We will be wrapping up coverage of 2017 this month with a spate of material on Nazism and the occult and more on the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence. Kurlander’s book got considerable mainstream
attention. Blavatsky, I think, due to the considerable rehabilitation of her
reputation in the last 20 years (and the work of Goodrick-Carke), is treated
fairly respectfully, considering the subject matter. Fortunately, Julian Strube gives a knowledgeable, accurate
and insightful review, showing how more critical and nuanced current research
is, and showing how the work, although having some interesting intuitions and some
good research, simply relies too much on uncritical use of sources. More work could be done, for example in the early formative period of the ariosophical current when theosophists Hubbe-Schleiden and Franz Hartmann, were still active (following the solid pioneering study of Corinna Treitel in chapter four of her 2004 work, The Science of the Soul). Moreover, there is a need to examine Blavatsky’s writings more
specifically, although the situation is improving. The rising interest in
Nazism in the occult, should spur the need to improve the level of research in
that area.
Kurlander’s knowledge of Blavatsky is sketchy;
sadly, a problem found among many scholars. He relies on inaccurate secondary
sources and so just on page 15 one can point out at least two errors: she did
not plagiarize Bulwer-Lytton and she did not use the term ‘Great White
Brotherhood’. I do think there is a need to have a new book on this subject, because the Goodrick-Clarke book was a decent first shot, but a little primitive by today's standards, and there needs to be a more level-headed response to all the popular conspiracy theory books out there. Unfortunately, this book, although adding updated information, has important flaws. I don't think that addressing conspiracy theories by adding more conspiracy theories is the optimum approach for this type of subject matter. But it's good that esoteric studies in academia are growing in such a way that more mainstream historians are throwing their hats in the ring.
Julian Strube
Book Reviews / Correspondences 5 (2017) 1–10Eric Kurlander, Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich, New
Haven/London: Yale University Press 2017. ISBN: 9780300189452
Among the steady stream of publications devoted to the relationship between esotericism and National Socialism, Eric Kurlander’s study is one of the rare examples of a serious contribution to an old debate. It offers a most welcome critical perspective that sets it apart from the scholarship of recent decades, most significantly Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke’s The Occult Roots of Nazism (1985) and Corinna Treitel’s A Science for the Soul (2004). In contrast to these studies, which were highly cautious about claiming actual links between esotericism and National Socialism, Kurlander establishes the central argument that “National Socialism, even when critical of occultism, was more preoccupied by and indebted to a wide array of supernatural doctrines and esoteric practices than any mass political movement of the interwar period” (xiv).
However, it is exactly
these strengths that make this study especially ambiguous, as the lines between
solid research and the full spectrum of sensationalist, biased, and spurious literature
are frequently blurred. These sources may be distinguishable for experts, but
not necessarily for others, which makes their appearances at the core of a
serious academic study particularly misleading.
A small sampling of some of the reviews, generally supporting the book without noting Strube's critiques:
Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural
History of the Third Reich
Joseph Laycock Journal of the American Academy of Religion, lfx082,
https://academic.oup.com/jaar/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jaarel/lfx082/4788654
Supernatural Histories, German and American
January 19, 2018 by
Philip Jenkinshttp://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2018/01/supernatural-histories/
Jason Colavito - 8/25/2017
Of course I disagree with the strong anti-theosophical stance of the review, but otherwise, I think part of of his argument is valid. i.e. one could find significant ties of the occult with politics in many countries, and not Germany specifically, although I don't necessarily think they automatically correlate with extreme right-wing racist fascism.
Did Hitler’s obsession with the occult lose him the war?
Robert Carver June 2017https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/06/did-hitlers-obsession-with-the-occult-lose-him-the-war/
The Nazis Were Obsessed With Magic
Rebecca Onion August 2017http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2017/08/an_interview_with_historian_eric_kurlander_about_his_book_hitler_s_monsters.html
Gods and Monsters
Andrew Stuttaford October
2, 2017
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017/10/02/eric-kurlander-hitlers-monsters/
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017/10/02/eric-kurlander-hitlers-monsters/
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