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Is this book lame or laudable? Read my review and get the inside dope

Hitler's Last Year of Power

Author(s)
Leonardo Blake
Publisher
Andrew Dakers
Edition / Year
2nd Edition, September 1939
In the section labelled

It was with some scepticism that the public looked at copies of Hitler's Last Year of Power on the bookstalls all over the country when it appeared at the end of August of this year.

"Hitler's Last Year of Power!" This they said was one of the many predictions which are made each year and which are never fulfilled, which only serve the purpose of making money for the publisher and bringing discredit upon the science of astrology.

Hitler and MussoliniThus Leonardo Blake begins the preface to the second edition of his predictions for Hitler, published at the very start of what would become the Second World War. Despite his confidence in the accuracy of his prognostications, it would be the sceptics at the bookstalls who would be proved right, as these brief extracts will show:

  • ... the French people have nothing to fear from a war
  • There will be no world war in the 1914 sense
  • The British Empire need not fear either aggression or dictators so long as there is a man like Eden in reserve.
  • ... when the moment comes, the German people will not be prepared to follow [Hitler]
  • [(ex-premier) BrĂ¼ning] will one day go back to save his country from material and spiritual chaos
  • From December, 1939, to March, 1940, Hitler will ... use every opportunity to speak of peace... He will attempt a reconciliation with his neighbours.
  • ... the time of [Hitler's] downfall [will be] in the summer of 1940 ... the last traces of the Third Reich disappear in the course of a great German revolution.
  • England has nothing to fear from Japan, and a peace that will be made between China and Japan will bring home to the Japanese the futility of their present warlike policy.

Blake also averred that Mussolini would break with Hitler and join the Allies against him.

No matter how wrong Blake was, though, the "science" of astrology remains just as reputable and exact today as it ever was, that is to say, not a bit.

(For more Mussolini mentalness, see The Cardinal's Mistress. And another Hitler misfire can be found in What's Ahead).

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Comments

Submitted by FrancoisTremblay (not verified) on 04 Nov 2009 - 11:35 Permalink

So Alfred... general comment here: how do you feel about all these crackpots coming out of the woodwork to defend the books you laugh at? Is this entertainment or just sad? Did you expect this at all? I find it quite bizarre, puzzling, and sad. But at the same time, it *is* entertaining, in a perverse sort of way.
Submitted by Alfred Armstrong on 05 Nov 2009 - 10:42 Permalink

It doesn't surprise me Francois. I've been getting emails along the same line for years. Some of the books on here sold quite a few copies so there's obviously an audience for them.

It is a bit strange that the flat earth brigade are still so active though.

As for entertainment value, I reason that if the writers of these books are a fair target then those of their readers who pop up to defend them must surely also be. But as someone else said if we could turn idiocy into energy we could solve all the world's problems in an instant.