A Terrible January

A torchlight parade of SA formations passes in review before President Paul von Hindenberg, who sits in the window of the chancellery, on the night when Hitler was made Chancellor of Germany - USHMM

Hitler's Thirty Days to Power: January 1933 by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.
Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1996.
xii, 255 p., [32] p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm.

This was a very readable and informative book.  It is also a very disturbing and painful book to read, since I had not realized that the fortunes of the Nazis were very much in decline at the start of New Year, 1933. It really is a remarkable look at how Hitler insisted on an all or nothing offer of power, in spite of many pressures from within and without of the Nazi party for him to accept a coalition role in governing Germany.

There is much to ruminate over in this short, powerful look at the fateful month of January 1933: the willingness of the bourgeoisie to accept the violent and racist rule of the Nazis, the role of the rule of law in allowing the rise of dictatorial powers, the mistakes of elites in assuming they can control the representatives of vulgar right-wing populism.  There is also just the awful realization of what handing the reins of power to Hitler will mean for the Germans, the Jews, and the world.

I would definitely recommend this book to any student interested in the rise of the Nazis.

Southern Gothic

The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor
New York : Noonday Press : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c1988.
243 p. ; 21 cm.

I saw the movie Wise Blood a long time ago in college, back when I was living in the South, and Flannery O'Connor fascinated me with her brooding and disturbing portrayals of people lost in moral quagmires of obsessions and religion.

Well, The Violent Bear it Away, does not stray far from religious obsessions - and their troubling effects on the subjects of the novel.  The novel develops the intense conflict between Tarwater, an orphan raised to be a great prophet by his religiously crazed uncle and his nephew, Rayber - the strict rationalist - who is out to "cure" Tarwater of the effects of his upbringing.

The forces and personalities at the heart of the conflict hint at irreconcilable tragedy and the ending will leave the reader either satisfied at the resolution, or - as in my case - feeling that it was a bit contrived and rushed.

I can't say I'd recommend the novel to students, but a student looking for a southern writer to read and research might find O'Connor fascinating.  Her writing is also interesting and tinged with dark humor.

Not Your Great Grandfather's War

Bitterly Divided by David Williams
New York : New Press, 2010, c2008.
Pbk. ed.
310 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

This is one of those great history books that causes you to rethink the things you thought you knew about a major event.  In this case, the author is reexamining the Civil War - particularly the prevailing view of the Confederacy as society committed in wartime to the success of an overwhelmingly popular cause - the the desire to preserve secession and the white southern way of life.

Williams instead details how the secession movement was an anti-democratic takeover of southern legislatures by powerful elites - especially the large slaveholders.  He presents a wealth of documentation showing that secession never had a popular mandate - until armed conflict actually broke out.  Williams also points out that the Confederacy had to rely on severe conscription laws to fill the ranks of the army and how the exemption of large slaveholders created mass discontent. Finally Williams documents how the large landholders of the Confederacy contributed to the defeat of the South by dedicating much of their land to luxury items on which they could make exorbitant profits (due to the blockade) instead of foodstuffs that would have helped feed the soldiers and their families who struggled to feed themselves due to shortages and the lack of manpower.

The book is a powerful indictment of war profiteering and the exploitation of the lower classes by the rich southern aristocracy during the Civil War - themes that still have resonance in the current US landscape of war and wealth inequities.