book is a little tedious toward the end, and it gets pretty deep, There were some really good ideas presented,
Also, the edition that I purchased had several typographical errors, Nothing major though. Often times “the” was replaced by “die”, Not a quick easy read, but thought provoking and insightful, Made me wish I read it with a few people so I could discuss what the author discovered and compare it to how we live our current lives and make the decisions we make.
This is the most provocative book Ive read in my adult life,
It powerfully evokes a very civilized despair for the human social condition, It implies that the Western notion of the social contract to be a wistful, romantic notion, I think I said that in a nice way, Shantung Compound was a blunt, clarifying, transformative read for me,
In Gilkeys words, “This book is about the life of a civilian internment camp in North China during the war against Japan.
. . Because internmentcamp life seems to reveal more clearly than does ordinary experience the anatomy of mans common social and moral problems and the bases of human communal existence, this book finally has been written.
”
Gilkey was ayearold American teacher in a Chinese university when World War II commenced, He and about,others, mostly Europeans including academics, clergy and businessmen, were imprisoned for more than two years in relatively benign conditions in the Weihsien camp near Shantung.
Their Japanese captors provided the bare minimum of food and coal, and told the inmates to run the camp inside the walls.
Shantung Compound is Gilkeys account of the endlessly frustrated attempts, by various camp leaders and elected committees and a few charismatic individuals, to enforce a fair allocation of the smallish rooms and dorm beds, to get everyone to do a fair share of work, to prevent stealing, to settle social disputes, to provide for the exceptional needs of the elderly, the frail, the young kids, the nursing mothers.
The overwhelming truth is that, facing the prospective dangers and daily extremities of camp life, nearly all of the internees didnt “rise to the occasion” to protect the weak and to cooperate rationally for their own good and the common good.
Instead, this is what nearly all of the interneesmost of them white, educated, Westerntended to do most of the time: they conspicuously looked out for themselves and their families, declined to do more than a modicum of work, refused to give up some of their “equal” share of food and housing to needier fellow inmates, shied away from volunteer leadership, declined to share the contents of relief parcels sent by their “own” governments, stole food and supplies whenever possible, refused to punish the egregious wrongdoers among them, and rationalized most of their uncharitable, uncooperative and uncivil behavior in complex variations of religious and humanist moralities.
Mind you, this wasnt humanity in a state of nature, No “ Nature, red in tooth and claw” stuff, The Japanese guards remained aloof from the prisoners largely autonomous camp administration, and permitted black market trading with villagers outside the camp.
The internees lived in dismal but not lifethreatening conditions, They lived peaceably, often manifesting their shortcomings in a nominally genteel way, In a perverted sense, they were in a protected environment, and really didnt worry much about anything except surviving in a tolerably impoverished condition as part of a generally homogeneous group.
They could have lived an Enlightenment fantasy, They could have established a coherent community with orderly cooperation, consensual leadership and rational allocation of food, housing and civic niceties to appropriately satisfy the disparate needs of all.
But they didnt.
Here endeth the lesson for today,
More reviews on my website:
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Heard about this book while listening to sitelinkTim Keller in his March,sermon "RISE Changed Lives," when he was reading from a portion that included some of Gilkey's views on Eric Liddell who was also in the camp and on human nature and religion.
He closed after the following quote from the book:
Religion is not the place where the problem of man's egotism is automatically solved.I slowly read this book and enjoyed the mixture of memoir sometimes funny, sometimes poignant and musing.
Rather, it is there that the ultimate battle between human pride and God's grace takes place, Human pride may win the battle, and then religion can and does become one more instrument of human sin.
But if there the self does meet God and His grace, and so surrenders to something beyond its selfinterest, then Christian faith can prove to be the needed and rare release from human selfconcern.
This is a book of the reality of life in an internment camp in China during WWII, But it is also practical philosophy, reflecting on his and others journeys, It is a tale of his own spiritual journey, set in an internment camp, Be prepared to put the book down at times, and ponder, as you work through it, I've tried to write a review a couple of time but each time I make the book sound boring.
So instead:
I really enjoyed this book,
I would read it again,
I've quoted this book more thantimes in the lastweeks,
It was entertaining. I laughed out loud in places,
My worldview was significantly and wonderfully challenged, Although the book is almostyears old, its issues are as fresh as this morning's news, Gilkey shares a thoughtful memoire of his time in a Japanese concentration camp during WW II, While not treated as poorly as many who spent time in wartime camps, he and his fellow inmates suffered enough deprivation that their behaviors changed considerably.
Gilkey narrates the conflicts in the camp, the dramas, the scarcity, and the eye opening dynamics that take place when you bring religious and secular people into close space.
His narrative explores the relationship between the primal needs of people and morality, He uncovers the ways that religion and morality mask human selfishness, He also gives a thoughtful critique on the limits of humanism: the idea that people will become better and better if enough external obstacles are removed.
As we deal with bad behavior in our own culture, . . and world, this old book is well worth a fresh read, giving us fresh insights into both ourselves and others, and some new energy to navigate the psychological, philosophical, economic, and spiritual issues we are confronting.
Probably one of the most provocative books I've read this past year,
The young author writes his reflections on living in a compound filled with primarily Western nonbelligerents during WWII in China, rounded up by Japanese troops.
The population is a wide mix of businessmen and spouses, missionaries of all kinds, catholic priests and lay workers, and other adventurers.
No tales of torture or violence, rather behavior by various individuals and groups when deprived of luxuries, space, and conveniences.
The author has a keen mind to go along with his acute observational skills an illuminating and informative combination with the bonus of writing it down for others to read.
Why this book: Recommended to my by my friend Peter Rae,
Summary insentences: Imagine taking a fairly random group of aboutcivilians from a number of different countries, locking them inside a small compound, taking away all rank privilege or previous status, providing food and basic necessities, isolating them from all contact with the outside world, and telling them to figure it out.
Thats what the Japanese did with western civilians in China when they occupied China during WWII, Langdon Gilkey, an idealistic young Harvard grad teaching in Peking was one of those, and in Shantung Compound, he shares his experiences in that compound, and draws his very interesting conclusions about human nature and morality.
My impressions: This is fascinating book that is full of wisdom and insight about human nature and manthesocialanimal.
It is a book I would love to read and discuss with people who are thoughtful about communities, society, politics and how people can best live together.
It is real it really happened, This author was there, and writes about his experience with care and compassion, and shares the many insights and lessons learned he gained from his experience.
This book is a gift, I'm surprised it isn't better known,
To read the rest of my review with an extensive list of quotes, to to: sitelink wordpress. com If youre interested in ethics, morality and psychology, youll enjoy this, I read this because I heard a reference from it about Eric Ridley in a sermon, but theres only about a paragraph about him after nearlypages.
So not exactly what I was expecting for information on him, but still interesting, Gilkey is humorous and insightful, but at times I tired of the philosophy a little, However, there is rich wisdom in the end of the book and I would buy a copy just for that.
Lastly, it is fairly informative about a part of WWII that I didnt really know about, A compelling reflection on how,people held as prisoners in China during WW, made the author realize that there is a God.
And that without God we have not case for unselfish behavior,
recommend. Arguably one of the most important books I ever read during my undergraduate years at Whitworth University, I always recommend this book to fellow idealists who do not believe in Original Sin, Gilkey explores the fields of politics, sociology, philosophy, etc, all within the confines of a Japanese camp, His reasoning for the existence of God, as well as his examination of human nature, is powerful,
./Incisive reflection on human social nature under extremis, So much more instructive than, say, Lord of the Flies in such a respect, It helps that this is a true story, Worldview forming for me personally, This is one of the most thought provoking books I have read and I highly recommend it, Gilkey's experience in a WWII internment camp forced him to see just how selfish we as human beings truly are.
When things were difficult, those who were interned in the camp tended to be much more concerned with their own personal welfare and security than with that of the whole group.
It frightens me to think how poorly I might respond to a similar situation, especially after reading about how poorly many though not all of the Protestant missionaries in the camp fared.
It was also interesting to me that the author's experience led him to conclude that the Christian doctrine of original sin was the only adequate explanation for the human behavior that he observed.
He also seems to have concluded that the Christian doctrine of God's providence as the only thing that can give true meaning to life.
I read this book overyears ago in college, I believe it was for an Intro to Poli.
Sci. course. It has always stayed with me, and I've thought about it off and on through the years,
Gilkey describes his life during WW II while imprisoned in a camp in China by the Japanese.
The camp was populated by over,people from all walks of life, all expats from various allied countries living and working in China when the war broke out.
The Japanese mostly left them to run and order the camp on their own, The result was essentially an experiment of the "social contract" by which humans organize and maintain their societies.
This could have gone the "Lord of the Flies" route, but for the most part these civilized internees managed to build a stable society.
A fascinating and thoughtprovoking read, It stays with you long after you read it, Had read in college and I must say it was one book I didn't mind reading at all!!! A shocking but also not shocking look into human nature and our own selfishness and depravity, I can't recommend this book enough.
I read it because it is about the internment camp where my grandfather was kept during world warin China.
It was very eye opening to me, I had heard that he was in a camp and had heard a few short anecdotes but this book really shed a light on things.
The author was also a prisoner, and he wrote from the viewpoint of what it's like to throw
people from all over the world and all walks of life into a camp together and watch what kind of a society they build.
My grandfather, John Bickford, is not mentioned by name but we always heard that he worked in the kitchen with the monks.
I also recall stories about throwing food over the fence and hiding eggs under clothing, Grandpa was repatriated on the Gripsholm because he was a missionary and because he was will with extreme sciatica leaving him nearly unable to walk on his own.
I really enjoyed learning and I thought it was a very interesting sociological look at the place and time.
Not at all what I pictured as a kid hearing family stories, I am writing this reviewyears after reading the book because I just found the link on goodreads!.