History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology

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Outstanding
The Occult Roots of Nazism.
The Occult Roots of Nazism
Ariosophism
my personal review

The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
Manufacturer: NYU Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0814730604
Release Date: 1993-09-01

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding.......2005-10-24

Great book. Well researched and sheds light on how myths can be so powerful. Unfortunately it was misused power!

The Occult Roots of Nazism........2004-06-03

_The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology_ by Nicholas Goodrick-Clark is an intriguing academic study on the pre-Nazi occult scene in Germany. The cover features a rather threatening Thule Gesellschaft symbol: a sword and swastika wrapped in laurels and a halo of emanating light. Many of the occult practices described in this book--palmistry, crystals, secret orders, hidden knowledge, spirit guides, channeling, tarot cards, fortune telling, astrology--have retained their popularity today in the New Age movement. What's particularly interesting about Goodrick-Clarke's work is he compares the Ariosophists List and Lanz to the ancient duelist philosophies of Gnosticism and Manicheanism in their extreme division of reality into two eternally conflicting forces of good (Aryans) and evil (Jews). Goodrick-Clarke begins his discussion by going back to the writings of Madame Helena Blavatsky, her two books _The Secret Doctrine_ and _Isis Unvieled_, and her occult Theosophical Society. Her books propagated a form of anti-rationalism and anti-scientism, instead relying upon supposed revealed secret doctrines by hidden masters in Tibet. Blavatsky believed there was a series of seven "root races" that lived on earth, of which the Aryan race was the fifth. Other notables connected with the occult at this time included Annie Besant, Charles Leadbeater and Bulwer Lytton. Lytton wrote in his work _The Coming Race_ of a subterranean race that was to give mankind new enlightenment and psychic abilities. Ariosophy, the so-called wisdom of the Aryans, developed from theosophical ideas and the general occult subcultures of the time. The political and motivation for the rise of occultism in Germany and Austria was the situation of the Austro -Hungarian Empire and the Hapsburg monarchy. Prussia had permanently excluded Austria from a role in a united German state by Bismark's military victories before 1871. However the Austrian Empire encompassed not only Hungary but also many nationalities of Slavic, non-German descent, in addition to Jewish minorities. The status of Germans as a whole in Austria was tenuous and the conservative elements of the populace were more inclined to fall for unorthodox metaphysical beliefs that would allow them to fight against the tides of political liberalism in the Empire. Hitler, it is to be noted, was not actually born in "Germany" proper but in the Austro-Hungarian Empire near the German border. Goodrick-Clarke takes care to note that Hitler despised the Hapsburg monarchy, while his sectarian occultist predecessors admired it as a bastion of German mystical/mythical tradition. In Vienna, during the late 1800s and early 1900s before World War I, two radical German nationalists, Guido von List and Adolf Lanz (who self-styled himself with the aristocratic title of von Liebenfels) researched and published a considerable amount of literature dealing with Germany's so-called repressed history. List believed that ancient, pagan, pre-Christian Germany was a center of culture kept alive by a secret order of initiates, the Armanenschaft, who established a decentralized aristocratic hierarchy and kept the German race pure through eugenic practices. Oddly enough, their secret doctrine, according to List, was encoded and given to the Rabbis for safekeeping in the form of the Cabala, in order to preserve it from Christian destruction. Lanz, whose _Ostara_ pamphlets Hitler is likely to have read, was an ex-Cistercian monk who joined the pan-German movement. Lanz made an extensive study of ancient civilizations and the Old Testament and concluded that the ancestors of the German race lived on Atlantis, which sank, and spread to Northern Europe and the Middle East. The supposed Aryan Middle Easterners founded the great civilizations of Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, including the Hebrews. The Hebrew Scripture, according to Lanz's analysis, was a history of the attempt for Aryans to preserve their race. He interpreted the fall as the miscegenation between Aryans and lesser races. Lanz believed Jesus ("Frauja") was an Aryan savior and the medieval Christian character of Europe, with its monasteries and nobility, embodied the Aryan ideal. He believed Alexandria, known for its library and scholarship, was the center of gravity of ancient Ariosophy. The first bishop to convert the Germans to Christianity was Ulifas, an Arian bishop from Alexandria, thus Lanz equates "Aryanism" with the Christian heresy of "Arianism," or disbelief in the deity of Christ. The Ariosophists and pan-Germanists believed the only way to preserve Germany's Aryan past was to fight against modern liberal tendencies and take aggressive action against those corrupting Germany's traditional landscape: the Jews, communists and Slavs. Several quasi-Masonic lodges were founded throughout Germany and Austria before, during and after WWI. Among these were the Thule Society and the Germannorden. There is some speculation that the Thule Society, its membership being a collection of well-educated professionals and aristocrats, founded the German Workers Party (DAP) as an activist political party to attract a mass membership. Hitler was sent as a spy to the DAP to survey its activities. Hitler later joined this party, which eventually renamed itself the German National Socialist Party (NASDAP or Nazi Party). Although Hitler never mentioned Lanz by name in any of his recorded words, Goodrick-Clarke attributes this fact to Hitler not wanting to call attention to where he got his ideas during his formative years in Vienna. Although Hitler did not have much of an interest in actual occult practices, his chief of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, did. Himmler consulted a former mental asylum inmate, Karl Maria Willigut (a.k.a. Weisthor), who claimed to possess an ancient ancestral knowledge of the German race. Himmler constructed a "Nazi Vatican" at a castle in Wewelsburg where neo-pagan ceremonies for the Nazi SS were held. Goodrick-Clarke's final appendix to this study is an examination of the mythology Nazi Germany's meteoric rise and fall from an obscure party from the 1920s to a totalitarian government that had Europe from the English Channel to the Caucasus Mountains under its thumb (albeit briefly). A considerable amount of literature has been published in various countries about how the Nazi Party's rise to power was aided by supernatural and demonic forces.

The Occult Roots of Nazism.......2002-08-06

This is a great book on the history of the movement. A lot of good info about Aryan Paganism in Germany at the start of the 1900s. I've known people who were involved with German Wotanism between the 1920s to 1945 and have books of and about that time period, but Mr. Goodricke-Clarke talks about alot of people I've never heard of before, and he gives new details about people I've read a great deal about. This book is the only source for a lot of this info.
His new book Black Sun is like part II of The Occult Roots of Nazism. He talks about the Pagan Revival after WWII and all the new ideas and people in the movement. These two books should be read together.

Ariosophism.......2001-11-08

The Occult Roots of Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke is a very well written study of the massive influence Aryan occultism and esoteric societies had upon Hitler and the theoriticians of the NSDAP. He is quite comprehensive in his coverage of Ariosophist philosophers and enigmatic volkish groups which blossomed in late ninteenth-early twentieth century middle Europe.

What makes this book worth reading to the student of Modern European History, is not only Goodrick-Clarke's ability to link these movements to Nazi philosophy, but his attention to detail. Further, he carefully explains the historical surroundings and mystical, sometimes ludicrous, beliefs held by members of the various Ariosophical societies.These explanations, coupled with what must have been very tedious research, enlighten these somewhat obscure and often forgotten influences on the NSDAP.

This book is well worth a read. However, its appeal is somewhat limited to those with particular interest in the occult

philosophy sub-genre of Nazi Studies. By no means is it a typical Shirer inspired playscript of the Reich.

TAB

my personal review.......2001-08-31

this was a well written book, if you have an interest in the history of nazi europe this is a must read!

Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs (3rd Edition)

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A Comprehensive Book With a Big Flaw
great for students

Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs (3rd Edition)
Ninian Smart
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0130209805

Book Description

This book offers a balanced, wide-ranging, and realistic approach to the full range of worldviews, showing how, whether religious or secular, they define the human values that drive the engines of both continuity and change worldwide. It shows readers the dynamics of each tradition, and emphasizes that although the various traditions may all share similar aspects, they each assign varying levels of importance to specific areas. Explores the major religious traditions and secular ideologies (Marxism, nationalisms, scientific humanism) from six dimensions: experiential/emotional; narrative/mythic; doctrinal/philosophical; ethical/legal; ritual/practical; and social/organizational. For anyone interested in comparative worldviews, religious and secular.

Customer Reviews:

A Comprehensive Book With a Big Flaw.......2007-07-03

Smart explains his structural understanding of worldview as being a triangle. At the top corner is the cosmos (meaning the physical universe) and the two bottom corners are self and society. One's worldview determines how the three corners are related. It also determines how self experiences the other two corners.

Smart believes that there are six dimensions that help define a worldview. While all worldviews have these six dimensions, the value a worldview may place on any one dimension will differ. The first of these dimensions is the Experiential Dimension. This aspect looks at how the self experiences the cosmos. Smart defines the experience as emotional with a range from terrifying to loving. He also says that an experience may be the same in two different religions, but the interpretation is not. The next dimension that he discusses is the Mythic. This refers to the stories on which a religion is founded and gets its meanings. The Doctrinal Dimension is the aspect of worldview that seeks to make sense of traditions, safeguard the myths, and make religious claims relevant to the current knowledge of the times. Smart's fourth dimension is Ethical. He differentiates between major and minor ethics. Smart says that the major ethics are common to many worldviews because a society could not survive without them. Without these, there would be no societies following any worldview. The Ritual Dimension includes areas such as worship, sacrifice, and rights of passage. The Social Dimension is the final aspect of worldview that Smart discusses. This dimension deals with the relationship between the two bottom angles of Smart's triangle.

The author provides a very broad overview of worldview both geographically and religiously.

The primary problem that I propose for Smart's theory is that he is trying to dispassionately understand the passionately held beliefs of others. The "traditional believer", according to Smart, is incapable of neutral and nonjudgmental analysis of the beliefs of others (or even their own). He appears to fault "traditional believers" for actually believing their beliefs. Smart's "structured empathy" makes it impossible for him to understand the beliefs of traditional believers. Smart wants them to abandon their certainty in the truthfulness and rightness of their beliefs. His preference would be that they would adopt his more rational and correct view of structured empathy and neutrality. In other words, he wants them to become true believers in his system.

great for students.......2000-04-22

This book is a good guide for those seeking more enlightenment about the religious world. this book was my major resource for the religious studies course I was taking. It provides an overview for approaching the different aspect and dimensions of religion as a student of Religion Studies, or as a seeker of truth. The book though gets rather confusing when it refers to the many religions' practices and terminology which I am not accustomed to, thus to make the book more bountiful, I used in joint Huston Smith's book "The World's Religions".

William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism And the Occult (Religion and Politics)

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An extremely flawed work about an obscure Right-wing radical
William Dudley Pelley and the Silver Shirts.

William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism And the Occult (Religion and Politics)
Scott Beekman
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0815608195

Book Description

The first full-length biography of William Dudley Pelley, an important figure in the development of right-wing extremism in the United States called by detractors the "Star-Spangled Fascist."

William Dudley Pelley was one of the most important figures of the anti-Semitic radical right in the twentieth century. Best remembered as the leader of the paramilitary "Silver Shirts," Pelley was also an award-winning short story writer, Hollywood screenwriter, and religious leader. During the Depression Pelley was a notorious presence in American politics; he ran for president on a platform calling for the ghettoization of American Jews and was a defendant in a headlinegrabbing sedition trial thanks to his unwavering support for Nazi Germany.

Scott Beekman offers not only a political but also an intellectual and literary biography of Pelley, greatly advancing our understanding of a figure often dismissed as a madman or charlatan. His belief system, composed of anti-Semitism, economic nostrums, racialism, neo-Theosophical channeling, and millenarian Christianity, anticipates the eclecticism of later cult personalities such as Shoko Asahara, leader of Aum Shinrikyo, and the British conspiracy theorist David Icke.

By charting the course of Pelley's career, Beekman does an admirable job of placing Pelley within the history of both the anti-Semitic right and American occult movements. This exhaustively researched book is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on American extremism and esoteric religions.

Customer Reviews:

An extremely flawed work about an obscure Right-wing radical.......2006-08-29

I ordered this book in hopes of learning a bit about Pelley, which for some unknown reason interested me somewhat. I quickly became disappointed. The book's cover and pages are very nice, but from there it goes downhill. It is very shallow, and doesn't go close to either the man or his life, at all. Its best side is perhaps its short summaries of Pelley's peculiar thoughts and his quite personal and somewhat inconsistent Weltanschauung. Mr. Beekman tends to (in full accordance with Dr. Kevin MacDonald's theories about what I assume is Mr. Beekman's ethnic background) constantly dismiss the idea that there might be even the slightest grain of truth in any "anti-Semitic" opinion. It becomes so blatantly obvious that he is biased, that I considered not even finishing the book. Jews run Hollywood? Insane. Jews have a tendency to be overrepresented in the media? Hilarious. Reading a biography where the biographer suggests his object is deranged every other chapter, tends to get somewhat annoying in the long run.

The only reason to buy this extremely biased and un-scientific book I can think of, (and the only reason I gave it two stars) is its rather large and well-researched bibliography and note-section. But in my opinion, it's not worth its cost at all, seeing that this book should never have been published. I finished the book, but I don't feel I have much more knowledge about the life and person of William D. Pelley than I did beforehand, and wasn't that the entire purpose of the publication?

William Dudley Pelley and the Silver Shirts........2006-07-03

_William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult_ by Scott Beekman is a biography of a fascinating and bizarre figure in Depression-era America who led a far right organization, the Silver Shirts, which championed the cause of Hitler and opposed the entry of the United States into the Second World War. While the author is obviously a (respectable) liberal, this biography nonetheless is mostly fair to Pelley and even notes the unconstitutional nature of the repressive measures taken against him by the government. Pelley (1890-1965) was a strange character who began his career as a small-town newspaper writer and novelist and eventually turned towards extremism and occultism. To understand Pelley's turn to extremism, anti-Semitism, and occultism it is probably necessary to understand the times in which he lived and the growing disorder in America which grew as an economic consequence of the Great Depression. Pelley came from old New England stock, the son of a former Methodist pastor, and idealized the kind of community that grew in small-town America. He came to see this small-town old America destroyed by Jews, communists, and subversives, and along with an increasingly alienated private life, came to embrace extremism as an answer to these difficulties. Pelley's religious beliefs also were altered as he came to embrace spiritualism and occultism, though maintaining that he was a true Christian. Unfortunately, the author does not really explain the full extent to which Pelley underwent a transformation from a disgruntled small-town newspaper writer (who eventually would write for Hollywood) to a virulent anti-Semite and political extremist though we are led to believe that his encounters with Russian communists during a voyage to Japan played some role in this. Perhaps the reason for this is because having to explain the full nature of Pelley's conversion would have to touch on issues which are not politically correct or to be discussed in polite society. Nevertheless, this biography offers an excellent account of the life of this obscure individual.

The author begins with the early years of Pelley's life. Pelley was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, though much of his youth would be spent in Vermont. His father began as a Methodist pastor, but eventually left this occupation and became a struggling businessman. (His father was eventually to become interested in the Jehovah's Witnesses, a group which was actively persecuted by the government for their opposition to the entry of the United States into the World War and disappear completely from Pelley's life.) Pelley had many interests as a youth, though he quickly became interested in the publication of newspapers and was especially motivated by his idolization of Elbert Hubbard, a popularizer of the arts and crafts movement. In Pelley's early writings (both his newspapers and novels) he became a champion of small-town America, hard work, and old American values, while at the same time mirroring many of the values of the Progressive movement and the Social Gospel movement among Protestants. Pelley's earliest political writings championed a kind of socialism, motivated largely by his reading of Bellamy's _Looking Backward_. Pelley married Marion Harriet Stone and became a struggling newspaper writer and novelist whose most famous novels took place in the fictional small-town of Paris, Vermont until 1918 when he traveled to Asia and Japan. It should be pointed out that originally Pelley supported the American war against the Germans and blamed the Germans for the Bolshevik revolution as did many ardent patriots at the time. However, during his trip to Asia he encountered the communists in Siberia. Along with the various anti-Semitic conspiracy theories circulating at the time among American military men, his journeys into communist Asia may have prompted his newfound anti-Semitic understanding. Pelley also developed an ambiguous attitude towards the Japanese, alternately praising and castigating them. Upon returning to the U.S., Pelley became involved in several other ventures eventually leading to his growing estrangement from his wife Marion. He would travel to California where he would continue to write his novels for Hollywood. However, Pelley became more and more dissatisfied with his private life as well as with the direction America was taking and increasingly lashed out at Hollywood and Jews. It should be noted that it was while working for Hollywood that Pelley began taking part in spiritualist séances and began to develop his occult religious beliefs. While traveling between his various homes in California, Vermont, and later New York, Pelley became involved in several allegedly platonic relationships with various women and would eventually leave his wife. Pelley experienced a life-transforming "seven minutes in eternity", in which he claimed to have made contact with the spirit world, in which he developed his "Liberation" beliefs. He came increasingly to focus on the issue of race and came to view various "dark souls" as part of lesser races. Pelley subsequently was to enter the world of extremism and create the Silver Shirts, a legion dedicated to anti-communism and opposition to international finance which embraced a form of Christian economics (similar to Pelley's earlier quasi-socialist writings) as outlined in Pelley's work _No More Hunger_. Pelley's political beliefs became more and more extreme as he praised Hitler, opposed the New Deal, and referred to Roosevelt as a "Jew". Pelley was to subsequently encounter financial difficulties which led to his being investigated for fraud. Later he was to face trial on charges of sedition as part of the great sedition trial farce (see for example the work _A Trial on Trial_ by Maximilian St.-George and Lawrence Dennis). The charges brought against Pelley were largely unproved and were brought about by his encounter with his nemesis Martin Dies (D-Tex.) of the House Un-American Activities Committee, who even the author admits may have represented a counter-type to Pelley similarly motivated by a love for a quiet small-town America free from extremists, as part of the Brown Scare. Pelley subsequently was to serve a prison sentence until 1950. When Pelley was released he could no longer publicly write about political matters, though he would privately maintain his beliefs in a Jewish-communist-United Nations conspiracy, and devoted most of his time to developing his "Soulcraft" religious system. Pelley's beliefs became increasingly bizarre and ended up incorporating elements of spiritualism, reincarnation, and even UFO encounters (the relationship between various UFO cults and esoteric Nazism remains an interesting one as well as the relationship between Pelley's belief system and the "I AM" Movement). Pelley came to be seen as a martyr for the far right and several individuals tried to revive both his Christian economics (based largely on the theories of Bellamy and Social Credit) and his spiritualistic beliefs. Pelley died in 1965.

This book is an excellent biography of an eccentric and obscure character on the outer fringes of political and spiritual thought. It provides a fascinating account of both his life and beliefs and is mostly fair to both.

Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India

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Meera Nanda sees no irony in her own life
Reviewers Missing the Point
Nanda gets it wrong
Don't listen to the naysayers
Because I could not give it a zero!

Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India
Meera Nanda
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813533589

Book Description

The leading voices in science studies have argued that modern science reflects dominant social interests and cultural values of Western society. Following this logic, postmodern scholars have urged non-Western societies to develop their own "alternative sciences" as a step toward "mental decolonization." In this passionate and highly original study, Meera Nanda reveals how these radical critiques of modern science are enabling Hindu ideologues to propagate religious myths in the guise of science and secularism.

Nanda contends that at the heart of Hindu supremacist ideology lies a postmodernist assumption: that each society has its own norms of reasonableness, logic, rules of evidence, and conception of truth, and that there is no non-arbitrary, culture-independent way to choose among these alternatives. This logic is enabling Hindu nationalists to celebrate the most mystical and obscurantist elements of Hinduism as "Vedic science." By eroding all distinctions between modern science and other local sciences, the postmodernist left has unwittingly aided the growth of reactionary modernism in India.

Customer Reviews:

Meera Nanda sees no irony in her own life.......2005-09-10

In short, Meera Nanda is arrogant and blinded by her own Marxist superstitions.

She flaunts her current employment with Templeton Foundation, but apparently sees no contradiction in being a super-rationalist who remains employed with an organization that gives away the "The Templeton Prize For Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities" including for "thanksgiving and prayer" !! So, when will you write a trope opposing your employers' supersition, Dr.Nanda?

"Yoga" and "Ayurveda" are unproven techniques ? That is not what is experienced by hundreds of millions of practitioners across the world. Dr. Nanda believes that the only acceptable standard of proof is her personal ability to comprehend any phenomenon.

Don't waste your time or money on this book. Use my mistake as your proof :-).

Reviewers Missing the Point.......2005-06-30

The author is not claiming or trying to be a philosopher, a historian, or a physicist. However, she brings to our attention an important and disturbing consequence of the Western fad for pseudoscience and irrationalism.

Nanda's training in her own science is quite sufficient for her to understand the scientific method, and to recognise snake-oil when she sees it. Cultural relativism, and the other idiocies spawned by Kuhn's magical "paradigms", have left the door open for politically motivated cults to justify dangerous, divisive, and oppressive ideologies.

Is tradition a defense for female genital mutilation? If you missed the point of Nanda's book, you will not be able to see that human rights are universal. Can cultural tradition justify the oppression of minorities? These are the real questions to be asked.

The last thing this World needs is intellectuals philosophising justifications for the patently absurd. Nandas book is a breath of fresh air, and it can only be hoped that others like it will put the wheels of reason back on the cart of civilisation.

Nanda gets it wrong.......2004-05-30

Meera Nanda really irritates me with a short-sighted defensiveness of humanistic naturalism. The argument posed here (which is nebulous to say the least) relies heavily on the belief that strict naturalism is fundamental to science-as-a-method and is inherently a complete system. That's silly.

Science at its best is only able to study natural phenomena, which we can interpret as things that are ultimately within human comprehension. However, the limits of human comprehension need not be the same as the limits of human perception. Even evolution implies that possibility by making it highly unlikely that there is not some post-human sensitivity that could expand post-human comprehension. Light-sensitivity contributed a fundamentally new sensitivity to simpler organisms, but it wasn't until a system developed to process that sensitivity that it could be considered comprehensible by an organism. There is a distinction between sensitivity (perceptibility) and comprehension.

Gaps between human comprehension (natural phenomena) and human perception (observable phenomena) are definitely NOT something incompatible with science, per se. Science is limited in that it may only address the comprehensible, but it does not, in itself, imply any limit to the observable.

Essentially, Nanda has it backwards. She says that the methods of science require that natural phenomena encompass all phenomena. However, it is simply the existance of natural phenomena - our ability to comprehend anything (hello Kant!) - that implies the study of itself by the scientific method. She is right that the limits of science are natural phenomena, but is wrong to say that the limits of observable phenomena are the the same as the limits of science.

Andrew

Don't listen to the naysayers.......2004-05-28

This is a much-needed argument, and excellent research. Nanda levels a devastating attack on the pseudo-science of the Hindu right. She also suggests that a wooly postmodernism in science studies and cultural studies are at best incapable of defending against Hindutva's form of anti-modern 'hybridity'. At worst, postmodernism is a direct asset to the ideology of Hindu nationalism.

Some of Nanda's points may be arguable, but this book is clearly written and well-researched. The arguments are forcefully presented and highly accessible. Academics and non-academics alike will be challenged by her points even if they disagree with her.

Because I could not give it a zero!.......2004-05-23

I regret having wasting my money in buying this book. I was attracted to the topic of the book, since I want to know how science and religion have been harnessed in India for various political ends. But I was a disappointed by the level of scholarship. I was reminded of the hoax of Alan Sokal in "Social Text" where intelligent sounding fragments were considered perfectly reasonable scholarship by unsuspecting editors.

The situation with this book is quite similar. At the micro-level the arguments of the book seem reasonable. But for anyone who knows science, it is clear that the author does not have knowledge of the primary texts (presumably because she does not know Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian) and she has knit together fragments from secondary sources in a manner that makes no sense.

I notice that the book has received a few "5 stars" for being "brave". But shouldn't "bravery" rest on impeccable scholarship, which is impossible without rigorous training. Nanda doesn't understand the arguments related to physics or psychology, and she adopts positions that betray this ignorance.

Book Description

Oxford Political Theory presents the best new work in contemporary political theory. It is intended to be broad in scope, including original contributions to political philosophy, and also work in applied political theory. The series contains works of outstanding quality with no restriction as to approach or subject matter. The series editors are Will Kymlicka, David Miller, and Alan Ryan. Any liberal democratic state must honour religious and cultural pluralism in its educational policies. To fail to honour them would betray ideals of freedom and toleration fundamental to liberal democracy. Yet if such ideals are to flourish from one generation to the next, allegiance to the distinctive values of liberal democracy is a necessary educational end, whose pursuit will constrain pluralism. The problem of political education is therefore to ensure the continuity across generations of the constitutive ideals of liberal democracy, while remaining hospitable to a diversity of conduct and belief that sometimes threatens those very ideals. Creating Citizens addresses this crucial problem. In lucid and elegant prose, Professor Callan, one of the world's foremost philosophers of education, identifies both the principal ends of civic education, and the rights that limit their political pursuit. This timely study sheds light on some of the most divisive educational controversies, such as state sponsorship and regulation of denominational schooling, as well as the role of non-denominational schools in the moral and political development of children.

Slavery, Imperialism, and Freedom: Studies in English Radical Thought

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Slavery, Imperialism, and Freedom: Studies in English Radical Thought
Gordon Lewis
Manufacturer: Monthly Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Religious Fundamentalism and Social Identity

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Religious Fundamentalism and Social Identity
P. Herriot
Manufacturer: Psychology Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415416779

Book Description

The attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in the United States of September 11th, 2001 brought the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism to the world's attention.Sociological research has clearly demonstrated that fundamentalists are primarily reacting against modernity, and believe that they are fighting for the very survival of their faith against the secular enemy. But we understand very little about how and why people join fundamentalist movements and embrace a set of beliefs, values and norms of behaviour which are counter-cultural. This is essentially a question for social psychology, since it involves both social relations and individual selves.

Drawing on a broad theoretical perspective, social identity theory, Peter Herriot addresses two key questions: why do fundamentalists identify themselves as an in-group fighting against various out-groups? And how do the psychological needs for self-esteem and meaning motivate them? Case studies of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 hijackers, and of the current controversy in the Anglican Church about gay priests and bishops, demonstrate how fruitfully this theory can be applied to fundamentalist conflicts. It also offers psychologically sensible ways of managing such conflicts, rather than treating fundamentalists as an enemy to be defeated.

Religious Fundamentalism and Social Identity is unique in applying social identity theory to fundamentalism, and rare in that it provides psychological (in addition to sociological) analyses of the phenomenon. It is a valuable resource for courses in social psychology which seek to demonstrate the applicability of social psychological theory to the real world.

Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith

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Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith

Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Democracy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Religion & Spirituality | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 069100708X

Book Description

Of the many challenges facing liberal democracy, none is as powerful and pervasive today as those posed by religion. These are the challenges taken up in Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith, an exploration of the place of religion in contemporary public life.

The essays in this volume suggest that two important shifts have altered the balance between the competing obligations of citizenship and faith: the growth of religious pluralism and the escalating calls of religious groups for some measure of autonomy or recognition from democratic majorities. The authors--political theorists, philosophers, legal scholars, and social scientists--collectively argue that more room should be made for religion in today's democratic societies. Though they advocate different ways of carving out and justifying the proper bounds of "church and state" in pluralist democracies, they all write from within democratic theory and share the aim of democratic accommodation of religion. Alert to national differences in political circumstances and the particularities of constitutional and legal systems, these contributors consider the question of religious accommodation from the standpoint of institutional practices and law as well as that of normative theory.

Unique in its interdisciplinary approach and comparative focus, this volume makes a timely and much-needed intervention in current debates about religion and politics. The contributors are Nancy L. Rosenblum, Alan Wolfe, Ronald Thiemann, Michael McConnell, Graham Walker, Amy Gutmann, Kent Greenawalt, Aviam Soifer, Harry Hirsch, Gary Jacobsohn, Yael Tamir, Martha Nussbaum, and Carol Weisbrod.

Lee Kuan Yew: The Beliefs Behind the Man

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Lee Kuan Yew: The Beliefs Behind the Man
Michael D. Barr
Manufacturer: Georgetown University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0878408169

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