an informed passivity…

Book review:

The Last European War:

September 1939-December 1941

by John Lukacs

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1976.

This is a typical scholarly Lukacs work, with high clarity insights and no inhibitions about expressing his informed critique of the work of other historians.

Lukacs illuminates the events, the leadership and the popular sentiments of national populations during the period leading up to the start of World War II and the initial conflict prior to the entry of the United States into the war in December 1941. I point to the word “national” to note the emphasis explained by Lukacs in The Last European War, based on his interpretation that national sentiments were of paramount importance in shaping both the popular reaction to war and the popular attitudes toward the conflict.

A strong impression: The people and leaders who were living through this turmoil had only marginal appreciation of the effectiveness and impact of their actions. Nevertheless, the Nazis’ rise to power was significantly facilitated by the passivity (an informed passivity, not a state of ignorance) of too many individuals who didn’t advocate a morally-framed opposition.

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Book review: Saint Joan

by George Bernard Shaw

click here

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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 free verse and haiku poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

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