- Sinclair, Upton.
Dragon's Teeth. Vol. 2.
Safety Harbor, FL: Simon Publications, [1942] 2001.
ISBN 978-1-931313-15-5.
-
This is the second half of the third volume in Upton Sinclair's
grand-scale historical novel covering the years from 1913 through
1949. Please see my
notes on the first half for details on the
series and this novel. The second half, comprising books
four through six of the original novel (this is a print on
demand facsimile edition, in which each of
the original novels is split into two parts due to
constraints of the publisher), covers the years 1933 and 1934,
as Hitler tightens his grip on Germany and persecution of the
Jews begins in earnest.
The playboy hero Lanny Budd finds himself in Germany trying
to arrange the escape of Jewish relatives from the grasp of
the Nazi tyranny, meets Goebbels, Göring, and eventually
Hitler, and discovers the depth of the corruption and depravity
of the Nazi regime, and then comes to experience it directly when
he becomes caught up in the
Night
of the Long Knives.
This book was published in January 1942, less than a month
after Pearl Harbor. It is remarkable to read a book written
in a time when the U.S. and Nazi Germany were at peace and
the swastika flag flew from the German embassy in Washington
which got the essence of the Nazis so absolutely correct
(especially the corruption of the regime, which was overlooked
by so many until Albert Speer's books decades later). This is
very much a period piece, and enjoyable in giving a sense of how
people saw the events of the 1930s not long after they happened.
I'm not, however, inclined to slog on through the other novels
in the saga—one suffices for me.
January 2009 