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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN num: 9780452011175
ISBN number: 0452011175
Label: Plume
Manufacturer: Plume
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: June 01, 1983
Publishing house: Plume
Sale Popularity Level: 554515
Studio: Plume
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Rated by buyers 
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Ayn Rand's legal and intellectual heir, Dr. Leonard Peikoff's book seeks to explain what led to one of the most advanced nations in the developed world embrace the monstrous doctrines of Nazism as official, legal and politically popular policy? Popular theses suggest that the Treaty of Versailles left the Germans in a state of poverty and desperation, which led to the rise of Nazi Germany. Dr. Peikoff rejects this thesis and argues that the reason why Nazism arose in Germany is primarily due to the pervasive, anti-life ideologies openly embraced in German culture at that time. Such malevolent ideas include:
* Rejection of reason as a means to moral, economic and scientific knowledge.
* Everyone's highest duty is to serve the state.
* Everyone must sacrifice his own values for "greater", state-approved causes.
* Rejecting individualism in favor of group think and assimilation.
The second part of the book contains an extensive number of quotes from Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels and Goering as well as detailed factual accounts of Nazi policy, Nazi propaganda, Nazi education, concentration camps and the like to corroborate his claims.
The last few chapters of the book are more controversial, since these are where Dr. Peikoff elucidates the "ominous parallels" between the intellectual trends of Weimar (pre-Nazi) Germany and the U.S. at the time of this books original publication (1982). Although many perceive these parallels to be hyperbolic, there are many contemporary political analysts, both on the Left and the Right, who perceive that the U.S. is careening towards fascism in some aspect. For example, from the Left, there are accusations that the Religious Right is bringing the U.S. towards fascism, such as in Chris Hedges' American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Similarly, from the Right, there are accusations that the increase in economic controls is bringing the U.S. closer towards fascism, such as in Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left.
Note that in the Ominious Parallels, Dr. Peikoff identifies that the political left in Weimar Germany wanted increased control over property and that the political right wanted increased control over the mind. Hitler, deciding that both camps are correct, compromised by imposing total control. The parallels described in Ominous Parallels are not as inconceivable as many suggest.
Before reading this book, I recommend knowing a little bit about the history of Hitler's rise to power. Reading the pertinent Wikipedia articles should be sufficient. In addition, I recommend familiarizing yourself with the ideas of the major continental philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger. Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks, is excellent source for this.
Rated by buyers -
so many resemblances then, many more now in 2008.
Must read and study, if wish to protect oneself.
Rated by buyers 
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A rip off of Karl Poppers life's work where Popper dismantles Plato and explains the hallmarks of totalitarianism.
So this guy drops about 1000 of Popper's citations, switches Plato for Aristotle, and farts out a book saying that liberals are the biggest threat to freedom?
25 years later, he's looking pretty foolish.
Rated by buyers -
Ayn Rand provides the disproof of the philosophical underpinnings of socialism and communism in her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In the Ominous Parallels, Leonard Peikoff provides the disproof of the philosophical underpinnings of Nazism and Fascism. Thus collectivism, in all its forms, has been discredited, and so we're left with American individualism as the last philosophy standing.
There are two main parts to the book: Theory and Practice. The very first part is summarized on pp. 94-95: "The true Nazi...is not to express himself, but to do his duty; not to uphold his desires, but to sacrifice them; not to raise moral questions, but to accept the answers given by others; not to cling to moral principles, but to adapt himself to the ever changing voice of the collective as it determines the purpose of his life and every means to that purpose....the Nazi's primary obligation is to renounce his self,..., his values,..., his judgement,..., his convictions. The Nazi metaphysics and epistemology preach mind-sacrifice, thereby removing facts and thought (reality and reason) from the Fuhrer's path." The second part is summarized on p. 253: "The Nazis...preached authority above rights, the group above the individual, sacrifice above happiness, nihilism above morality, feelings above facts, pliability above absolutes, obedience above logic,the Fuhrer above the self--and they applied it." The last chapter provides the anti-dote, Objectivist philosophy. p. 302: "These two,[reason and egoism], properly understood and accepted, are the immovable barrier to any endeavor to establish totalitarian rule....Reason destroys fear; egoism destroys guilt....reason does not permit man to feel metaphysically helpless; egoism does not permit him to accept unearned guilt or to regard himself as a sacrificial animal."
Since the publishing date of the book, 1982, the U.S. has had both deregulation and re-regulation. It seems unlikely, unfortunately, that we'll get back to the laissez-faire promoted by William Graham Sumner around the turn of the last century, one of the few thinkers praised by Peikoff. On the other hand, it seems doubtful that we'll have a fascist dictatorship here, despite the parallels of Weimar Germany and the American '60's; the hampered market system (to use a phrase from von Mises) will continue. The real parallels are, it seems to me, between Nazi Germany and the various Arab dictatorships and Islamo-Fascist groups. But Kant cannot be blamed for these--they all stem from the Koran. So perhaps Dr. Peikoff could update this work to show the parallels between Nazi Germany and the Islamo-Fascists.
The references and index are fine. I do have one minor quibble, though: this is Peikoff's treatment of Nietzsche. He says, p. 43: "The extent of Nietzshe's actual influence in regard to the rise of Nazism is debateable. He is antistatist, antiracist, and in many respects a defender of the individual. Nevertheless, he is a ferivd romanticist, who revels in the post-Kantian anti-reason orgy, and there is much in his disjointed, aphoristic writings that the Nazis were able to quote with relish." But Nietzsche was an anti-anti-Semite and its unfair to blame Nietzshe for the Nazis' twisting of his words. It's clear from Rand's work that Nietzsche was a major influence on her; Galt's gulch is an extension of Zarathustra's cave.
I recommend Peikoff's book to all philosophy students (and professors)--boy do they need it!
Rated by buyers -
I highly recommend Leonard Peikoff's Ominous Parallels. He analyzes the rise of the Nazis. The population in late 19th century Germany was dumbed down from the Hegelian school (following Kant's Critique of Pure Reason). German citizens acted mindlessly, with a heavy reliance on the 'will to duty'. Individuals did what they were told, for the good of the country. Then, a tyrant took advantage of the population, and well, you know the rest.
A lot has been written about Nazi Germany. Most of it has little value in helping us act today. Listing the atrocities in detail doesn't help us. What will help us, is understanding how and why the population of Germany preceding WWII (especially the Weimar Republic) allowed conditions to evolve to inhuman atrocities.
In the early 80s, Peikoff noticed disturbing parallels of the rise of the state (and the corresponding fall of the individual) between Nazi Germany and the modern USA.
I read this book over a decade ago. Peikoff's ideas were an eye-opener to me, and they cause me great pain as I witness a president acting as a king. The parallels are frightening.
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