- The War Against the West
"The War Against the West" is a
1938 book byHungary -born scholarAurel Kolnai . It is a critical study of National Socialist ideology. The title indicates the author's view of Nazism as profoundly anti-Western (by "the West" he meant the liberal,democratic , capitalist tendencies of countries such asEngland ,France , and America).The book was published by
Victor Gollancz Ltd. (London ) as a 711-page hardcover in 1938 with preface byWickham Steed . TheLeft Book Club made it an "Additional Book" selection. It has not been in print since the late thirties, although it enjoyed a modest success at the time of publication.Overview
During the twenties and thirties, Kolnai, born a Jew who converted to Catholicism under the influence of G.K. Chesterton, read extensively in the
German language fascist and national socialist literature. The book compiles and critiques the anti-Enlightenment works of Nazi writers themselves. Kolnai's study was the first comprehensive survey in English of Nazi ideology as a counter-revolution against, what German thinkers saw as, thematerialistic , rootless civilizations dominated by comfort-addicted, money-and-security-centered, liberalbourgeois and rootless cosmopolitanJews ; the antithesis of theheroic model of more vital civilizations, prepared to risk their lives, to die for ostensibly "higher" ideals. It is a devastating critique that argues that Nazi ideology is alien to the West and profoundly disturbing and dangerous.Kolnai saw the war against the West as, in essence, a war of
paganism againstChristian civilization . In citations fromHitler ,Goebbels , and others, Kolnai sought to expose what he saw as "the obsessive Nazi effort to replace Christianity with a crude and barbaric form of pagan religion, to twist the cross of Christ into aswastika ."Contents
External links
* [http://www.cceia.org/viewMedia.php/prmTemplateID/8/prmID/4465 Transcript of remarks] on the book "
Occidentalism : The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies" byIan Buruma , on 8 April 2004, at theCarnegie Council Books for Breakfast .
* [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=21315957377824 Kolnai's "Political Memoirs"] , reviewed byLee Congdon ofJames Madison University . Discusses "The War Against the West"
* [http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461500290/1938_Literature_World.html 1938: Literature, World] from "Collier's Year Book ".
* [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:PJEx_vbzkVkJ:www.nationarchive.com/Summaries/v147i0014_15.htm+Aurel+Kolnai+%22war+against+the+west%22&hl=en The Spirit of Nazism] , a review of "The War Against the West" byHans Kohn , in "The Nation", Vol. 147, 1 October 1938.
* [http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:mFvfl_b1Ho8J:www.aodonline.org/aodonline-sqlimages/SHMS/Faculty/HittingerJohn/Articles/PoliticalConservatism.pdf+Aurel+Kolnai+%22war+against+the+west%22&hl=en Aurel Kolnai and the Metaphysics of Political Conservatism] byJohn P. Hittinger .
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