Watching Darkness Fall
Author:
David McKean
My minor in my first degree was History, and admittedly I love history. This was a different read for me because recently I have been reading about relationships, finance or self development. But sometimes those topics get super existential and become like a burden. Mainly because my life has gotten overly complicated and I can’t focus on those subjects.
So I listened to this Ebook. I can’t tell you that I would be able to read it as a book. Mainly because it is so heavy in content and I think to listen to it is fabulous, as it doesn’t require too much focus. But I think to read it would be different.
It wasn’t what I expected, but it was good. It spoke about US politics and FDR, mainly his focus as president and the inner politics of political life. The idea that Hitler was able to charm everyone and make them feel safe and secure. Meanwhile he was plotting world domination. The most interesting part is thinking how a lot of FDR ambassadors didn’t care about the duty they served but the wining and dining that came with the job. The people who did care were often replaced because money rules everything especially politics. What was perhaps the most troubling was how some of these political people were in fact anti-Semitic but still were part of the conversation about what to do with Germany.
I felt like this book shed light on some thoughts I’ve had about the war. In studying neuroscience and learning about people. This book only helps to further my thoughts, such as ultimately as a human if the issue doesn’t effects us, ultimately we don’t care. We create illusions that we care for peoples personal perception of us, when in fact we care about how those perception effect us, like our lifestyles. Which in this book many of FDRs cabinet members didn’t want to go to war. But in public they made very different statements. Many of them like Kennedy solely looked out for the family name and building JFK into the politician he became.
I found this was a good read, well to listen to. It took me inside the conversations I suspected people had during this time. Also showcasing how two faced people are in everyday life, and politics aside you can’t trust what people say in public because in private they have ulterior motives.