The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America

Nazism, Dr. Peikoff argues, was made possible by the German philosophers who advocated unreason and self-sacrifice—and whose ideas now rule American universities.

The Ominous Parallels – Leonard Peikoff
Introduction by Ayn Rand
Part One: Theory
1. The Cause of Nazism
2. The Totalitarian Universe
3. Hitler’s War Against Reason
4. The Ethics of Evil
5. The Nation of the Enlightenment
6. Kant Versus America
Part Two: Practice
7. United They Fell
8. The Emotionalist Republic
9. The Nazi Synthesis
10. The Culture of Hatred
11. The Killers Take Over
12. Hitler in Power
13. The Concentration Camps
14. America Reverses Direction
15. Convulsion and Paralysis
16. “A Republic – If You Can Keep It”
References
Index

“Offers a truly revolutionary idea…The book is clear, tight, disciplined, beautifully structured, and brilliantly reasoned. Its style is clear and hard as crystal—and as sparkling… As to my personal reaction, I can express it best by paraphrasing a line from Atlas Shrugged: ‘It’s so wonderful to see a great, new, crucial achievement which is not mine!’”—Ayn Rand

“Extraordinarily perceptive…frightening insights…Everyone concerned with the collectivist trend in today’s world should read this book.”—Alan Greenspan

“A fascinating weave of German history, philosophic determinism, and Objectivist polemic.”—Chicago Tribune

“A revelation…Peikoff is an extraordinary communicator…He brings the most difficult intellectual ideas within the grasp of the general reader.”Detroit Free Press 

Almost everyone acknowledges that Nazism was one of the greatest horrors of the 20th century, yet few understand its deepest cause. How did a supposedly civilized country— the “land of poets and philosophers”—degenerate into a murderous, totalitarian dictatorship? What made the Nazi campaign of murder possible? Can we be sure it won’t happen here in America?

Leonard Peikoff answers these questions in The Ominous Parallels, a study of the alarming similarities between America today and Germany just prior to and during the Nazi era. In essence, Dr. Peikoff’s answer is that the ultimate cause of Nazism was philosophy. Nazism, he argues, was made possible by a long line of German philosophers who advocated unreason and self-sacrifice.

In her introduction, Ayn Rand praises the book as offering “a truly revolutionary idea in the field of the philosophy of history.” What is that idea? It is the idea that philosophy is the motor of history—the fundamental cause of history’s major trends and the power that “determines the destiny of nations.” Because it addresses the most fundamental questions of man’s existence, philosophy sets the terms for all other fields of knowledge and for all human action. The Ominous Parallels shows in detail the role that the false ideas of Germany’s most respected philosophers played in shaping every element of pre-Nazi culture and in preparing that culture to embrace Nazism’s murderous ideology. In doing so, Peikoff shows the connection between seemingly dry, abstract philosophical theory and the blood-soaked practice of the Holocaust.

Disturbingly, Dr. Peikoff finds that the same fundamental ideas that drove Germany to Hitler are dominant in American universities today. The book’s thesis is that all the philosophic principles that led to the rise of Nazism in Germany have their parallels in contemporary America. As a result, the nation is moving towards the establishment of a Nazi-style dictatorship. As Dr. Peikoff writes near the end of the book:

“No one can predict the form or timing of the catastrophe that will befall this country if our direction is not changed. No one can know what concatenation of crises, in what progression of steps and across what interval of years, would finally break the nation’s spirit and system of government. No one can know whether such a breakdown would lead to an American dictatorship directly—or indirectly, after a civil war and/or a foreign war and/or a protracted Dark Ages of primitive roving gangs.

“What one can know is only this much: the end result of the country’s present course is some kind of dictatorship; and the cultural-political signs for many years now have been pointing increasingly to one kind in particular. The signs have been pointing to an American form of Nazism.”

Dr. Peikoff concludes the book with a brief and inspiring discussion of the positive ideas needed to change America’s direction.

 

About the Author

Leonard Peikoff is the preeminent Ayn Rand scholar writing today. He worked closely with Rand in New York City for thirty years and was designated by her as heir to her estate. He has taught philosophy at several places, including Hunter College and New York University. Dr. Peikoff is the author of The DIM Hypothesis: Why the Lights of the West Are Going Out and The Cause of Hitler’s Germany. He grew up in Western Canada and now lives in Southern California. He also hosted the national radio talk show “Philosophy: Who Needs It.”

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