ALBERT SCHWEITZER: COLD WAR CASUALTY

by Patricia Morris

“Reverence for Life”, the philosophy of Dr Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), invites us to live without causing harm to anything or anyone. While he toiled to provide medical care for hunter-gatherers in the jungle of equatorial Africa (now Gabon), his way of life argued for the active alleviation of physical suffering, and respect for cultural differences. Despite his relevance now, few people even know his name, once as famous as his friend Einstein’s. This book looks for the reasons. With the development of the “atom bomb”, the hitherto “silent saint” protested against nuclear weapons testing and also challenged foreign military, political and economic intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the DRC, Western powers anxious to stay ahead of the Soviets were secretly mining the world’s purest uranium for nuclear purposes. In “Albert Schweitzer: Cold War Casualty”, Patricia Morris suggests historical links between Schweitzer’s politically incendiary late protests, the erroneous suspicion that he was a communist, and his virtual erasure from our cultural history just when we have most need of his humane philosophy.

Patricia Morris is the author of “Albert Schweitzer: the Difficulty of Doing Good”, a brief biography that considers the psychological and moral dilemmas that Schweitzer’s project occasioned. Her publications include “Freud, Politics and Civilisation”, and a book about relationships, “Love & Sex: 50 therapy lessons”.

191 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 15, 2019