Customer Reviews

The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This insightful text takes several perspectives in analysing the radical social engineering project known as National Socialism. Although not all of the Nazis' victims were racial 'undesirables,' all came under the boot in one way or another as a way of advancing that racial project. Wippermann and Burleigh have done an impressive job in exploring this theme, approaching it from Nazi policy to broad implementation, as well as looking at the refashioning of society by segments along Nazi lines.

The concept of the untranslatable _Volksgemeinschaft_ can be somewhat difficult to convey to students in our atomised and pluralised culture. Not only does this text provide "thick description" of this social construct, but it also supplies a useful framework for comparative analysis without resorting to useless relativising and hierarchising of suffering. Highly recommended as a classroom text for undergraduate level and above.

Many Americans can't understand how Germany developed a racial state in the midst of modernism. This book gives vivid insight into the mechanisms & development of fascism. The National Socialist Party didn't just happen. The machinery of the state developed under the right conditions with the help of many non-military individuals, including both professors & doctors.

Not only is this book interesting for its historical information, reading it enlightens the reader to more recent fascist development. After reading this book, you will never say it can't happen here.

Techinically I was forced to read this book for a history cause I'm taking. However, instead of reading all the other source too, I read the whole thing instead of just the assignments for this book. If you have any interest in the Holocaust, this book is a must. The integration of documents and survivor's account gives the information alot of different perspective that really helps to better understand a situation that is so unimanigable.

*Review written originally for a course review with this book as the main source*

By in large, I agree with what B.W. is saying, although I think that there are some holes in their presentation that should be addressed, but are also commonly overlooked by many other authors that I have read as well. I have challenged B.W.'s conclusions on a number of occasions throughout the course, that I think are either understated or over simplified. I think that B.W.'s conclusion about the Nazis being modern or anti-modern is a valid question, but I don't think they address it properly throughout their work. I think its common that many historians automatically revert to the aftermath of WWI to explain the rise of Nazism, which of course set the economic, political, and social atmosphere in which the Nazis emerged. But, I think its foundations go back further. Upon beginning to read the second chapter in B.W., I was pleased that it began with ideological descendants such as Nietzsche, Chamberlain, Goubineau, and some mention of Wagner. These were all mid to late 19th Century men, and three of them were dead before WWI even began. Even so, these men are among the few who are directly named by Hitler and other leading Nazis, such as Goebbels, as sources of inspiration. I don't think that enough attention was paid to their contributions to Nazi ideology by B.W. It is pointless to debate whether the Nazis were modern or anti-modern without examining what anti-modern was or is. Also, "anti-modern" itself seems a bit awkward of an expression to me. Perhaps "nostalgic" seems too positive a term to be associated with Nazis, but I think it is a more accurate term. I think that objectivity is rare when studying the Third Reich, and for good reason. Nobody wants to be accused of being a sympathizer, but objectivity was something I felt was far lacking in B.W.'s work. The harm in this is that it fails to present the Nazis' ideology and the policies and programs that were shaped by it as the German people viewed it, and many accepted fanatically, except from the victim's point of view. I don't believe in "brainwashing" theories in such a short span of time, and the mechanisms of the media were not in full Nazi use until 1933, after being voted into power. Even then, Germany was a highly sophisticated, educated, and politically active people in a democracy in the years before the Nazis rose, and that says something. I think that B.W. does not pursue these concepts to their proper ends, which leads the interpretation of the Nazis' rise to something of a highjacking by extremists who manipulated and lied their way into power. In fact, the Nazis were very articulate about what they believed often and in the open, from the Party Program which was written in 1920 (and made no mention of in B.W.) to the extermination of the Jews and the conquest of Lebensraum to be found in the Soviet Union, as stated in Mein Kampf. I am no sympathizer for the Nazis or what they did, but I am equally not an apologist either.

This is an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the institutionalization of National Socialist racialism. However, I must disagree that Germany was unique in this. One has only to look around to see that the United States is pursuing similar social policies under the guise of "fairness" or "tolerance" as are all the Western democracies--which should tell you something about democracy.

The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (Burleigh) (Purchased on 11/19/2010)
by Michael Burleigh

I have yet to receive the book but have purchased it knowing it will answer all my questions for the study of HIST324 Ashes to Ashes, at University of New England, NSW, Australia.

I am sure it will get to my PO tomorrow?!

Thanks, J9 (Janine)