Suzanne Stephens on the Johnson Tapes

Somehow I missed this but over at Architectural Record’s Off the Record, Suzanne Stephens has a much more insightful review of the Johnson Tapes than Franz Schulze’s self-serving piece. The only thing I’d disagree with in this review is Suzanne’s description of Schulze’s biography as “comprehensively” filling in material about Johnson’s time on the Right. Schulze doesn’t really address the period as a historian. His interest is the scandalous nature of the material. This is disappointing. Since he had Johnson’s cooperation, at least up to a certain point, he had access to material that nobody else ever will and its unlikely that we will ever get as complete an understanding of that moment in Johnson’s life as we’d want. To take just one example (there are many), what is Johnson doing translating Werner Sombart? Schulze does little to explain.

If I ever think it’s worth spending more time on Johnson (and I do have other things to do), I may yet go back to this material. Time will tell.