{"id":10598,"date":"2023-12-11T12:50:55","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T12:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/?p=10598"},"modified":"2023-12-11T12:50:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T12:50:55","slug":"10598","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2023\/12\/11\/10598\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
\ud83d\udcda Finished reading Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany<\/a><\/em> by Norman Ohler. This book doesn\u2019t mess around with any preamble, but dives straight into its subject matter. The first half of the book covers the increasing and then widespread use of drugs across Germany in the lead-up to World War II. It seems that the blitzkrieg (\u2018lightning war\u2019) was chemically assisted, with methamphetamine in the form of \u2018Pervitin\u2019 helping to keep German soldiers awake for days at a time. The second half covers Hitler specifically, deconstructing the myth that he was a teetotaller who kept his body and mind pure and free of drugs. He came to depend on regular cocktails of all kinds of strong substances, contributing to his delusions and ultimately his demise.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\ud83d\udcda Finished reading Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany by Norman Ohler. This book doesn\u2019t mess around with any preamble, but dives straight into its subject matter. The first half of the book covers the increasing and then widespread use of drugs across Germany in the lead-up to World War II. It seems that the blitzkrieg […]<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"status","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-status","6":"category-snippets","7":"post_format-post-format-status","8":"h-entry","10":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12989,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2026\/01\/04\/faithful-ruslan\/","url_meta":{"origin":10598,"position":0},"title":"\ud83d\udcda Faithful Ruslan","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"4 January 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Finished reading Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov. Published in 1975 in West Germany, it is the story of the closure of a Soviet prison camp in the late 1950s, told from the perspective of one of the camp\u2019s guard dogs. The foreword to the first English edition, written by Michael\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\u201cThe warm human hand was laid on your forehead; its touch was affectionate and solicitous, making a pleasant languor spread through your whole being and driving away all suspicion. You lifted your head to respond to that touch with the ultimate sign of trust: taking the hand between your teeth and holding it briefly and gently without hurting the man.\u201d \u2014 Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DraggedImage.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3771,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2017\/10\/12\/not-quite-paradise\/","url_meta":{"origin":10598,"position":1},"title":"Not Quite Paradise","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"12 October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I picked up the audio version of this book after returning from our recent holiday in Sri Lanka. I had so many lingering thoughts about the country and I wanted to get another perspective before it all faded out of my memory. This is very different to Elephant Complex, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/6714133.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11045,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2024\/08\/09\/how-civil-wars-start\/","url_meta":{"origin":10598,"position":2},"title":"\ud83d\udcda How Civil Wars Start","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"9 August 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Finished reading How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F. Walter. I picked this up from Heather Burns\u2019 2023 \u2018get ready for the coming US election\u2019 reading list. The title is perfect, as the book is literally a narrative that explains the research into the conditions that can typically lead to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"From the Center for Systemic Peace\u2019s Polity Project","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Image-06-08-2024-07-30.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Image-06-08-2024-07-30.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Image-06-08-2024-07-30.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Image-06-08-2024-07-30.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3497,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2017\/09\/09\/the-devil-in-the-flesh\/","url_meta":{"origin":10598,"position":3},"title":"The Devil In The Flesh","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"9 September 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A really good read, particularly when put in context of the author\u2019s short life and the time it was written. I read the Melville House edition of the book and enjoyed the afterword by the translator almost as much as the work itself. There is a farcical scene in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/12053624.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4068,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/04\/22\/weeknote-14-trough\/","url_meta":{"origin":10598,"position":4},"title":"Weeknote #14 \u2014 Trough","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"22 April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"My first meeting on Monday got off to a bad start when people turned up woefully unprepared, and the week got worse from there. A coalescence of issues meant that the all of my time in the past five days has been spent almost entirely focused on the urgent and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weeknotes"","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/253F6772-D9CF-4CF7-BDC1-005409D51002.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/253F6772-D9CF-4CF7-BDC1-005409D51002.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/253F6772-D9CF-4CF7-BDC1-005409D51002.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/253F6772-D9CF-4CF7-BDC1-005409D51002.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/253F6772-D9CF-4CF7-BDC1-005409D51002.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/253F6772-D9CF-4CF7-BDC1-005409D51002.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7276,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2021\/05\/05\/mr-tambourine-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":10598,"position":5},"title":"\ud83d\udcda Mr Tambourine Man","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"5 May 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Finished reading Mr Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of the Byrds\u2019 Gene Clark by John Einarson. Such a waste of talent, with an end that comes far too soon. I\u2019m only a couple of years younger than Gene Clark was when he died at 46, and its hard to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10599,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10598\/revisions\/10599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}