History repeats itself, then repeats itself
Stefan Zweig's autobiography is a real-time, urgent eyewitness account of his beloved Europe ripping itself apart during World War II. The torment that he feels is compounded by the fact that he had previously endured the madness of World War I, which decimated that intellectual and cultural summit know as Vienna, and elsewhere. The madness - there is no better term to describe it - that he relates is relevant and familiar in our times; the branding of pacifists as "unpatriotic," the propaganda of newspaper and pop culture, the powers that be who do not fight but are willing to sacrifice the lives of others, all are familiar to the European in 1939, as well as the American in 2008. His intellect is inspiring. This book should be required reading in American high schools.
