Book Review: The Aryan Myth by Leon Poliakov

 

The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist & Nationalistic Ideas in Europe by Leon; Howard Poliakov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The death of six million Jews between 1941 to 1945 was the result of an evolution in the enquiry into the origins of peoples and nations that began during the Middle Ages passing from theological viewpoints to scientific ones and finally—unfortunately—to political viewpoints. The Aryan Myth: The History of Racist and Nationalist Ideas in Europe by Leon Poliakov traces how this myth originated and progressed until it became so accepted as to warrant the attempted destruction of an entire people.

Poliakov’s extensive research covers the whole of the Europe from the Spain’s “tainted blood” mindset after the Reconquista, to England’s belief of their connection to ancient Israel, to France’s back and forth between their Gallic/Celtic inhabitants and Frankish/German namesakes, Russia’s multiple origin tales, and finally Germany’s use of a fourth son of Noah to create a basis for the Germanic peoples. Yet while all these origins were in someway connected with the Bible, once the Enlightenment brought criticism and skepticism into the fore these any Biblical origins were dismissed and something new had to take their place which meant 18th-century social scientists and philosophers and others had to come up answers which resulted in the beginnings of the racial hierarchies and stereotypes that became into vague and still permeate society today. Throughout the 19th century, the division of Europe into being inhabited by two races—the Aryan and Semitic—steadily evolved towards the point that led to the eventual murder of two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. Through 310 pages the reader is bombarded with a lot of information in rapid succession as well as Poliakov’s give context to quotes and brief information on the authors, while it is very informative there is a sense that Poliakov wanted to say more but either through original publisher or self-imposed page limit.

The Aryan Myth by Leon Poliakov reveals how through the centuries the search for national origins within different cultural prisms slowly lead towards myths of race and superiority.

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Book Review: The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For the educated elite and free thinkers, deism was philosophical position brought to the fore through reason but was not supposed to be disseminated to the masses for the good of society. Then came Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, which brought deistic arguments long available to the elites to the general populace in an engaging and irreverent style, thus making them appealing to his targeted readers.

Paine’s argument comes in three parts, the first of which was against revelation of scriptures as proof of God’s existence as it is hearsay—especially of that in the Christian era because it was bent to political circumstances—while God’s existence is testified to in the natural world. The second is that organized religion is corrupted by civil authorities as well as corrupting civil authorities to gain or increase its power. The third is an analysis of selected Biblical texts in the Bible (Old Testament) and New Testament to show it is not the revelation of God. While the structure of the book is somewhat haphazard due to the history of its publication, Paine begins it with his personal creed which includes the belief in one God and what he believes the religious duties of man are then declares what he is personally opposed to institutionalized religion while supporting the rights of others to believe in whatever creed they want to profess. When one reads this book, Paine’s beginning statement on his personal views of religion should be kept in mind so as not get a knee-jerk reaction to call the author an atheist like some—Theodore Roosevelt to name one—have done since this was first published. As for my view on Paine’s arguments, some are easy to agree with like the history of cooperation of civil and religious authorities to prop up one another, my personal belief in the separation of church and state so to keep each from being tainted by the other. While I agree that God’s existence is revealed in nature, it’s Paine’s arguments that revelation as seen in scripture and his proofs that I critique the hardest. Mainly as he went through several texts, out of context in many cases, I could come up with texts in other locations that completely contradict his supposition of what the highlighted text said. And given that it was most of Paine’s argument, it was no doubt better debated at the time of publication and due to space and time I do not have time to write a pamphlet in response to Paine’s mistakes. Beyond the contents of the book itself, this is a concise though thorough argument for 18th-century British deistic thought as well as the anti-clericalism inspired by the French Revolution that began to influence political thought from then to now.

The Age of Reason is Thomas Paine’s argument to general public against organized religion in favor of the deistic beliefs that had long been developed and accepted among the elites who Paine believed propped up corrupt religious organizations to keep the common man from obtaining his full rights as a free man.

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Book Review: The Master and Margarita by Mikhael Bulgakov

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What happens when the Devil and his fiendish retinue arrive in an atheistic worker’s paradise and anyone who gets in their way? The Master and Margarita by Mikhael Bulgakov is a magical realism novel that takes mid-1930s Soviet culture to task along with his commentary in his own experience as a writer during that era.

The fact that Bulgakov never technically finished the book to his satisfaction before his death and yet it’s a fantastic read is incredible. The fact that the Devil goes to Moscow, challenges the religious beliefs of the populace or lack thereof, and judges their behavior is a perfect satire by the Soviet author against the official atheistic stance that supposedly prevailed in the nation at that time is pure satire. The Devil’s actions, under the pseudonym of Dr. Woland, and that of his retinue cause various levels of mischief that sometimes reaches malevolence from sudden trips to Crimean resort towns, finding yourself possessing illegal foreign currency, getting decapitated then having your head reattached, and finally dying in over the top ways. The fact that the titular characters are only in essentially half the novel and it being the second half is a great bait-and-switch as I didn’t mind falling the misadventures of the retinue, especially Behemoth. While I call this magical realism, it could also be a satirical dark comedy with supernatural elements, or an out-of-left field meditation of Christian philosophy, or anything else one can think of, regardless of the genre it’s a good read.

The Master and Margarita is one of the greatest works from the Soviet era and given how Mikhael Bulgakov was treated throughout his life during the Stalinist era, it just shows the sometimes surreal whims of Soviet authorities.

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Book Review: The Seekers by Daniel J. Boorstin

The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World Knowledge Trilogy by Daniel J. Boorstin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Discoveries, inventions, and creations are a defining part of Western culture, just as important as the material elements are the religious and philosophical ideas, thoughts, and questions. The Seekers by Daniel J. Boorstin is a chronicle of Western culture’s search for the answer to the question “why?” over the millennia and how it influenced Western culture itself.

In a little over 300 pages Boorstin writes and connects 41 mini essays covering the lives, ideas, and impact of seekers from ancient times to the modern. The book is divided into three epochs, the first of which was Ancient Heritage covering the prophets of the Old Testament, the philosophical trinity—Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—of Ancient Greece, and finally the merger of the two in Christianity. Communal Search was the second as it covered how history was written for communities first in epics following the struggles of heroes then transitioning to the course of events as seen in Herodotus and Thucydides, then how in the context of their society’s seekers look to define the individual within a community. Finally, the Paths to the Future covers the abandonment of the empowerment of the individual to the masses who follow an ideology that eventually led to the abandonment of the state to find answers in culture or in existentialism or in the solace of diversity and eventually to looking past the finite to the infinite in processes of evolution or figuring out scientific universal laws. Unlike the previous two volumes of Boorstin’s “Knowledge” series, the West is specified from the beginning thus not promising or giving a false impression that he’ll cover viewpoints from other cultures. Also in this volume, Boorstin speaks out about certain things especially ideology, the belief that the ideas expressed were true because they could be “proven” leading to not only the lose of influence of the individual but also the meaning of being an individual, which proved the basis for the rise of the totalitarian regimes found at both extremes of the political spectrum. As an introduction or get a summary of the cultural history of Western religious and philosophical thought, Boorstin’s book is a great place to start or read but this shouldn’t be mistaken for an authoritative look into it.

The Seekers is the final volume of Daniel Boorstin’s “Knowledge” series, the shortest of the series but the one that invites the reader to explore further the ideas and thoughts that were shaped by and did shape Western culture.

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Book Review: How to Study Prophecy by Shawn Boonstra

How to Study Prophecy: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Biblical Prophecy by Shawn Boonstra
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The allusion, images, and symbols are important in prophecy, which means understanding them is important for us when studying those prophecies. How to Study Bible Prophecy is the supplemental book of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study (2nd Quarter 2025) by Shawn Boonstra is meant to cover the art of prophetic interpretation and how prophecy has been understood through time. Unfortunately, Boonstra in both this book and the Adult Sabbath School Quarterly lessons alike failed to realize his audience, which were church going Seventh-day Adventists not the atheists, agnostics, and former Adventists his ministry has been targeting for years. Of 13 chapters over the course of the 128 pages, only the last four read like they were on point to what the book was meant to cover and the intended audience. That doesn’t mean the rest of the book is bad, Boonstra shares some interesting personal anecdotes but those only go so far. Honestly, this supplemental book is the least on point one I’ve read and while I give partial blame to Boonstra the other part must go to Adult Sabbath School Quarterly editor Clifford Goldstein who didn’t remind Boonstra who his audience was.

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Book Review: The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Personal Reminiscence by Bruce G. Hallenbeck

The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Personal Reminiscence by Bruce G. Hallenbeck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The town of Kinderhook, New York is where The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was born, it turns out that Washington Irving’s Headless Horseman isn’t the only supernatural or mysterious local in the area. The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Personal Reminiscence by Bruce G. Hallenbeck details the unusual phenomena that his hometown, his family, and himself experience in a very interesting start to the 1980s.

The term “high strangeness” truly applies to the incidents and events that Hallenbeck relates from his life, that of his family, and from others who have contacted him over the years but specially during the early 1980s. The first half of the book covers such unique phenomena as ghosts, supernatural entities like fairies or something similar, and UFOs all happening in the Hudson River valley but several on Hallenbeck’s family property that he and or members of his family encountered or witnessed. But Hallenbeck also relates similar incidents that have been reported to him over the years as he investigates all types of strange occurrences over the decades. The second half of the book concentrates on the sightings and vocalizations of sasquatch that locals began calling the ‘Kinderhook Creature’ even though several times more than one was witnessed at the same time. Hallenbeck himself never saw ‘the creature’, however his grandmother and cousin had multiple encounters which both wished they had never had. During the peak years of the creature’s time in the area numerous people outside of Hallenbeck’s family had their own incidents which eventually came Hallenbeck’s way, adding to his collection of everything he could find to figure out what was going on. Overall, this 180-page book is an easy-to-read account of the strange 1980s in a small town in New York state.

The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Person Reminiscence relates strange times in the 1980s in not only Kinderhook, New York but all along the Hudson River valley mostly from the personal recollections of Bruce G. Hallenbeck along with reports from his family and complete strangers.

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Book Review: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is one of mysteries greatest cases from one of, if not the, greatest writers of the genre and it’s been adapted numerous times in film, television, and other genres. Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s best-known Hercule Poirot mystery novels with a compelling crime on a passenger train stuck in a snowstorm in Yugoslavia that looks to be connected to a dark crime in the United States and a dozen suspects that keep readers guessing until the end.

After solving a mystery in French colonial Syria for the military there, Poirot hears news of a ongoing case in England he quickly arranges a spot on the next coach to Calais thanks to his friend the direction of the passenger train company. Once on board, Poirot notes the number of passengers and their various origins. The next day one of them is murdered while the train is stopped thanks to a snowdrift, Poirot is asked to investigate the crime as the Yugoslav police don’t put officers on trains. This is the setup as the Poirot looks to find the answer, which thanks to the cultural zeitgeist I was spoiled to the ending a long time ago but a part of the joy of reading mysteries is figuring out how the protagonist figures it out based on the clues the author gives. After finishing the book, I can see why it is just a classic in the mystery genre and a page-turner to boot. Unlike the previous Poirot novel that I read, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, this was written in the third-person and I enjoyed seeing more Poirot as a character. Frankly a great read and just shows I need to read some of Poirot in the future.

Murder on the Orient Express is one of, if not the, most famous of Hercule Poirot’s cases and just shows why Agatha Christie is seen as the “Queen of Mystery”. A great read from beginning to end.

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