Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Work

A clever and contemporary approach to the biography of the influential twentieth-century philosopher , mystic and highly creative educator, artist, scientist, who unfortunately remains a mystery despite many who benefit from his ideas mainly through the Waldorf pedagogy among other movements, like biodynamic agriculture and holistic medicine based on his Spiritual Science - the Anthroposophy .

A sympathetic, balanced and insightful study of the life and work of Rudolf Steiner. If you want a quick 240 page account, look no further. This is it.

Recommended if you are looking for a good introductory overview of who Steiner was and what his work was about. For an in-depth view of Steiner's life and work check out Christoph Lindenberg's biography.

I so enjoy reading Gary Lachman's books that I re-read them several months later and his Rudolf Steiner must be one of the best. He obviously has a high opinion of Steiner as a thinker and innovater despite misgivings about some details of his occult science. It's a pity that there was no one with Steiner's dynamism and leadership to guide the Anthroposophical Society following his death in 1925. Rudlof Steiner was slight in stature but a spiritual giant.

Very informative

Easy reading and very complete on RS's life.

Interesting and well written.

I had tried and failed on several occasions to "get" what Steiner was about, and this book comes the nearest to making sense of the man for me. Lachman's genius (or rather his other genius, beside being Debbie Harry's bassist) is that he successfully steers a course between the extremes of taking everything Steiner ever said or wrote as The Truth, and dismissing him completely as dangerously delusional. The treatment is always sympathetic and engaging, and I came away from it with an impression of Steiner having been an extremely unusual and in many ways admirable man who had some amazing insights but also many that were at the very least somewhat questionable. Above all, I (feel I) understood practically everything in the book, which is saying something for a book about Steiner, who was nothing if not complex and frequently impenetrable.If I have a criticism of the book, it is that it does not bring out the central importance of Christianity to Steiner as much as I would have expected. But as a biography, it's great.Many people's main contact with Steiner's legacy will be in the form of Steiner education. Steiner's Anthroposophy tends to be played down by Steiner schools when interacting with parents and the public, and is not explicitly taught in class, but it is nevertheless central to the way they operate, and if your child attends a Steiner school (as mine does) or you are thinking of sending him/her to one, you owe it to yourself and your child to understand where Steiner was coming from and evaluate his teachings for yourself.