Customer Reviews

The Origins of Nazi Violence

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A brilliant, subtle, thought-provoking study studded with insights on every page which, thanks to the author's intimate acquaintance with the existing literature on Nazism, achieves a density and refinement worthy of the very best history books. Traverso is equally good whether citing antecedents he admires (especially Arendt), laying into those he does not (he shreds Goldhagen's already dubious reputation), or laying out his powerful but clearly still unpalatable arguments about Nazism as a crazed extension of European political trends -- colonialism, eugenics, revolutionary nationalism, industrialisation -- not an aberration contradicting them. Highly recommended.

The short commentary on this book notes, "A leading social scientist's depiction of the Holocaust as the culmination of liberal, European modernization." That's a little misleading and this very interesting analysis of the Holocaust is not as such a postmodern indictment of modernity, but an attempt to see some of the precursors of the tragedy in the deviations from true modernity such as imperialism, colonialism, instrumental rationality, etc... In all the theoretical endeavors here, amid the demands for honesty on this question, few authors dare even mention the place of Darwinism (yes, Darwinism, and not just Social Darwinism)in the picture, yet the echoes are direct once some of the real statements of Darwin and Wallace on extermination, imperialism, primitive peoples are brought out of mothballs (easier to do in France). These and many other useful insights make for a very cogent book, whether or not this is the final or best approach.

Simply one of the best works of critical thinking in the last thirty years. A far more probing analysis than a lot of other more highly visible works of Philosophy/history/social theory. A relevant book for the US today.