Diary of a Man in Despair

Essential peri-WWII reading discovered thanks to one of those "readers also enjoyed" recommendations on GR's upper-right margin. I was like, hey, that sounds like a catchy title, an uplifting romp to help me through the recent extreme Arctic freeze. GR was ultimately right: I liked this a good deal,......more

A conservative German aristocrat and historian kept a diary beginning in 1936, documenting the demise of the German empire through Nazism. Chilling, in the early pages, with resemblance to the rise today of other fascist, populist regimes, including one he himself was studying from the Mddle Ages. A......more

Apparently, there is some disagreement about how 'authentic' Reck's diary is. For instance, he talks like a south-German gentleman, but was actually Prussian. Researchers who care about these things say that he lies a lot. This might dampen your reading experience, but not mine: I don't care if Reck......more

Freiderich Reck is a major contemporary critic of the Nazis. His critique, unlike the major ones coming out of Europe after the war, is from the right. He is a conservative prophet of doom, and his prescience is impressive since he never doubts the absolute disaster that was the rise of Nazism. To h......more

Reck's diary is a moving and heartfelt howl against the Nazis consisting of what might seem to be an incongruous mix of dishy gossip, get-off-my-lawn fist shaking, and escalating tales of haunting atrocity. It's fascinating to view the rise of the Nazis and the parallel Nazification of German societ......more