The Shadow Falls by Gerald N. Lund
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A big part of why I love this series of books by GNL is that the history fills in so much I didn't know before. We all know about WWI and WWII - at least we think so. We now the little bullet points that seems to be on a circle conveyor belt that keeps going round and round - more and more books, more and more movies, more and more telling of the same information.
However, in these books, particularly this one, Lund describes more of the details - how inflation went up, and what amounts/percentages, how the INSANE GENIUS of Hitler started to "snowball", and why so many people fell for it, etc. It is amazing to just read/listen to this information.
I couldn't help but compare so much of the rise of the Third Reich/Nazi Germany to what is currently taking place in the U.S. and across the world.
A great example is a quote by C.S. Lewis: "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exervised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
That PERFECTLY describes Hitler and this book describes this process of how it came to be and why people AIDED him in rising to such power. "It's for the greater good!" they say. Yet, there is a fine line between protecting "The greater good" and protecting "Individual rights." I fear we have lost total sight of that line and we area plunging in a downward spiral into another "Nazi abyss". But I digress - the book is excellent, full of historical details and yet also fun fiction. Lund is a master story teller that draws you into the world of his books.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment