is.

Reviews (4)

A Personal Story of Spiritual Journey
Wes Nisker has here presented a rather light-hearted account of his own spiritual journey into Buddhism. He takes us through the Beat, Hippie, and New Age movements to the present, more mature, spiritual association with Eastern philosophy and Buddhism in particular. While not a deep book, it does give some insight into the history of the Buddhist movement in the United States and why Buddhism is as popular as it is now. To a large degree this popularity is due to the common sense approach of Buddhism to every day life and the unspectacular claims it makes. It also does not require exact literal belief and is thus quite open to science. In essence we are told that there is nothing to be gained because we have the ability for enlightenment within each of us. We need only connect to that awareness within. Despite this apparent simplicity, the practice of Buddhist meditation is far from easy. It requires commitment that takes time to develop, yet is open to everyone.

I do not agree with Nisker on every detail (it would be unusual if I did). For example, I'm not sure that I would quite give the blank check he gives to the evolutionary psychologists. This is, however, a minor quibble. I don't expect him to be one with all of the scientific arguments of the day.

All in all this book is a very enjoyable read and I very much recommend it to be read if you are on an airplane as I was when I read it.

As It Is
This book endeavours to discuss about Buddha-nature with humour and using the author's life experiences. The author's life could be considered as colourful as he travelled to the East various times seeking for the truth, a DJ-journalist-activist, an ex-hippie who embraced the peace & loving messages. He talked candidly about science & spirituality, of how they intertwine with one another & how prophetic the Eastern philosophies are as they mentioned what's been proven or suggested by contemporary scientists thousands of years before; he questioned about the benefits of knowing the absolute truths & if they do bring any betterments to our well-beings; pondering the question of why do we feel so empty even when our standard of living is far superior than five decades ago; consumerism; George W. Bush & the world that we are living now after 9-11; suggesting USA to resign from its post as the world's superpower & back to its origin & perhaps, this world would become a better place; how the world is becoming smaller & assimmilations of various religions & beliefs; relevancy of spirituality towards saving our precious environment, & so forth. Wes writes differently from Jack Kornfield (another established author upon spirituality), who happens to be his friend as well. Overall, this is quite a enchanting book to read. As Buddha-nature, we have to sense "the" moment. Whilst this book doesn't fully convey the Buddha-nature, it does give us some insight about the ups & downs of keeping up with the practice in order to embrace this world fully. Highly recommended

A Fine Spiritual History of the Baby Boomer Generation
Wes "Scoop" Nisker, a self-professed Buddhist traces the spiritual history of a generation from the questioning of our parents values to living under the current George W. Bush conservative climate.

He cover the beatniks, hippies, drugs, the importance of music, the disillusionment with the sixties, the turn towards introspection and fascination with eastern philosophies, the "me" decade of the eighties and the subsequent current apathy.

This is a fine documentation of a unique generation that grew up during a time of unprecedented prosperity and had trouble figuring out what to do with it. The author is not only a witness to this process but is also a participant and shares many personal stories from each many eras. As a former disk jockey from the once very progressive San Francisco KSAN radio station, he met and interacted with key players who influenced this generation like Allen Watts. He is also honest enough to write about his own doubts, misgivings and personal confusion, which is symbolic of this generation.

In many ways this generation path, in this reviewer's opinion, was predicted by the psychology of Abraham H. Maslow who postulated a hierarchy of needs (this used to be taught in Psych. 101 courses, I wonder if it still is?). A human being is always in dynamic interaction with its environment and once basic needs such as air, water, food and shelter have been met, then new needs emerge; belonging, relationships, the need for self expression and the need to understand our relationship to the rest of the universe. It's easy to understand when your hungry and you need food, however it is not as easy to understand what you need when you seemingly have everything and yet have an underlying feeling of restlessness and dissatisfaction. Indeed, there is no universal agreement about the meaning of one of Maslow's most famous postulation, the need for "self actualization".

Scoop's book does a nice job of capturing the essence of a generation faced with dealing with questions that were mostly unprecedented, at least on a mass scale, by any previous generation. Unfortunately, it seems like the beginning of the new century is more about dwindling resources and back to the concerns of basic survival needs. The subtitle of this book could also have been, in the words of rock star-philosopher David Crosby, (It Was) " A Long Time coming, Gonna Be A Long Time Gone".

A great book!
I found this book to be hilarious, insightful, fun and informative. The sheer scope of Mr. Nisker's life experiences is mind-boggling and his retelling of these adventures and explorations makes for a very entertaining experience for the reader.

I'm at the tail end of the Boomer generation but I found plenty to relate to. Music, politics, religion, mysticism, culture...it's all there. And Mr. Nisker's wonderful sense of humor shines through every page. At times laugh-out-loud-funny, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in popular culture and world events. ... Read more

Book Description

with a new foreword by Neil Postman

"The best--I might say the only good--précis of McLuhan's thought I have ever read." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Beautifully written. . . . brings instant recognition of that weird, exhilarating vortex of ideas that McLuhan meant to us. . ." -- Globe and Mail

When communications thinker Marshall McLuhan gave us the phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village," he was ahead of his time. Now, in the age of the digital revolution McLuhan and his work cannot be ignored by any student of culture and technology. Interest in McLuhan has increased dramatically since this biography was first published in 1989 to stunning reviews. The author has extensively revised this new edition to include additional information provided by McLuhan's family and friends, and to present an even clearer and more absorbing personal picture of McLuhan. The book explains the relevance to today's society of a man who reached the height of his fame in the 1960s. The foreword by Neil Postman is original to this edition. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Must-read while studying McLuhan
Marchand and Postman do an excellent job with this biography on an unusual media prophet/quack. Reading about McLuhan's childhood, education, and work helped explain a lot about the man and his ideas. The book reads very well, and puts a lot of his ideas in a context that makes them easier to understand. If you're just starting to study McLuhan, this book is a great starting point. Also check out "McLuhan for Beginners" for a very quick and fun overview. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An American Philosopher in the Grand Manner
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 -1914) was an eccentric American genius and the founder of the philosophy generally known as pragmatism. A difficult, erratic, and sometimes violent man, he was denied in his attempts to secure an academic position and spent the last several years of his life in near isolation at his home, called Arisbe, near Milford, Pennsylvania. Peirce may be America's most significant philosopher. Yet he never produced a book. His reputation, insofar as it is based on his written work, is based on essays he wrote throughout his life and on large manuscripts which his admirers saw through to publication beginning shortly after his death.

Professor Kenneth Ketner, the author of this "autobiography" of Peirce, is an acknoledged authority on Peirce's life and thought. He calls this book, "His Glassy Essence" an "autobiography" because it is based in large part upon a selection of Peirce's writings and letters arranged to tell the story of his life. As Professor Ketner states, however, the book is also in part fiction. It includes three fictitious characters, the narrator, Ike, a writer of mysteries, his wife Betsey, a nurse, and Roy, a Harvard PhD in philosophy who allegedly knew and studied with Peirce. The story line involves Ike taking an interest in Peirce based upon an old box of Peirce's papers that Betsey has inherited. Roy comes into the story to provide information about Peirce and, not accidentally, some excellent discussions on the nature of philosophy.

The mechanism creaks at times. The story line is artificial although Roy has many insightful things to say in commenting on Peirce. It is difficult to separate fact from fiction in the account of Peirce because many of his letters and essays seem to be melded together from sources written at different times and places. Ketner's protestations notwithstanding, it is difficult to be convinced of the accuracy of the account presented here as scholarly biography. Finally, this book covers essentially only the first 28 years of Peirce's life (with forwards to his death and to some of his subsequent writings.) There are two promised sequels which are to continue the story through the remainder of Peirce's life.

For all the difficulties, I came away from this book with a better understanding of Peirce and some inkling of the development of his thought. Peirce's own distinctive ideas beging to be developed only in the last third or so of this book. The earlier sections deal largely with Peirce's years in college when he was deeply under the influence of Kant.

The book makes a good case that Peirce's work is narrowed unduly when he is viewed simply as one of the first American pragmatists. He was in fact a philosopher in the large manner concerned about science, about logic and categories in an expansive sense of these terms, and about God. He was an empiricist in the broadest sense that William James developed with his term "radical empiricism". I also see strong parallels in the account of Peirce given in this book to Husserl's phenomenology.

Peirce tought the distinction between knowledge, or the accumulation of facts, and wisdom and meaning which cannot be learned from the books. He developed the philosophy of signs called semiotics and invented a personal and highly idiosyncratic philosophical vocabulary, including terms such as "Cenopythagoreanism" (see page 342) which stretch the casual reader' patience and may stretch the more serious reader's mind.

This book gives an excellent picture of the philosophic mind, in the person of Charles Peirce, and of the serious and consuming nature of philosophic inquiry. It is not a book to read for a full account either of Peirce's life or his thought. It does capture something of the spirit of the man and the thinker.

Readers who want a historically based account of Peirce and his times might enjoy "The Metaphysical Club" by Louis Menand. Ketner's book is cited in the references for Menand and it covers much of the same ground, Peirce's life, his relationship to his father, the mathematician Benjamin Peirce, the metaphysical club which met briefly at Harvard in the 1870s, the effect of the Civil War on American pragmatism, and much else. The distinctive value of Ketner's book, I think, is that for all its problems it will allow the reader to see Peirce from the inside out.

"Glassy Essence" is a valuable resource
For me the book, "His Glassy Essence," has been invaluable. Ketner has pulled together information about Peirce's early life that I could not possibly have gotten to on my own. Since I am not attached to any institution, I do not have access to any unpublished documents. I am not sure I would have been able to find the information Ketner has laid out in this book even if I had such access. He has pulled together a great deal of information from diverse sources and put these scattered pieces together in chronological and contextual order.

This book has been immensely helpful to me for coming to understand the provenance of Peirce's pragmatism. Now, it is obvious to me that there was no abrupt beginning to the development of Peirce's pragmatic theory. Now that I know of his early exposure to qualitative discernment and aesthetics, I can identify these as central to the evolution of his theory of abduction-something I have suspected all along, but had been unable to nail down because of the lack of a chronological and contextual framework for Peirce's early life.

The author did a fine job of referencing information, providing page by page notes at the end of the book. These references were noted in such a way that they do not interfere with the reading of the text--which unfolds in a story-like way, enabling me to see how Peirce fit within his context. The biographical and temperamental information concerning Peirce's father, for example, fleshed out the cultural and familial milieu in which he was raised-seemingly as a crown prince of the intellectual world for which his father was a sort of king.

Although there are minor discrepancies (such as a brother who seems to have been left out)and occasional confusions when following the story line, I think that this book is going to be very useful for anyone wanting to know about the early Peirce. I am finding "His Glassy Essence" especially useful as a reference tool. I suspect that other independent researchers, like myself, who are working with Peirce's ideas, but do not have access to unpublished materials by or about him will find this book useful as well.

Experience the Transforming Power of this book for yourself
As a Peircean supporter of personal inquiry I can't in good conscience write a traditional "review" like the Kirkus one which dominates this page. I write to encourage everybody to disregard the Kirkus comments and explore His Glassy Essence (and their own, in turn) for themselves.

Having read the correspondence between Ketner and Percy in Thief of Peirce, I know that Percy commissioned Ketner to write this volume. That said, I believe that Charles S Peirce, Walker Percy, and Kenneth L. Ketner are all speaking to any person whose interests run toward open-minded, evaluative, and exploratory inquiry into Life. What better way to discover your own Way than to see it in the life of another, namely Peirce.

Personally, I have no doubt in my heart that Percy would be pleased with Ketner's first installment of the life of CS Peirce. But, by all means, don't take anyone's word for it --- be Percy's sovereign wayfarer, pick up a copy of HGE, and discover Peirce's transformative power for you own self! ... Read more

Book Description

From critic of mass consumption to prophet of the apocalypse. The "pimp" of postmodernism. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The best introduction to Baudrillard's thought
Ignore the above - like all the books in the Introducing series, this is an exceptionally coherent and successful overview. The format is particularly appropriate and successful in the case of Baudrillard, and it is possible for the intelligent reader to grasp all his key ideas. The best introduction to his thought.

[price] worth spending
The "Introducing" series are very effective in my view because they both go in depth with the critical theories or foundations of a certain thinker and go through their less significant points.I think seeing all the points without sustaining all belief into the ideas of a person like Baudrillard is great by not getting too caught up in their claims."Introducing Baudrillard" compares his significance as a thinker to other contemporary and past philosophy very well and being familiar with the intensity of Baudrillard's claims is well worth the time and money.

Unhealthy Pretentious Chaos
Like most of the Totem Introducing series, I thought Introducing Baudrillard was going to benot quite in depth and truely lacking. Where Introducing Postmodernism was medicore but attempted to go in depth,Introducing Baudrillard is consistently shallow.

My main gripe is thelack of clearity, and it's illogical plot of Baudrillard's philosophicaldevelopment. And the way book is written is flat out horrible, which makesthe whole read incomprehrensible.

If your an undergrad student looking tolearn about contemporary and postmodern philosophy like myself, well FORGETINTRODUCING BAUDRILLARD!

Moronic.
Icon's Books' series of comic-book reductions of the works of the most abstruse thinkers scrapes the bottom of the barrel with this publication.

Never mind the fact that this series exposes the scholar to theridiculous spectacle of, for example, Jacques Derrida's writings expressedthrough the same medium as that of the Beano: it's the attempt to compressand simplify complex ideas that falls flat. And it's so obvious thatneither the authors nor the publishers care that they have notsucceeded.

If you're a student, and you think this series of books mightbe ideal for cramming, forget it: you might as *well* read the Beano. Andif you thought Introducing Postmodernism was badly explained, believe me,this one has all the comprehensibility of Joyce encrypted. It spends aboutfour lines (i.e, one page) skimming over *some* of Baudrillard's thoughts.If you think you'll understand Baudrillard's corpus of delphicpronoucements by being taken through him at that blinding speed, then themore fool you: I'm afraid there are some writers who simply can't bedistilled down to Cliffs Notes or worse. The quick-fix approach has endedin failure for the publishers, since the too-exiguous summary has merelycreated more incomprehension. They have tried to summarise a demanding bodyof work to cater to the lazy and the incomprehending. Sorry, guys:Baudrillard for Dummies is an oxymoron.

This Review Never Happened
This is a decent introductory picture book, though it makes far too many assumptions regarding one's knowledge of philosophy and sociology prior to encountering this allegedly introductory text.References are made to theworks Marx, Freud, etc., without ever attempting to explain the nature ofsuch ideas.Even though this is a "comic book," it is not whollyintroductory in nature.Too bad. One is better off with Postmodernism forBeginners, even though it features only a small section on Baudrillard. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is the first to tell in detail the story of the passionate and secret love affair between two of the most prominent philosophers of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger.Drawing on their previously unknown correspondence, Elzbieta Ettinger describes a relationship that lasted for more than half a century, a relationship that sheds startling light on both individuals. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Identification with the aggressor
First let me sound completely old- fashioned. The Heidegger - Arendt affair is immoral from the beginning because it is an adulterous relationship.
Secondly, Herr Philosopher did use his power and position to enchant the very enchantable fledgling philosopheress.
Thirdly, however morally distasteful the relationship before the War its renewal afterwards represents a tremendous moral failing on Arendt's part.
Fourthly, Arendt showed in ' Eichmann in Jerusalem' a kind of contempt for her own Jewishness. Her willingness to slip over Heidegger's Nazi connection shows a moral failing at the deepest level. Heidegger is no ordinary person, and as person of stature much more , not much less, should have been expected with him. He identified with those who killed one third of Arendt's people.
Fifthly, Jaspers Arendt's other great mentor and friend was a truly noble person. He set an example in regard to Heidegger which Arendt unfortunately was unable to follow.
Sixthly, Arendt in this relationship from the beginning was the subordinate, the secondary, and in some way the ' slave'. The Jew subordinated to the superior Aryan Heidegger. She never overcame this, and this represents a tremendous moral stain. She was a great thinker and in some of her life actions a noble person but in this relationship she failed the moral test. Heidegger was a Nazi sympathizer. For that reason I believe he deserves his own special place in a very low circle underground.

Arendt / Heidgger
The story of Arendt and Heidigger's love affair is an interesting one, and this book is interesting because it tells that story, but for no other reason. The author seems to have chosen this subject becuase she had access to the material in the archive, and not because she had anything to say about the subject. It left me feeling that, aside from a a few gossipy details, I knew no more about either person than before. Not only do Arendt and Heidigger remain elusive, Ettinger does not even seem to want to go after them! Their relationship is primerily of interest becuase of what they thought and wrote: Ettinger presents the few enough facts about their relationship in a readable style, but has no grasp of the thought of either one.

I find it impossible to agree with reviewer quoted on the back of the jacket, that this is "a most valuble book, an important record". It isn't: it's an evening's light reading. I can imagine a biographer of either figure (or a playwright or novelist, for that matter), immersed and *interested* in their work, who will really show us why their relartionship was important. (And why was a book that must of necessity include German names and words set in a typeface without umlauts? Bizarre!)

a day in the lives of...
Just to be fair: The book is not exhaustive but nor is it "tabloid" as one reviewer put it. And it is certainly not "soft porn". There is nothing "lurid" in these pages. The writing is, as the more fair-minded reviewer suggested, restrained in a respectful way, to all parties concerned.
This brief account does not set out to describe the impact the affair had on the two individuals' respective work. For anyone to demand such an account seems to me totally unreasonable: That a private passion of the heart always impacts one's intellectual work is by no means a given.
What this book shows you, regardless of the subjective tinge the author may have imposed on the characters in question, is the mystery of the workings of the heart. Ettinger sketches a portrait of a woman in love but not just any woman, but a woman of exceptional intelligence, expansive soul, and loyalty -- to her own ideals of friendship. Cloying speculations concerning the psychological causes -- childhood traumas, etc -- that may have led these two individuals to live and love the way they did are left out and the book is the more elegant and tactful for it.
To call Arendt a naif for the way she allowed herself to be "abused over and over again" would be to admit to total lack of understanding of the very nature of love. Arendt shows over and over her desire, need, psychosis -- choose your favorite term -- to forgive a man who in many ways was unforgiveable. Love does that.
In this double portrait of two people who happened to be academic thinkers, some 50 years is rendered as if it were a day. Heidegger comes off here as a man not above the sort of pettiness and calculation you and I lapse into occasionally, while Arendt is portrayed, without forcing any evidence to this purpose, as the kind of woman who could leave behind a legacy of not only of thinking but also of loving in the grand style. Great and important as Heidegger may be in the history of western philosophy, he may, alas, very well have been one of those gnomish professors we've all come across in our lives: brilliant and thus all the more annoying when they put their intelligence and intellect in the service of self-serving calculation. This book, written in clear prose and balance, confirms the disturbing (and disappointing) fact character and thought are not always equally winged.
Forget the names of the characters involved. Read it as a document of a love that would have made a great B&W movie as well, with the late Ingrid Bergman as Arendt, and Mickey Rooney as Heidegger.

I couldn't possibly be right about this.
The German tradition in philosophy has been so notoriously wrong about the nature of women so often that it is only fair that I, who usually appears as nobody in the world of philosophy as often as I am wrongly genedered in any attempt to belong to the world of women, have to read this book occasionally to remind myself how unfair this whole question must be in any context.That philosophy, as a love of wisdom, might be compared to a love of women, as the kind of passion that Mozart might attempt to display in operatic splendor in "Don Giovanni" (I think this is the most reasonable opera that I have ever heard) faces grave danger in a book in which the man who has embraced most totally the greatness of philosophy (who but Heidegger might want this distinction?), is slammed for having an unreasonable love life.For all I know, this might have been the story of a philosopher who might as well have thought that all was fair in love and war, but it is really the story of the woman.The perfection in this book, for me, was the idea that Heidegger might have been offended when Arendt triumphantly returned to Germany as the author of a book on totalitarianism in which the style of the Nazi regime, which Heidegger supported in certain official capacities, was treated like communism under Stalin, the kind of enemy of freedom that modern people ought to be able to understand in a negative light much better than anything positive that I could say at this point.I doubt if I would have had much interest in Hannah Arendt, if not for this book.It made me wish that I could be that smart.

Respectful account of a tragic love affair
I must say, rarely do I find myself disagreeing as strongly with the consensus of other reviewers as I do in this case.Ettinger's book is a brief and restrained account of a characteristically German sentimental relationship which obviously had a strong long term impact on the thought of Hannah Arendt.The fact that Arendt, a fully assimilated German of Jewish origin, could enter so fully into a relationship of this nature,which is so typically a phenomenon of the Romantic German milieu, is both poignant and a profound rebuke to the obscene anti-Semitism from which she and so many millions suffered.

The Heidegger-Arendt love affair has much of the power ofthe great Abelard and Heloise love affair, with which it has strong affiinities.

Given the fact that the letters on which this book is based are intimate, and, in Arendt's case at least, were in many cases written by a young and still unformed intellect, Ettinger seems to have exercised great restraint and avoided scoring cheap points by being unsympathetic towards the excesses of the letter writers.

Ettinger does not flinch from contrasting Arendt's tormented and difficult-to-defend collaboration in Heidegger's post-War rehabilitation with Jaspers's principled and unyielding refusal to re-establish his relationship with Heidegger unless Heidegger rejected the Nazi Party and its crimes--which he never did, in private or public.

This is not a profound study--it is a refreshingly light 139 pages or so.But it accomplishes what it sets out to do:provide a preliminary account of a startling and anguished love affair which has an almost symbolic quality to it.

The only reason it doesn't get five stars is because of the extremely limited quotations from the letters themselves, which was probably a condition imposed on Ettinger by the Hannah Arendt Literary Trust. ... Read more

Book Description

Here is the life story of two exceptional people, two Germans who fled their country for different reasons. It is the story of their life in exile in Paris and in New York, their dependence on each other and deepening love, their continued exchange of ideas, Arendt's teaching and writing, her involvement with Jewish life in Europe and in Israel, and Blucher's years at The New School and at Bard College. It is also an important document of the '30s in Germany and France, of World War II, and the post-war life in ravaged European cities. Meanwhile, there is love of food and drink, and of friendship-both intellectual and affectionate-with Karl Jaspers, Mary McCarthy, Alfred Kazin, and the complex relationship with Martin Heidegger and his wife. Within Four Walls is an extraordinary personal and historical record.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

Intimacy at Its Highest Level
Hannah Arendt has had much of her correspondence published over the last decade or so. We have volumes of her correspodence with Karl Jaspers, Mary McCarthy, Kurt Blumenfeld, and Martin Heidegger, among others. But these letters between Arendt and husband Heinrich Blucher stand out as the finest volume yet published. Whereas in the other volumes we see Arendt as student, friend, confidant, teacher, philosopher, intellectual, in these letters with Blucher we see Arendt as intimate confidant, vulnerable lover, and supportive wife. Heinrich Blucher was the one person to whom she could reveal herself, with whom she dropped her guard. The confidence was mutual as well; in Blucher's letters to Hannah we see his hopes, frustrations, trepidations, and above all, his devoted attachment to her hopes, needs and ambitions. Two people for whom the other was much more than a spouse or lover: someone in whom to take refuge in dark times.

The letters begin in 1936, shortly after Arendt and Blucher met in Paris, to which both escaped from Berlin in 1933: she after a short prison term for illegal Zionist activity, and he as a member of the German Communist Party, fleeing via Prague. At the time they met she was 29 and he 37. Both were married, but not to each other. They would not marry until 1940, shortly after their divorces became final.

Their first letters set the tone. Interspersed with intellectual and political affairs are their feelings for each other and their doubts and a lasting commitment can be achieved. IT grows from there, in all aspects, intellectual and emotional. When Arendt reproaches Blucher for not sticking to their letter-writing schedule, she tells him that she cannot continue to careen like a car wheel that has come off, "without a single connection to home or anything I can rely on."

They also discuss mutual friends such as Karl Jaspers, Mary McCarthy, Alfred Kazin, and Martin Heidegger (whose relationship over the years with Arendt can only be described as ambivilent), holding nothing back and giving the reader a rare glimpse into their intellectual and social world, a glimpse one can only imagine in a formal biography of the two. As no one writes letters anymore, this is a most valuable look into an intellectual time and world as distant from our cyber-present as last century's history.

Worth your time and money? Yes - in every sense of the word. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Lucky Find!
This book is fabulous! Navia chronicles the life of Diogenes in an academic and professional manner, and effectively disputes many claims made by other philosopher historians, such as F. Sayre. If you are