Customer Reviews

The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses

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

 

 

This is an important and highly original study, based on extensive research in previously unexploited archives. It documents in compelling detail American academia's belated, and all often grudging, recognition of the true nature of Nazi Germany and of the impossibility of maintaining relations with that regime's academic institutions while retaining their own moral legitimacy and scholarly integrity. At a time when American universities vie with each other to curry favor and secure funding from foreign dictatorial regimes, Professor Norwood's sobering investigation into the past is pointedly relevant today.

This book is a telling indictment of American university complicity and silence in relations with Nazi Germany. It also tells the story of discriminatory policies of these universities against Jews, and failure to stand up for fundamental human rights and freedoms. Much of the focus is on Ivy League schools including Harvard and Columbia. Norwood gives the background to the rise of the Nazis, but the heart of his book is on the examination of the behavior of those within the American university world. There may have been much apathy and indifference but there was also a great deal of very conscious anti- Semitism at work. Considering the powerfully transformative role exiled intellectual European Jews were to play later on in making America's universities the best in the world , there is something extremely ironic in the whole story. The 'best and brightest' at that time were the slowest and most reluctant in realizing the threat presented to Western civilization as a whole by the Nazis.

This is the first book I have seen devoted to the topic of whether some American universities were too touchy-feely with the fascist regimes prior to the Second War. This is certainly the concluson reached by the author, who is professor of history at the University of Oklahoma. This extremely well-researched study first addresses Germany's reversion to the "dark ages" to give the reader a sense of what unfortunate developments were occurring in the Third Reich. The core of the book, however, are individual chapters on Harvard (1933-1937); Columbia (1933-1937); the Seven Sisters Women's Colleges; the University of Virginia Institute of Public Affairs Roundtables (1933-1941); and the German language departments of various universities (1933-1941). There is an additional chapter devoted to Catholic Universities, principally in reference to Mussolini's Italy. Finally, the author discusses the post-Kristallnacht (1938) period when the attitudes of many, but not all, of these institutions changed.

At this point in time, more than 70 years after the fact, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about what was going on at these campuses. The author's position, I believe, is that many university administrators were at best uninformed, or at worst simply clueless or didn't care, about what was going on in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. He also suggests that anti-Semitism may have played a role in all this. But I think several considerations need to be factored into this argument. First, I don't think universities can be held to the same standards as other institutions since a primary norm of universities is to interact with each other, to serve as places for the discussion of sometimes controversial ideas, and to bridge cultural differences. Universities are not agents of foreign policy but educational institutions with different priorities. Moreover, many of the activities to which the author points (such as conferences, junior years abroad, and banquets and speeches) are just the daily "meat and potatoes" of academic life, especially at such major institutions as Harvard and Columbia. Finally, I doubt whether whatever these institutions did had any effect on general American opinion about Nazi Germany or Italy.

Nonetheless, the author makes an imposing case that something was amiss at these institutions. It is an interesting topic and the author's extensive research has unearthed a number of fascinating developments. There are 54 pages of helpful notes supporting the text and an imposing 11-page bibliography. Reading this book cannot help but get the reader to start thinking about this issue; and that is its greatest strength I believe.

This is more of a scholarly reference, rather than something you might want to pick up for a bit of recreational reading. In fact, the content varies litle from chapter to chapter. Sameness predominates as the author takes us through the recurrent errors of judgement and warped values promulgated by a very large number of colleges and university officials. Thus, the 3-star rating is based on the book's potential appeal to a mainstream reader and does not detract, in any way, from its value as an amply footnoted historical textbook.

If you believe, as Stephen Norwood does, that Jewish suffering is unique and special, then it's reasonable to expect the entire American academic establishment to reorganize itself and focus on what Germany was allegedly doing to the Jews in the 1930's. In addition, if you can ignore the context of the 1930's in America and--economic Depression, no desire to get involved in Europe's problems, fear of Bolshevism, no wish to admit large numbers of non-English speaking refugees, no more war--and possess 20/20 hindsight, then, as Norwood does, you can vilify a large number of good American citizens--even presidents of major colleges, like James Conant of Harvard, his favorite target--and call them antisemites for not doing something about Jewish suffering. In fact, according to Norwood, many of the academics he discusses were closet antisemites.

However, if you subscribe to a more universal, humanist ethic that rises above any tribal ethic--Athens instead of Jerusalem--then you will find the argument in this book very hollow. Norwood sheds no tears for anybody else's suffering in the 1930's leading up to WW II.

For the past sixty years, the Palestinians have been suffering in ways very similar to the ways in which the Jews suffered under the Germans, but there is no expectation of universal sympathy. They have endured confiscations of property and entire villages, Emergency Regulations (Nuremberg Laws), ethnic cleansing, concentration camps, murders, ghettoizing, starvation, boycotts, blockades, refugee camps and much more.

Where is the Jewish outrage?

Norwood expected outrage by US academics for similar evils in the 1930's. Poll after poll indicate that most Israelis support whatever barbarism Israel visits on the hapless Palestinians.

Is there a double standard here? Of course, there is.

If you believe what Norwood believes, then this book is for you.

But if you believe, as I do, that civilized values and morality are universal and apply to everyone and that Jewish problems are not preeminent always and everywhere, then you might avoid this book.

THIS BOOK IS A DENSELY-WRITTEN, SCHOLARLY DESCRIPTION OF THE PRO-NAZI PAST OF MANY PROMINENT UNIVERSITY FACULTIES. IT IS AN EYE OPENER FOR THOSE TOO YOUNG TO HAVE EXPERIENCED THAT ERA. TO THIS WRITER THE FACTS IN THE BOOK COME AS NO SURPRISE, BUT SERVE TO SHOW THAT HIS EXPERIENCES WERE NOT JUST HIS OWN, THEY WERE WIDESPREAD. FINALLY, THE BOOK SERVES TO WARN ALL OF US THAT IT COULD HAPPEN HERE!

This is a great book about academics who loved Nazis because they thought they looked great in their uniforms, and who hated Jews because they thought they looked too intense. Instead of listening or reading, these academics, who should have known better, only depended on what they saw. Clearly this is a valuable book because it is a warning to us all. This an excellent book!

Actually, not so compelling. Very dry, written more as an academic tome than a work of interesting history.
Yes, there were unforgiveable lapses of conscience in the American academic community. But face it, there were lots of Hitler appeasers everywhere in the mid 1930's. Perhaps academe was just a reflection of the overall American sentiments? Maybe, maybe not - this angle was not explored. Yes, it's a useful piece, but I wouldn't buy it (I checked it out from my local library) - it's just too difficult to read.