BOOK AND PODCAST REVIEWS - NON-FICTION

The Jew of Linz: Wittgenstein, Hitler and Their Secret Battle for the Mind (1998) Kimberley Cornish   What Hitler Knew: The Battle for Information in Nazi Foreign Policy (2002) Zachary Shore  Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel (2003) Anne De Courcy   Hitler's Spy Chief: The William Canaris Mystery (2004) Richard Bassett   Hitler's Piano Player: The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanfstaengl, Confidante of Hitler, Ally of FDR (2004)   Peter Conradi How To Read Hitler (2005) Neil Gregor Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich (2017) Eric Kurlander     I am rather amazed that I read the thoroughly weird book The Jew of Linz through to the end, possibly because I was seduced by its first chapters. Essentially it postulates (on slim evidence) that the course of history was changed by boyhood contact in Linz between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Adolf Hitler. The seduction of the first chapters was caused by the fact t...

Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism & Nazi Survival (1992) Joscelyn Godwin   The Magus of the North: J.G. Hamann & the Origins of Modern Irrationalism (1993) Isaiah Berlin   Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century (2004) Mark Sedgwick    Politics and the Occult: The Left, the Right, and the Radically Unseen (2008) Gary Lachman   Although published by Adventures Unlimited which tends not to be, shall we say, conventional in its authors (who cover conspiracy, lost worlds, free energy and what-have-you), Arktos is a serious and interesting account of polar mythology in popular culture, in the history of science and in esoteric lore. Joscelyn Goodwin provides an intelligent and often wry overview that remains well within scholarly standards. It is a valuable addition to that shelf in the library that is dominated by the work of Goodrick Clark (of whom more in a later review) and ...

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (1999) Ronald Hutton Everything Paganism Book (2004) Selene Silverwind Pagan Resurrection: A Force for Evil or the Future of Western Spirituality? (2006)  Richard Rudgley The History of British Magic After Crowley (2007)  Dave Evans What Do Pagans Believe? (What Do We Believe) (2013) Graham Harvey     The Secret History of the World (2007) Jonathan Black , Mark Booth   Triumph of the Moon is the near-definitive account of the new religions that emerged, largely from the UK, in the last century. Hutton is sympathetic but rigorously academic. He has swept away the traditionalist claims of some founders whilst ensuring respect and dignity for practitioners. It is the founding text for understanding the context for any further reading in this field.    Although very US-centred, the Everything Paganism Book is a good beginners text w...