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Estudios de filosofía moderna y contemporánea (Obras Completas de Leonardo Polo, Vol. XXIV) Leonardo Polo Navarra: Eunsa, 2015 Polo, who died in 2013, remains widely unknown outside of Spanish-speaking academic circles. An influential and beloved philosophy professor at the University of Navarra, he influenced generations of students and made significant contributions to the field of ethics, epistemology, and ontology. His complete works—including extensive unpublished manuscripts and class notes—are now being published in critical editions. A deep, challenging, and complex thinker who never lost sight of the divine, this volume, titled Studies of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, gathers some of his most penetrating analyses of modern and contemporary philosophy. (N. Landa) Nicolás Gómez Dávila e la crisi dell’Occidente Edited by Fabrizio Meroi & Silvano Zucal Pisa: Edizione ETS, 2015 The Colombian Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913-1994) remains one of the most interesting—and least known—conservative writers in the world. Writing almost exclusively in aphorisms, only some of his work is available in other languages. A lyrical writer and trenchant critic of modernity, he was faithful to conservative—and oftentimes reactionary—principles and ideas. This book brings together the proceedings of an international conference held in Trent in May 2014 on the centenary of his birth, focusing on the political and religious aspects of his writings. The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left Yuval Levin New York: Basic Books, 2013 Widely reviewed when it was first published in 2013, this book is one of the most engaging introductions to the ideas and legacy of Edmund Burke, using Thomas Paine as a foil. Despite their differences, and set in the context of the Anglo-American political tradition, Levin argues that Burke and Paine really had much more in common than people realize. A bright thinker and clear writer, Levin further argues that the consequences of their ideas can be seen in the US today in the political divide between right and left. 30 Summer 2015
The End of Germany? Thomas Spannring Rarely has a book caused so much controversy and upset among Germany’s well-to-do and progressive elites as Thilo Sarrazin’s Deutschland schafft sich ab—a title that translates into Germany Abolishes Itself. First published in 2010, the book has sold over 1.5 million copies, making it one of the most successful books on contemporary politics in post-war Germany. The book might well have gone unnoticed had it not been for the prominence of its author. Sarrazin is an economist who at one time was a senior manager of Deutsche Bahn (Germany’s federal railway), as well as serving as the Finance Senator of Berlin. He was also an executive board member of Europe’s most powerful central bank, the German Bundesbank. A quick glance at the book’s index could lead the unsuspecting reader into believing that the book is merely another historical analysis of Germany, the German people, and Europe in general. To be sure, Sarrazin spends the first two (of nine) chapters setting the scene, providing the background for the rest of the book by giving historical accounts of the development of German society and the German state, and building the basis for the arguments that he makes in the following chapters. Interestingly, his concluding ninth chapter can almost be read as a work of satire, independent from the rest of the book, as Sarrazin describes two possible scenarios—“a dream and a nightmare”—of the future of Germany a hundred years from now. Sarrazin makes his key arguments based on the social and economic problems caused by immigration, and the decline of the German birth-rate. He focuses especially on the uncontrolled immigration of largely uneducated peoples from the Muslim world. He claims that Muslim workers are disproportionally less integrated into the job market, hold fewer skills, and have a tendency of building sub-cultures that not only act independently but are, in fact, hostile to German culture as a whole. Many of his arguments and examples are drawn from his experiences as a professional and politician living in Berlin, but he supplements these with statistics and other resources. And throughout the book, Sarrazin repeats the urgent message of the book’s title, arguing that unless restrictions to immigration are implemented immediately—combined with reforms in schooling and education—Germany will abolish itself. When it was first published in 2010, the book was one of the first to openly criticize the country’s endemic political correctness and the immigration of unqualified immigrant workers into Germany. (Sarrazin is a proponent of the immigration of well-qualified individuals.) The book attacked the systematic denial by government elites that immigration has placed a burden on German culture and society. By talking about culture and ethnicity as driving forces in society, Sarrazin broke the post-war taboo in Deutschland schafft sich ab: Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen Thilo Sarrazin Munich: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2010 Germany that forbade anyone from arguing that some people’s values might be irreconcilable with Western values. The Left in particular was ready to condemn Sarrazin as a ‘racist’. Protest rallies were organized wherever Sarrazin appeared, and anytime he tried to speak about his book he was received by angry mobs. Sarrazin’s critics, however, have missed the point he was trying to make. In fact, he merely dared to put down on paper what many Germans were already thinking but did not dare to say: that immigrant communities have created parallel societies within Germany that in many ways are hostile to native German and Western values—and especially to democracy. In addition, these communities are seen as draining resources away from the state in the form of social welfare programmes. For the discerning American reader, this book may seem like much ado about nothing, as it merely seems to capture the status quo of a Europe in decline, a common topic in the American press. But for Europeans— and Germans in particular—Sarrazin’s book sounds The European Conservative 31
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Page 3 and 4: Issue 12 Summer/Fall 2015 Andreas K
Page 5 and 6: at the perfection of Michelangelo
Page 7 and 8: The Politics of Separatism Alexande
Page 9 and 10: Free Expression in Poland Matthew T
Page 11 and 12: my faith in an economy the most, wh
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Page 27 and 28: A New European Referendum Tom Zwits
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Page 33 and 34: The Future of France? Pr. Edmund Wa
Page 35 and 36: A Critique of Modernity Alvino-Mari
Page 37 and 38: Roman Joch A Literary Love Roger Sc
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Page 47 and 48: Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing: Conser
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