The World of Yesterday
by Stefan Zweig · first published 1943
70% recommend26% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Memoir of pre-WWI Vienna and Europe's slide into war and Nazism, praised for its picture of the cultural and intellectual life that was lost; suits readers seeking parallels to today's political tensions.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Stefan Zweig's autobiography
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If you can, read Zweig's The World Of Yesterday, a memoir on life in Vienna before WW1. It's surely rose-tinted, but the amount of culture and intellectual life was outstanding, what an enormous loss. (Hitler also lived there at the time, going to…
on “Friedrich Hayek’s recollection of his cousin Ludwig Wittgenstein (2016)” ↗If anyone is feeling relaxed about the prospect of war, I recommend reading The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig, which is about exactly this moment. it describes the build-up to WWI in Vienna, where the feeling was very much "nobody is stupid enough to start, or be taken in by the idea of, a large-scale…
on “The French armed forces are planning for high-intensity war” ↗Stefan Zweig in his "World of Yesterday" captures the essence of your argument well. Although I think we says more that WW1 combined with the Nazi takeover later was responsible, rather than specifically the racist attacks on Jews. He has a…
on “Vienna, City of Paradox” ↗…that don't have systematic anti-jingoistic indoctrination. Read the history of how universal suffrage in Europe from 1880-1914 led to the rise of militarist-nationalist politicians ( Stephan Zweig's The World of Yesterday is a great book on this topic). Do we really want to see the Chinese equivalent of Bill O'Reilly and Ernst Lissauer? I'll take the 90 year old men, thank you very much ...
on “No Country for Young Men: China's testosterone problem and the effects of the one-child policy” ↗probably not the why you were looking for, but 1914*. cf Zweig, The World of Yesterday for the memoirs of someone who remembered a world without. * iow, the start of the "short 20th century"
on “2023 Global Passport Ranking” ↗I recommend you read the book World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig. The experience of the world Jewry in (pre-)WW2 continental Europe was so shockingly brutal, the establishment of the state of Israel was an inevitability. Jews were the scapegoat driven…
on “Israeli soldiers using sexual assault to force Palestinians out of West Bank” ↗…1870, it dragged on for four bloody years. For an example of the mood of the time, try this quote by Stefan Zweig. He lived in Austria during these years of tumult, and I highly recommend his book "The World of Yesterday" Shortly before the war he was vactioning in provincial France. He reports: ----------------------------------------- It was a small suburban cinema, utterly different from the modern palaces of chromium…
on “The Two-Party Swindle” ↗The Triumph of Conservatism by Gabriel Kolko - the book for understanding the rise of corporate serfdom The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig - will make you nostalgic for the days of monarchy World on Fire by Amy Chua - the single best book for understanding globalization that I have read. The antidote to Tom Friedman. America's…
on “Ask YC (and PG): What books do you have on your bookshelf? ” ↗…calling a truce was "giving in to the aggressor" and the war lasted four terrible years. Some good books/articles on the subject: Liberty Or Equality ( http://blog.mises.org/archives/006326.asp ), The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig, Once an ArchDuke by Archduke Ferdinand, "Churchill on the Great War" - http://themonarchist.blogspot.com/2008/08/churchill-on-great..., Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War"
on “Let's End Adolescence” ↗Stefan Zweig's World of Yesterday captures how much of a shock it was to move from the progress-and-civilisation of his corner of the nineteenth century to the fake-news[1]-and-senseless-violence[2] of the twentieth (Zweig hung on after…
on “Ride through Wuppertal on ‘the flying train’ in clear footage from 1902” ↗Stefan Zweig's book The World of Yesterday is very good on this as regards WWI from the point of view of Austria-Hungary. Your comment also reminds me of a phrase from one of the last surviving British soliders from WWI, Harry Patch: "If two…
on “An F-117 pilot and the officer who shot him down meet, 15 years later (2013)” ↗…history of that word referring to a kind of right wing movement) It feels like we're inside the ramp-up of a major social, political, and national conflict, all the pieces are falling into place. Read The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig to get some ideas about how this kind of thing happened in the early 20th century in Europe and imagine how it might be happening again. Ideology is on the rise and the willingness of…
on “Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'” ↗I recommend reading “The World of Yesterday” by Stefan Zweig. A remarkable book for seeing the transformation from the Victorian era into modern day.
on “How did the Victorians become a reference point for joyless prudery?” ↗…I'm thinking here primarily of memoirs of real people. But if there's a well-researched novel that did this for you, please do share it as well! Some examples I have loved so far: - Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday (Vienna in the 1890s, Europe pre-WWI and during the wars) - Albert Ellis, All Out! (life in New York in the 1920s - electric cars, subway sexual encounters) - M. Mitchell Waldrop, The Dream Machine…
on “Ask HN: Good “History from the perspective of a private individual” books?” ↗Thank you for sharing. I have read Zweig's The World of Yesterday, which I regard very highly, but never one of his creative works. I recommend it to everyone who wants to experience a slice of life/live vicariously with an engaged citizen of pre war Europe. The la…
on “The Pawn’s Gambit: On Adapting Stefan Zweig’s “Chess Story”” ↗