Average customer rating:
- Fascinating story marred by unconvincing "conclusion."
- Good story, bad ending
- Good story, bad book
- Entertaining reading, but does not "solve" the mystery
- Interesting case
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Oblivion: The Mystery of West Point Cadet Richard Cox
Harry J. Maihafer
Manufacturer: Brassey's Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1574880438 |
Book Description
On Staturday, January 14, 1950, at 6:18 p.m., Richard Cox left his room at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point gto go to dinner with an unidentified visitor. He never returned.
Despite a massive manhunt and several plausible theories, Cox was never found. In 1957, he was declared legally dead, and the files were closed.
Then, in 1985, Marshall Jacobs, a retired teacher, decided to pursue the case as a research project. Through the Freedom of Information Act, he obtained voluminous once-secret files from the Army and FBI. Jacobs plunged into a labyrinthine search--and what began as a hobby became an obsession. After more than seven years, Jacobs found the one witness who helped him bring the case to a close.
This is his story.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating story marred by unconvincing "conclusion.".......2003-05-22
I've been interested in the Richard Cox mystery since I was very little and read about it in LIFE magazine in 1950 and then a few years later in CORONET. From time to time over the years I would research the topic hoping for new information. I'd almost given up until I came across this book , containing lots of details never before disclosed. Unfortunately, as mentioned in some of the above reviews, the proposed "solution" at the end is thoroughly unconvincing.
Good story, bad ending.......2001-06-01
This book held my attention as I read it practically cover to cover. It is very interesting, albeit annoying at times as the author goes in great detail about numerous leads, only to have them ruled out a few pages later. I can see why the author did that -- to show the exhaustive work done by CID and FBI investigators, and also to give the reader a small, small taste of the incredible frustration these investigators must have felt at the time. The problem with the book is that it is highly anti-climatic. The researcher, Jacobs, did not "give up" (as some have implied), he basically solved the mystery it's farthest moral extent. I do recommend reading this book, as it shall hold your attention through and through, but be prepared to be disappointed with the anti-climatic end.
Good story, bad book.......2000-04-23
...and I wanted it to be good so badly! But, it just was not to be. This is a book about someone who did a lot of research and decided to publish every word of it, rather than just the pertinent information. It becomes irritating to continue to learn information about the subject, only to be told that it is all totally worthless. And, the end is anti-climactic. In the end, a diligent researcher accepts the word of a single source as fact. Doesn't seem like the same man. Perhaps he was just ready to retire. I suggest this would make a pretty good movie, but not a book.
Entertaining reading, but does not "solve" the mystery.......1998-12-28
I enjoyed the story; it is a very interesting subject. But too many leads and dead ends are thrown in, and the book becomes confusing and disjointed. Also, it ends with Robinson's story being accepted as the final word as to what "really" happened. How do we know we can take this man's word as gospel, any more than what anyone else said? How do we know it's not just another hoax or more speculation? Or, as the book suggests, was it merely an effort to get Jacobs off the case, for whatever the reason may be? I applaud Jacobs and his excellent, painstaking research. But I still don't think we have a definitive, reliable answer to this mystery. To be sure, the offered conclusion is plausible, but there remain too many questions left unanswered. A good yarn, but I remain unconvinced.
Interesting case.......1998-09-02
As a graduate of West Point I had never heard of this case, of course the Academy covering things up is not unheard of. I also recommend another novel about West Point titled THE LINE by another graduate.
Book Description
Since its first publication more than eighty years ago, The Decline of the West has ranked as one of the most widely read and talked about books of our time. A sweeping account of Western culture by a historian of legendary intellect, it is an astonishingly informed, forcefully eloquent, thrillingly controversial work that advances a world view based on the cyclical rise and fall of civilizations.
This abridgment presents the most significant of Oswald Spengler’s arguments, linked by illuminating explanatory passages. It makes available in one volume a masterpiece of grand-scale history and far-reaching prophesy that remains essential reading for anyone interested in the factors that determine the course of civilizations.
Customer Reviews:
incisive, thought provoking.......2007-10-17
Spengler, like Tocqueville, is a rare ocurrence in the history of mankind. They were able to rise above the mundane and look at the human condition with sharp and prescient eyes. Today as we wallow in our success, having practically subdued the rest of the animal world and sent it towards extinction, globalized business as well as disease and vices, rendered earth as a growing concrete jungle, we cannot escape the decline of our civilization. Mind you, some folks equate technology with civilization, but look around, we have space ships flying towards Mars and we cannot produce decent music, our films are little more than displays of pirotechnics and gore, our literature has been reduced to fast-paced clips to be devoured in a quick subway ride, our architechture only aspires to reach ever more dizzying heights. Where are our Beethoven's, Fellini's, Taj-Mahals, our Angkor Wats? Our technical supremacy has only brought more alienation and spiritual emptiness, reflected in ever more abstract and incomprehensible art. How long can we sustain technical advance with cultural decay? Read Spengler and you will understand why even the most upright citizens of the Roman Empire could not reverse its inexorable decline...........
BEWARE - THIS IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS TO BE.......2007-08-10
This paperback edition is NOT "The Decline of the West" by Ostwald Spengler. It is an abridgement of that work perpetrated by one Arthur Helps apparently from a German abrdigement by Helmut Werner and an English translation (of the original or the abridgement?) by Charles Francis Atkinson. So if you buy this, you're not buying Spengler (leave aside the issue of how much of Spengler you're getting when you have to read it in translation - who would want to give up all the literature in the world written in languages he doesn't read?). What you're buying is sort-of Spengler.
Now, in fairness, at 400+ pages this isn't exactly the Classic Comic Book retellng of Spengler's long and complex work. But it isn't that work either. And it is very hard to tell this from the Amazon announcement or description of the book. And that's simply wrong. It's a deception. I don't think it's one that was done to trick people. It's more likely the product of sloppiness or inattention.
Some people may believe that a shortened Spengler is just fine for their purposes. I have no disagreement with them. My concern is that those who, like me, would never have even considered buying an abridgement of a book like this can be misled into doing so by an inaccurate description of what the book is.
So now I have a book to return instead of to read. I hope to save someone else that inconvenience.
RACE.......2007-07-19
Several reviews comment on the use of Race as an issue in DOTW. One suggests that Race is not a principal issue because it is seldom mentioned.
These miss the point. In thinking of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Racial nature of European Civilization is just taken as a given, hardly needing reinforcement more than rules of math. Blacks, etc were seen as presences within the culture, not part of the culture. It may seem odd to one growing up in 2000 + but that is how it was.
A brilliant and prophetic work .......2007-05-21
A brilliant and prophetic work ... The West, western culture, and peoples, will by all accounts, be finished off, in the next 50 to 100 years.
For example -- An afro chinese Italy is probably the future.
The thing about spengler that you have to ask is "was he wrong ?" ... does western civilization carry with it the seeds of its own destruction ?
The west no longer contains in any great quantity the animating ideas which other cultures such as islam or even the japanese still contain... hence we continue to take comfort in our former achievements even as we are dissolving and other peoples, civilizations, and ideas rise to the top. Not necessarily better peoples, civilizations, or ideas - but stronger more dominant ones. The western liberal humanist, is many things, but he does not dominate. Other, less nuanced ideologies have the advantage of a "home base", simplicity, and a direct knowledge of what it wants. Our poor liberal humanist is a millipede with a thousand easilly injured delicate antennae and no concrete goals.-- in short, he is an easy prey.
So Spengler may be correct when he claims that the west is in a winter phase of its history. Spengler definately "writes from upstairs" without an ax to grind, and has a worldview that spans centuries ... his views can't possibly be understood by contemporary sects or propagandists whose historical/philosophical views barely go back 40 years or depart much from today's newspaper headlines and the "causes of the day".
Fascinating and thought-provoking.......2006-03-30
The Decline of the West is the magnum opus of Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), a German historian and philosopher. In it, Spengler rejects the idea that the future of the West (or indeed of any culture) is an open-ended advance from the primitive past to an ever more glorious and expansive future. Instead, cultures (including the West) experience an almost organic history of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
According to Spengler, the West moved out of its Summer period with the dawn of the nineteenth century, and into a Civilization phase. This phase is dominated by mega-cities, and money and atheism come into ascendance. And what lies in the future? Caesarism, and a long period of stagnation in the arts and sciences.
Now, the above summary is inevitably bound to be overly simplistic, even to the point of being misleading. The Decline of the West was originally published as two books, and it is a deep and erudite philosophical look at the history of the world, so any small summary is bound to be insufficient to do it justice.
Having heard this work referenced so many times, I decided to read it for myself. In fact, though it does present a deterministic view of history, it does not propose a West that is about to collapse and be swept into the dustbin of history (as some people want it to). In fact, this is a cogent, penetrating look at history, which certainly seems to accurately predict how the West has developed from the first book's initial publication in 1918.
Now, I must admit that like many scholarly books of the era, this one has a dense, thickly argued text that makes for some very heavy reading indeed. But, if you are willing to devote time to the reading of this book, and more time to digest what it has to say, you will be rewarded with one of the fascinating and thought-provoking look at the modern West. Are we at the End of History, or the end of the West? Read this book and find out.
Customer Reviews:
Must have.......2005-08-02
This book is a must have for ww2 fans who like a book with a combo of fast paced action and historical authenticity, that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
Book Description
An essay by the author of The Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler, on the need for "Prussianism" in order to save civilization from the "Coloured Peril," based on Spengler's view, just after the Nazi rise to power in 1933, that the white (European) tribes were under attack by colored races through a "war" by various political forces - enemies of the white race. Spengler's writings had a great effect on the racial thinking of Adolf Hitler.
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating read.......2006-10-13
German historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) is most remembered today for his magnum opus, The Decline of the West. But, much less known is his sequel, The Hour of Decision: Germany and World-Historical Evolution. In this fascinating book, Spengler looks at the decline of the West in the light of the rise of Communism and Fascism. Interestingly, Spengler sees Capitalism, Communism and even Fascism as part of the same trend towards a vulgar leveling of society.
After examining the state of the West, in light of World War I, he then turns to look at the rest of the world. This part is probably at the root of the accusations that the book is racist. Using an old way of thinking that has since been dropped, but was then quite current, Spengler divides the world into the "white world" and the "colored world." If instead of using Spengler's outmoded terms, you substitute "West" and "Third World", you will find that his analysis was penetrating and dead on. It is Spengler's view that the West was (at the time) losing the will and the ability to dominate the rest of the globe, and that those who had been dominated, colonized and exploited by the West would seek to overthrow that domination. That has since come to pass, and indeed, like Spengler suggests, the Third World has not forgotten the colonial past, nor has it forgiven it.
Overall, I found this to be a fascinating read. If you liked The Decline of the West, then you will like this book. I guess I should add at this point that the Nazi's did not like this book, and banned it for its criticism of Nazism! I can't think of a higher recommendation for this book. Get it!
The fate of the West foretold.......2005-06-15
The previous reviewer (who seems to think that Spengler is *advocating* when he is, in fact, *analyzing*) offers a complete distortion of this work. This is a penetrating follow-up to The Decline of the West, a book that takes the theories that Spengler outlined in abstract in his two-volume magnum opus, and applies them to the specific circumstances of his day.
As for the accusation of racism, Spengler means something completely different by the term ''race'' than what we now describe as ''racist'' thinking. As Spengler himself writes in this book:
''[S]peaking of race, it is not intended in the sense in which it is the fashion among anti-Semites in Europe and America to use it today: Darwinistically, materially. Race purity is a grotesque word in view of the fact that for centuries all stocks and species have been mixed, and the warlike -- that is, healthy -- generations with a future before them have from time immemorial always welcomed a stranger into the family if he had 'race,' to whatever race it was he belonged. Those who talk too much about race no longer have it in them.'' (p.219)
By ''race,'' Spengler means something much more akin to ''character,'' as well as cultural and national vitality. As he indicates in the above passage, he has no use for the more common type of racist thought, which he ridicules as mere ''zoology'' (p.225)
But moving beyond that specific issue, this work is a profound examination of the economic and spiritual crisis that faced Western culture in the 1930s, and continues to face it today.
A racist book which deserves all our censure........2004-03-15
The Hour of Decision was written by the German thinker Oswald Spengler and first published in 1933, the year National Socialism took over power in German. The book is a fizzled and sad sequel, despite foreseeable, to Oswald Spengler's major opus, The Decline of the West, first published in 1918 and one has the feeling that he seemed to grab with both hands the historical window of opportunity to jump into (mainly) Mussolini's autocratic bandwagon, frequently quoting the italian dictator as incorporating many of the qualities of a would-be imperial autocrat, in the shadows of Julius Cesar, Napoleon and a few others, thus fulfilling the natural whole autocrats should have in the History of the West, as per the Decline of the West.
In my opinion, Oswald Spengler's The Hour of Decision is a racist pamphlet against Jews and all minorities, and deserves all the censure for its backward racist points-of-view.
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Product Description
In this engrossing and highly controversial philosophy of history, Spengler describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity. Guided by the philosophies of Goethe and Nietzsche, he rejects linear progression, and instead presents a world
view based on the cyclical rise and decline of civilizations. He argues that a culture blossoms from the soil of a definable landscape and dies when it has exhausted all of its possibilities.
Despite Spengler's reputation today as an extreme pessimist, The Decline of the West remains essential reading for anyone interested in the history of civilization.
Book Description
"In the following pages I lay before the reader a few thoughts that are taken from a larger work on which I have been engaged for years. It had been my intention to use the same method which in The Decline of the West I had limited to the group of the higher Cultures, for the investigation of their historical pre-requisite - namely, the history of Man from his origins. But experience with the earlier work showed that the majority of readers are not in a postion to maintain a general view over the mass of ideas as a whole, and so lose themselves in the detail of this or that domain which is familiar to them, seeing the rest either obliquely or not at all. In consequence they obtain an incorrect picture, both of what I have written and of the subject-matter about which I wrote.
Now, as then, it is my conviction that the destiny of Man can only be understood by dealing with all the provinces of his activity simultaneously and comparatively, and avoiding the mistake of trying to elucidate some problem, say, of his politics or his religion or his art, solely in terms of particular sides of his being, in the belief that, this done, there is no more to be said. Nevertheless, in this book I venture to put forward some of the questions. They are a few among many. But they are interconnected, and for that reason may serve, for the time being, to help the reader to a provisional glimpse into the great secret of Man's destiny."
--- Oswald Spengler
Customer Reviews:
Rage Against the Machine?!.......2003-08-06
The edition of _Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life_ by Oswald Spengler that I read does not appear to be advertised on this website. It is a small paperback printed in Britain by the European Books Society and features a pen-outline of a burly bald man wearing a suit and holding a cigar (presumably Spengler himself). I found _Man and Technics_ to be a wierd philosophic exposition of the origins of humanity and the organic process of birth, flowering, decay and death that human Cultures inevitably face. The greatest Culture of all is the Western or "Faustian" Culture which far outranks the Classical (Greco-Roman), Arabic, Chinese, Indian, Mexican Cultures. It is something of a manifesto of extreme pessimism regarding the fate of the West and of its people in Europe and America. The Faustian Culture, of which America is a younger shoot, based in Western Europe, began to form around 1000 AD and it is marked by spiritual uncertainty, but an innate ability in Spengler's theme of "Technics." Technics involves the use of the reasoning faculties of the Mind in accordance with the physical use and manipulations of objects by the Hand to make whatever that is outside of man's being in Nature subject to man's will. This provides obvious advantages and also extremely serious disadvantages as well. The more a group of human beings became more machine, material and industry orientated, the more they tried to control Nature--the more Nature will eventually bring about the destruction of the human Culture that builds itself up over time and becomes overgrown, the same as individual plants, animals and plants die--as living organisms. Spengler, in the last page of _Man and Technics_ concludes that there is nothing that can be done to abort the fall of Faustian Civilization, which is ruined by internal decadence, economic competition from without, and the militancy of non-Western peoples who will use Western technology against Europe and America. Spengler regards any notion of optimism about the outcome of human affairs to be cowardly and any hope of utopian salvation to be a flighty dream. The best thing that any man can do in the face of eventual destruction is an honorable end following the choice of Achilles: "Better a short life full of deeds and glory than a long life without content." Spengler, a German philosopher influenced by the works of Nietzsche and contemorary with the National Socialist movement in Germany was a "conservative revoloutionary" opposed to the modern life of artificial material comfort and lack of individuality and spirit. Spengler may be viewed as being "racist," but his outlook on environmental damage was ahead of his time. This book does not, nor is likely to, have a wide audience, but it gives a different view of history in which Cultures and Civilizations are viewed as living organisms which live and die rather than in the liberal/economic interpretations of human affairs currently ascendant in social-political theory. Some of the material is outdated (_Man and Technics_ was written in the 1930s) and innacurate, but remains insightful in an analysis of the fate of the West today.
A profound critique of modern technological civilization!.......1998-11-06
Spengler wrote "Man and Technics" as a short and accessible supplement to his 'magnum opus', "The Decline of the West". Despite being short this is in fact a truly GREAT book. Spengler examines man's way on earth from the perspective of a philosophical anthropology. In agreement with the other exponents of reactionary modernism in Weimar Germany, Spengler focuses on technology as the critical feature of the Faustian Western Civilization. Spengler uses the Goethian hero in order to disclose to the reader the likely outcome of man's blind worship of instrumental technological reason. At the same time he scorns the West for its imperialism and violation of the life-style of other cultures. Apart from the -mostly accurate - prognoses that it makes, "Man and Technics" reveals a detached view of humanity as if perceived from an Archimedean point of view. Spengler remains a great thinker, rather misunderstood, who ought to be rediscovered by modern intellectuals for his penetrating insight and his uncompromising honesty!
Customer Reviews:
An excellent introduction to Spengler and his legacy.......2007-02-03
This was my second Spengler-biography, and once again I was pleasantly surprised. Even though parts of the biographical data seem to be taken word for word from Hughes' Spengler-biography, it didn't really matter. Fennelly shows much more respect towards the person and the ideas of Spengler than Hughes does and you get the same information, so there's really no reason to leave this wonderful book out of your Spengler-collection. About half the book is biographical information about Spengler and a little about the whole Spengler-phenomenon in the early parts of the 20th century.
The other half of the book is where Fennelly tries to test the validity of Spengler's theory. I won't say much about this, seeing as it's hardly necessary to point out the decadency of our Western world at the moment. We're nothing but an empty shell, ruled by minority forces whose say in things are blown out of all proportions. Another amusing thing about this book is that it's written just after the zenith of the "hippie-movement", so it was quite refreshing to for once read a view from the "silent majority", we so often hear about.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in Spengler and/or our current Western predicament!
As a bonus I should mention that it is a wonderful binding on the book.
Average customer rating:
- A superb contribution to the study of Spengler's life and thought
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Prophet of Decline: Spengler on World History and Politics (Political Traditions in Foreign Policy)
John Farrenkopf
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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The Decline of the West (Abridged)
ASIN: 0807127272 |
Customer Reviews:
A superb contribution to the study of Spengler's life and thought.......2005-09-09
John Farrenkopf's _Prophet of Decline_ fills a gaping hole on a controversial historian. Farrenkopf effectively shows the greatness and magnitude of Spengler's thought while keeping a critical eye throughout the book.
Farrenkopf's prose is crisp and fluid - certainly a complement to the rigidity and obtuseness that is typical of Spengler. Farrenkopf goes to great pains to not only dispel certain lingering myths about Spengler (specifically, that he was a Nazi sympathizer) but also to familiarize the reader with Spengler's influences (especially Ranke) and his more obscure works. As it is impossible to understand Spengler without a larger understanding of the historicism (and Goethe) that permeated his worldview at the time, this contribution is long overdue.
Farrenkopf also devotes quite a bit of time to Spengler's obscure political phase. While certainly an authoritarian conservative, Spengler was certainly no Nazi - he viewed Hitler as a man more "of the people" than a "leader of the people." While Spengler did find court with the Nazi regime during its early years, it appears that it quickly lost interest in him. In fact, Hitler made a reference to "Decline of the West" in one of his speeches - stating unequivocally that he was opposed to the book's thesis!
The book ends on a tragic note as the reader comes to terms with Spengler's "ultra-pessimistic" view of reality. There is no saving culture, Spengler says - we must all come to terms with the fact that our culture will extinguish itself, just as our own lives will eventually wither away. Coming to terms with the true implications of Spengler is not an easy task - especially when one considers that one of the few things Spengler got wrong was his glacial timeframe for predicting the demise of the West. However, foreknowledge of impending doom may lead to potential greatness: in the end of Spengler's _Man and Technics_, he implores us to heed the following words: "We are born into this time and must bravely follow the path to the destined end. There is no other way. Our duty is to hold on to the lost position, without hope, without rescue, like that Roman soldier whose bones were found in front of a door in Pompeii, who, during the eruption of Vesuvius, died at his post because they forgot to relieve him. That is greatness. That is what it means to be a thoroughbred. The honourable end is the one thing that can not be taken from a man."
In close, _Prophet of Decline_ is an excellent, timely, and long overdue contribution to the study of a man that may yet prove to be the West's greatest seer.
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