Christopher B. Krebs’ A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus’s Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich starts with an SS raid in Italy in 1943. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, wanted an original manuscript of Tacitus’s Gemania to put to use in the Nazi cause. Fortunately, the rare document had already been spirited away. Krebs tells the story of how Tacitus’s text on Germany was lost, then found, then altered, then collected, and finally became the object of forgery. Along the way, Krebs describes what happened to Germana during the fall of Rome, the Dark Ages, the Enlightenment, and finishes his story with the Third Reich. Along the way, a myriad of political leaders use Tacitus’s text to promote their political agendas. If you’re a fan of bibliographic history filled with twists and turns, you’ll certainly enjoy A Most Dangerous Book as much as I did. GRADE: A
Great title and it sounds more thrilling than the DA VINCI CODE.
I had no idea that Tacitus’s GERMANIA was such an iconic text for Germans, Patti. There is a bit of DA VINCI CODE flavor to the book…but in a Good Way.
Because of its influence on the ideologies of Pan-Germanism and Nordicism, Italian historian Arnaldo Momigliano in 1956 described Germania as “among the most dangerous books ever written”.
Who knew?
Clearly Himmler knew, Jeff. He was desperate to find an original manuscript of Tacitus’s text to use in the National Socialist cause. Krebs documents the other mistranslations and forgeries various leaders perpetuated on GERMANIA for their own political purposes. I found the whole story fascinating.