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Book Review
In Lloyd DeMause’s novel The Emotional Life of Nations, the effects that war has on soldiers was proven to be dramatic. But he also showed how the years before joining the army can affect a future soldier. The book mainly focuses on the physiological parts of the war. Whether it is about the greatest and most evil leaders of all time or about the effects that the environment had on soldier’s mind-set, the book got to the point of proving war can have its psychological effects on everyone involved.
My personal favorite part about the novel was his section on Hitler and his childhood. When hitting on Hitler’s childhood he mentioned, “Hitler’s childhood had been so abusive – his father regularly beat him with a whip… many times he was nearly killed” (DeMause 49). When a person has that rough of a childhood, it makes it very believable that they would turn out a mean person in life. Not only did Hitler endure a brutal childhood, he also suffered from a mental disorder that made him think his sperm was poisonous to women. Hitler had an extremely abnormal childhood, which can be easily linked to his horrifying acts that he committed once under control of Germany.
Overall this was a pretty good book. Although it was quite boring at times, it still kept me somewhat interested for a majority of the book. Most of the claims that the book made can easily be backed up, but still there were times where DeMause made some kind of outrageous claims. Of course the most interesting, and backed up, claim was on Hitler. I enjoyed this book, but would rather read something more interesting to me.


Book was online, url:
http://books.google.com/books?id=MdR8EhAxtgQC&dq=The+Emotional+Life+of+Nations++by+Lloyd+deMause&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=wlbrS9GYJcWqlAfYw7GcBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false


DeMause, Lloyd (2002). The Emotional Life of Nations. New York: Karnac. pp. 454. print