Ernst Jünger and Germany: Into the Abyss, 1914-1945
Soldier-aristocrat Junger's three war journals, published between 1920 and 1925, and an essay, "Battle as Inner Experience" (1922), constitute a sustained reflection on the possibility of heroism in an age of mechanized warfare. As a journalist in the 1920s, Junger flirted with right-wing politics but shied away from the virulent racism and popular demagoguery of the National Socialists. In 1932 (the same year as the publication of Brave New World), he published The Worker: Mastery and Form, a mish-mash prophesying a faceless society of worker-heroes. Junger was dismayed by the demagoguery and cruelty of the Nazi regime, but he did little to counter it. The strength of Nevin's (Simone Weil, LJ 2/92) study lies in its conscientious recounting of Junger's pronouncements and actions, not in the somewhat prosaic analysis. His book works best where Junger speaks without interpreter. Solid scholarship nonetheless; recommended for pertinent collections.?David Keymer, California State Univ., StanislausCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.