From the moment of his birth in 1937, author Peter Walther was absorbed into the culture of the Catholic Church. Later, as an elevenyear-old boy, he believed he was called by God to be a missionary priest. Seventeen years later, he found himself-an ordained Catholic priest-journeying to a mission station in Sabah, North Borneo. A Calling in Question tells Walther's story of his struggle to free himself from the tangled web of a Catholic upbringing.

This memoir presents a collage of several stories, weaving in and out like patterns in a fabric. It is the story of a small boy, growing up in the midst of a world war. It is the story of a family caught in the disintegration of the British class system. It is the story of a Catholic Church, toying with the challenge of change and failing to accept that challenge. It is the story of his experiences deep in the Borneo rain forest, where he initiates a project to teach desperately needed vocational skills. It is a story of his burgeoning relationship with a local health worker that forces Walther to finally confront his ambivalence about being a priest.

Most of all, however, "A Calling in Question" narrates the story of a young man struggling to be authentic while breaking from the embrace of a Catholic culture that had become a substitute for family.

'Gripping and all too timely' James Hawes 'A brilliant mix of detailed research and vivid storytelling' Julia Boyd 'History at its very best - and a fabulous translation, too' Graham Hurley In March 1930, after the collapse of the coalition that had ruled Germany since 1928, President Hindenburg asked Heinrich Bruning, bespectacled and scholarly leader of the Catholic Centre Party, to form a government. Some three years later, in January 1933, Hindenburg appointed as chancellor the demagogic, virulently anti-Semitic leader of the National Socialist party. Within weeks, Adolf Hitler has begun the process of dismantling the flawed democracy of the Weimar Republic and replacing it with a one-party totalitarian state. Darkness Falling depicts in compelling fashion the serial crises and mounting violence of a febrile era. Peter Walther examines the slow death of Weimar through the prism of nine colourful protagonists, including leading German politicians of right, left and centre, the clairvoyant and occultist, Erik Jan Hanussen and the formidable American journalist Dorothy Thompson. He profiles these heterogeneous characters in intriguing detail, pulling together the threads of their lives to chart the demise of German parliamentary democracy and the rise of National Socialist tyranny. Along the way we gain fascinating insights into the machinations in the corridors of power to keep the 'Bohemian corporal' from the chancellorship, and the venality of the Nazi elite and its fellow travellers from the demi-monde of early 1930s Berlin. Walther evokes the louche nightlife of the German capital - 'a playground for charlatans and prophets, madmen and crooks' - memorably and atmospherically. A masterly fusion of meticulously researched historical writing and vividly propulsive storytelling, Darkness Falling is a distinctive and enthralling account of Germany's slide from democracy to dictatorship. Translated by Dr Peter Lewis.

An enthralling narrative history of Weimar Berlin in the three years before the Nazi takeover and a dramatic account of Germany's slide from parliamentary democracy to dictatorship. Combining meticulously researched historical writing on the one hand with gripping storytelling on the other, Peter Walther examines the mounting crisis during the dying years of the Weimar Republic through the prism of nine principal protagonists, whose lives are profiled deftly and in fascinating detail; they include leading Weimar politicians of the right, left, and centre and prominent e migre s resident in this most cosmopolitan of capital cities. The louche and febrile nightlife of early 1930s Berlin - 'a playground for charlatans and prophets, madmen and crooks' - is memorably and atmospherically evoked. Peter Walther pulls together the threads of these nine lives to chart the demise of German parliamentary democracy and the rise of National Socialist tyranny, the story ending with the terrifying 'Finale furioso' of Hitler's seizure of power in January 1933. Along the way, we gain remarkable insights into the machinations in the corridors of power to try to keep the 'Bohemian corporal' from the chancellorship and the venality of the Nazi elite and its fellow travellers from the demi-monde of early 1930s Berlin.

"Through these travels and the photographs, I got to love the United States more than I could have in any other way." - Jack Delano Amid the ravages of the Great Depression, the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) was first founded in 1935 to address the country's rural poverty. Its efforts focused on improving the lives of sharecroppers, tenants, and very poor landowning farmers, with resettlement and collectivization programs, as well as modernized farming methods. In a parallel documentation program, the FSA hired a number of photographers and writers to record the lives of the rural poor and "introduce America to Americans." This book records the full reach of the FSA program from 1935 to 1943, honoring its vigor and commitment across subjects, states, and stylistic preferences. The photographs are arranged into four broad regional sections but otherwise allowed to speak for themselves-to provide individual impressions as much as they cumulatively build an indelible survey of a nation. The images are both color and black-and-white, and span the complete spetrum of American rural life. They show us convicts, cotton workers, kids, and relocated workers on the road. We see subjects victim to the elements of nature as much as to the vagaries of the global economic market. We find the work of such perceptive, sensitive photographers as Marion Post Wolcott, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and Dorothea Lange, and read their own testimonies to the FSA project and their encounters with their subjects, including Lange's worn, weather-beaten and iconic Migrant Mother. What unites all of the pictures is a commitment to the individuality and dignity of each subject, as much as to the witness they bear to this particular period of the American past. The subjects are entrenched in the hardships of their historical lot as much as they are caught in universal cycles of growing, playing, eating, aging, and dying. Yet they face the viewer with what is utterly their own: a unique, irreplaceable, often unforgettable presence. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

Photographer, teacher, and sociologist Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940) shaped our consciousness of American working life in the early 20th century like no other. Combining his training as an educator with his humanist concerns, Hine was one of the earliest photographers to use the camera as a documentary tool, capturing in particular labor conditions, housing, and immigrants arriving on Ellis Island. His images, including those of children in cotton mills, factories, coal mines, and fields, became icons of photographic history that helped to transform labor laws in the United States. This book brings together a representative collection of Lewis W. Hine's photography from all periods of his work. It spans his earliest forays into social-documentary work through to his more artistic and interpretative late photographs, including his phenomenal images of the construction of the Empire State Building and his symbiotic staging of human and machine as a comment on increasing industrialization. Alongside the near 350 photographs, the book includes an essay by the editor, introducing Hine's life and pioneering work. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

From the moment of his birth in 1937, author Peter Walther was absorbed into the culture of the Catholic Church. Later, as an elevenyear-old boy, he believed he was called by God to be a missionary priest. Seventeen years later, he found himself-an ordained Catholic priest-journeying to a mission station in Sabah, North Borneo. A Calling in Question tells Walther's story of his struggle to free himself from the tangled web of a Catholic upbringing.

This memoir presents a collage of several stories, weaving in and out like patterns in a fabric. It is the story of a small boy, growing up in the midst of a world war. It is the story of a family caught in the disintegration of the British class system. It is the story of a Catholic Church, toying with the challenge of change and failing to accept that challenge. It is the story of his experiences deep in the Borneo rain forest, where he initiates a project to teach desperately needed vocational skills. It is a story of his burgeoning relationship with a local health worker that forces Walther to finally confront his ambivalence about being a priest.

Most of all, however, "A Calling in Question" narrates the story of a young man struggling to be authentic while breaking from the embrace of a Catholic culture that had become a substitute for family.