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jeffhall's review against another edition
4.0
The Master Plan is an interesting look at Nazi junk scholarship, and the compromises that even highly competent academics and researchers were willing to make in order to advance their careers in the twisted world of the Third Reich.
In an age of climate change denial, anti-vaccination activists, and hold-out municipalities that don't fluoridate their public water systems, Heather Pringle's work of history illuminates some of the political mechanisms that can allow junk science to survive and maintain influence over policy long after the work has been dismissed by the scholarly community at large.
If the Nazis sought particularly gruesome outcomes from the work of the Ahnenerbe, the tactics they used to promote blatant falsehoods are all the more chilling for the fact that others have adopted those same tactics in our own time.
In an age of climate change denial, anti-vaccination activists, and hold-out municipalities that don't fluoridate their public water systems, Heather Pringle's work of history illuminates some of the political mechanisms that can allow junk science to survive and maintain influence over policy long after the work has been dismissed by the scholarly community at large.
If the Nazis sought particularly gruesome outcomes from the work of the Ahnenerbe, the tactics they used to promote blatant falsehoods are all the more chilling for the fact that others have adopted those same tactics in our own time.
themadmaiden's review against another edition
4.0
When the past doesn't fit your version of reality, you can just make it up! - some Nazi, I'm sure.
A very creepy book about how the Nazi's tried to make science (and history and other things) fit their version of what reality was and ignored the actual facts to get there. And how way too many people were just fine with going along with it.
I think the creepiest part to me was talking about the people who still had jobs and normal lives after the war, even after everything they did.
A very creepy book about how the Nazi's tried to make science (and history and other things) fit their version of what reality was and ignored the actual facts to get there. And how way too many people were just fine with going along with it.
I think the creepiest part to me was talking about the people who still had jobs and normal lives after the war, even after everything they did.
ipacho's review against another edition
4.0
An astonishing look at the strange mix of science and mysticism of the Nazis, and a very gook book to understand why they thought like they did. The only thing that I don't like about it is that it is written like a Ph.D thesis and you constantly have to flip to the notes.
ipacho's review
4.0
An astonishing look at the strange mix of science and mysticism of the Nazis, and a very gook book to understand why they thought like they did. The only thing that I don't like about it is that it is written like a Ph.D thesis and you constantly have to flip to the notes.
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