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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
Did'nt hate it - interesting parts but found myself skimming about half way through and that's NEVER a good sign. Just not enough story to cover an entire book and felt if written well and concisely, 80 pages could of covered it. 2 stars but still a somewhat interesting historical account of some seriously disturbed participants of a supremely bad idea.
Ben Macintyre weaves together three parallel tales. One is how Friederich Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth ended up in Paraguay in the late 1800's with her husband and a German peasants to form an Aryan settlement. The second story is how Elisabeth Neitzsche misrepresented and twisted her brother's philosophy to make it meld with the growing Nazi movement in Germany. The third thread is Macintyre's tracking down of the descendents of the original German settlers still living in Paraguay.
Macintyre is a great story teller. The book was as entertaining as historical fiction but at the same time it made me want to learn more about Nietzsche and about Hitler's rise to power.
Macintyre is a great story teller. The book was as entertaining as historical fiction but at the same time it made me want to learn more about Nietzsche and about Hitler's rise to power.
I picked this book up because I'd read a number of Macintyre's other books and thoroughly enjoyed them. He does fabulous research and I like his writing.
This one was not about spies, as were the other books I'd read, but something altogether different. As the title suggests, it has to do with a "utopian settlement", a little Germany that Nietzsche's sister created in Paraguay in the 1880s. She was a driven, idealogical, anti-Semite who wanted to create a "pure" (read non-Jewish) enclave where "true German values" could thrive.
Nietzsche shared none of his sister's sentiments at all. He was the older sibling, by 2 years, yet died many years before she did. His decline happened to coincide with his sister's return from Paraguay - the settlement was a disaster for all the reasons you can imagine, although a number of people who had come with her from Germany could not afford to return to Germany. Her mission then became to craft her brother's legacy and writing to coincide with her beliefs.
Macintyre actually travelled to Paraguay in the early 1990s to find the remains of the settlers. Their location is remote and isolated. The remaining settlers are inbred, damaged, and simply weird.
The material in the book that deals with the colony in Paraguay was of interest to me. There is a long-ish section dealing with Elizabeth and her corruption of Nietzsche's works and crafting his legacy based entirely on lies she weaves. She was an avowed Nazi who counted Hitler as her friend. I found this section too long and certainly skimmed through it. Perhaps it would appeal more to a real Nietzsche fan, which I am not.
Interesting read though.
This one was not about spies, as were the other books I'd read, but something altogether different. As the title suggests, it has to do with a "utopian settlement", a little Germany that Nietzsche's sister created in Paraguay in the 1880s. She was a driven, idealogical, anti-Semite who wanted to create a "pure" (read non-Jewish) enclave where "true German values" could thrive.
Nietzsche shared none of his sister's sentiments at all. He was the older sibling, by 2 years, yet died many years before she did. His decline happened to coincide with his sister's return from Paraguay - the settlement was a disaster for all the reasons you can imagine, although a number of people who had come with her from Germany could not afford to return to Germany. Her mission then became to craft her brother's legacy and writing to coincide with her beliefs.
Macintyre actually travelled to Paraguay in the early 1990s to find the remains of the settlers. Their location is remote and isolated. The remaining settlers are inbred, damaged, and simply weird.
The material in the book that deals with the colony in Paraguay was of interest to me. There is a long-ish section dealing with Elizabeth and her corruption of Nietzsche's works and crafting his legacy based entirely on lies she weaves. She was an avowed Nazi who counted Hitler as her friend. I found this section too long and certainly skimmed through it. Perhaps it would appeal more to a real Nietzsche fan, which I am not.
Interesting read though.
Crazy story of a forgotten colony of aryans in South America. Shadow people who never fit in. Ben Macintyre is great at taking historical research and creating a captivating read.
This book was interesting overall, but tedious. I was most interested in the Aryan colony in Paraguay, but not much of the book was really about it. A great portion of the book was about the author’s journey to the colony in Paraguay and about Elizabeth Nietzsche’s life before and after her time in Paraguay.
This was a random pick at the library, and it appealed because it was one of those non-fiction books that seem to provide further evidence that truth is always stranger than fiction. The book is mainly about Nietzche's sister Elisabeth, a rather unlikeable person who - in short - spends earlier years of her life trying to establish a German colony in Paraguay that is based on anti-Semitism / German nationalism, and the later years of her life misrepresenting and capitalising on her brother's writing and philosophy. Major kudos to the author, who kept me interested despite my total antipathy toward the main character. As an aside, I knew nothing about Paraguay before reading this book, but now feel I must read more so my association of it is not with weird, Nazi-hiding failed colonies.
Fascinating story of how Elizabeth Nietzche (sister of you-know-who) wound up in Paraguay.
Well paced, very informative account of the influence of one woman on the narrative of one F Nietzsche and Nazism (individually, not together).
Less about the Paraguayan colony than one would like, but Macintyres narrative is strong to wrap it all up nicely once he realized there wasn't a lot to report about them (largely only in historical impact rather than contemporary advance).
Less about the Paraguayan colony than one would like, but Macintyres narrative is strong to wrap it all up nicely once he realized there wasn't a lot to report about them (largely only in historical impact rather than contemporary advance).
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced