German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past [Hardcover]

A. Dirk Moses (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 052186495X | ISBN-13: 978-0521864954 | Publication Date: September 24, 2007 | Edition: 1

This book examines West German intellectual debates about the Nazi past by explaining why they were so relentlessly polarized. Germans argued about the viability of their very nationality: was it stigmatized, stained, or polluted by crimes of the Third Reich? Or was it really like any other nation? The book examines how German intellectuals either defended national traditions or condemned them and instead advocated alternative traditions. Although the book proceeds chronologically, it differs from other works, which are event-based narratives, by highlighting this underlying structure of identity and dispute.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"remarkable synthesis of public debates on German history and identity." -Tuska Benes, History: Review of New Books

"A. Dirk Moses provides an excellent analysis and review of the sometimes esoteric and often bitter disputes between different schools of thought in Germany about the Holocaust and German guilt." -Arthur B. Gunlicks, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"Moses does an outstanding job of referring debates and of dealing with aspects of intellectuals that are less known in traditional accounts." -Robert C. Holub, German Politics and Society

"Moses's greatest contribution in German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past is his analysis of why some intellectuals believed that the German population needed to be morally transformed after the war and why others did not." -Noah B. Strote, Theory and Society

"All research on the intellectual history of the Federal Republic will find trustworthy orientation in this book." -Jens Hacke, H-Soz-u-Kult

"Moses has provided a masterly synthesis of West German political thought, and a work of great intellectual power. In short: his book is the most important work in English on West German memory of Nazism to have appeared in recent years." -Bill Niven, German Quarterly Book Reviews

"German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past is a splendid and original interpretation that ought to be consulted by all historians interested in historical memory, national identity, and the discourse of public intellectuals." -William David Jones, Canadian Journal of History

"Moses's study of the influence and use of memory in the West German political realm, focusing on the role of the public intellectual, is superb." -Douglas C. Peifer, Contemporary European History

"Precisely because of the questions it raises, this is an agenda-setting book, with which any scholar of intellectuals, political culture and postwar Germany's reckoning with the past will have to contend. Moreover, it should interest those who study memory, identity and transitional justice more broadly." -Sean A. Forner, National Identities

"Moses has given historians of central Europe, if not the larger historical profession, much to mull over in their writing, research, and teaching on contemporary German history. No scholar will approach the topic of Vergangenheitsbewältigung again without first coming to terms with this book." -Jason Dawsey, H-German

'"This well-informed book by Moses rewrites the intellectual history of federal Germany from the second world war to the first years of the new millennium, concentrating on the development of German national consciousness as a means to recover an "underlying structure of German emotions" -Manfred Alexander Hinz, Ricerche di Storia Politica

"...the study makes a strong contribution to the scholarship surrounding this important topic." -Eric J. Klaus, German Studies Review

"A. Dirk Moses has written a passionate book: one that combines traditional intellectual history, memory discourse, an overwhelming concern with moral judgements, and some biblical analogies." -Kenneth Barkin, Journal of Modern History

Book Description

This book analyzes how West German intellectuals debated the Nazi past and democratic future of their country in increasingly polarized arguments. German intellectuals have interpreted the German stigma in divergent ways, either to defend national traditions or to condemn them, and therefore advocating non-German alternative traditions.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (September 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052186495X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521864954
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,330,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A much needed book, December 27, 2011

By 

Joseph D. Parry (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past (Paperback)

This book does some very good, careful work examining the dominant currents of thought that have shaped the politics of the post-World War 2 West Germany and, in a less detailed fashion, the unified republic that followed. A. Dirk Moses's account of those currents in the 50s, 60s, and 70s is particularly persuasive, and I very much appreciate the finely-wrought analysis he does of the major thinkers of this era on all sides of the debates, as well as the major issues. But reading what felt more like a sketch of the 80s, 90s, and the first few years of this century at this particularly confusing, worrisome moment (the end of 2011), it becomes obvious that we will need a few more decades until a comparable treatment of German intellectual history from, say, the Historikerstreit forwards can be written.