The True Tyrants

The first months of 1957 have produced two books that, taken together, may well form the foundations of a profound counterrevolution in a decisive ideological area, an area underlying and giving form to the politics of the century. Eric Voegelin’s Israel and Revelation (the first volume of his projected five-volume Order and History) has already been reviewed in these pages (March 2, 1957). Karl A. Wittfogel’s Oriental Despotism, A Comparative Study of Total Power (Yale University Press, $7.50), like Dr. Voegelin’s book, is directed toward the destruction of the prevailing theories of history that have played so large a role in bringing about the agony of our time.

Dr. Voegelin and Dr. Wittfogel are very different men. Their starting points are far apart. But the impact of their criticism hits from different directions upon the phenomenon: the historical myths that are the complement of relativist scientism and that, with it, determine the shape of the age.

FS

About the Author

Frank S. Meyer

Frank S. Meyer was a senior editor of National Review.

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The first months of 1957 have produced two books that, taken together, may well form the foundations of a profound counterrevolution in a decisive ideological area, an area underlying and giving form to the politics of the century. Eric Voegelin’s Israel and Revelation (the first volume of his projected five-volume Order and History) has already been reviewed in these pages (March 2, 1957). Karl A. Wittfogel’s Oriental Despotism, A Comparative Study of Total Power (Yale University Press, $7.50), like Dr. Voegelin’s book, is directed toward the destruction of the prevailing theories of history that have played so large a role in bringing about the agony of our time.

Dr. Voegelin and Dr. Wittfogel are very different men. Their starting points are far apart. But the impact of their criticism hits from different directions upon the phenomenon: the historical myths that are the complement of relativist scientism and that, with it, determine the shape of the age.