A really informative look at the root causes which led to the opportunity for the Nazi's to take power in Germany. I believe that the author shows rather convincingly that the development of the philosophy of the nation was the key ingredient to the ease which the Nazi's were able to take over. During the time I spent reading I really had to grapple with myself and many things I had believed philosophically. I had always wondered about my fascination with the Nazi's and this book shows that the philosophy that I had been influenced by in my youth really has led me to be open to them. This book is essential reading not just for information on the Nazi rise to power but to the rise to power of a Nazi-like power within the United States too. There is much information on American progressives and Socialists who have shaped the United States into the country it is now, and warns us what is on the horizon if we don't do anything to stop it.
Maybe I did myself in with this one, by reading two books very similar in their main ideas one right after another. But indeed, of itself and especially in comparison to Liberal Fascism, The Ominous Parallels was tiresome and empty, full of unexplained generalizations, unsupported inferences, crude speculation, irrelevant moralizing, philosophical polemics, and long lists of things the author dislikes. I really want to like Leonard Peikoff, but when I'm confronted with something like this, I just can't. In fairness, the book does have its high points, peaking in chapters 7-9 and again in 14, before taking a swift nosedive back into the dull void of abstractions taken for granted. I actually agree with Peikoff's conclusions, but he makes very little attempt to provide DNA evidence for the intellectual genealogy he claims. All told, The Ominous Parallels read like a very long and tedious college essay, not a work of historical scholarship.
What do You think about Ominous Parallels (1983)?
Peikoff's thesis -- explaining the similarities between the current American political landscape to that of Germany's before Hitler came into power -- is strong. He gives compelling examples of cause and effect, and how philosophy plays a major role in shaping a nation. His writing, however, is sometimes muddy and hard to follow, and his conclusion that Ayn Rand's Objectivism is the way to "save" a country from the threat of Fascism is far-fetched and biased (he is her "intellectual heir"). Otherwise, a great read.
—Jessica
A timely warning when it was written, and even more so now. The take home lesson is that the fear of the United States becoming a communist state is overblown. The real problem, lies in creeping fascism. The current spectacle of Big Government getting into bed with Big Business to the detriment of almost everyone else is proof that they were right about so much. Back then, it was a warning about what happens "if this goes on". Now, it will help you understand what is happening "right now!" Can't recommend it highly enough.
—Don
Hey, he more or less hit the point. Look at the date of publication and where we are today. Consider that the Nazis had not been the source of nazism in Germany, but nazism brought upon the nazis. The grounds of this (nazism) are called by another name, replicable in any country in this world with any desirable outer appearance, but common in spirit and principal results. Peikoff got it right. It had been partly virtues, which let to the situation. But not philosophy and virtues themselfes, rather their abuse did it, while people believed in them not realizing the fake which was done with them. Of course, the parallels are NOT so ominous, as the title of the book suggests.
—Helmut
