A 1940s Memoir that Speaks to Today
Stefan Zweig's The World of Yesterday warned of complacency in the face of creeping authoritarianism
OUR JOB HERE is to review new books, films and TV shows related to intelligence and national security. Sometimes, though, old is hauntingly new. In the case of Stefan Zweig, who completed his memoir, The World of Yesterday, 83 years ago, the Austrian writer’s warnings about political complacency and the danger of war speak to us with profound immediacy.
The World of Yesterday comes with multiple lessons. As we review a book written before most of us were born, we look back with an old reminder: As Italo Calvino once wrote, “a classic is a book which has never exhausted all it has to say to its readers.” That’s certainly true of this 1942 classic, which speaks to us with a certain urgency.
