Unwilling Germans: The Goldhagen Debate [Paperback]

Robert R. Shandley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1 edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816631018
• ISBN-13: 978-0816631018
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,738,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This collection of articles leaves much to be desired, January 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Unwilling Germans?: The Goldhagen Debate (Hardcover)

The subtitle of this collection of articles is misleading. It's not a representation of the Goldhagen debate in Germany, but a thinly disguised apologia of Goldhagen's book "Hitler's Willing Executioners". First, a number of critical reviews of Goldhagen's work that have appeared in other German newspapers than the weekly DIE ZEIT are ignored or have been deliberately omitted. For example, the historian Hannes Heer wrote a piece for the daily 'die taz' titled "The Great Tautology" that pretty much trashed Goldhagen's book. Second, and more disturbing, several well-argued and balanced appraisals of "Hitler's Willing Executioners", that appeared in scholarly journals in time for a possible inclusion in this volume, are conspicuously absent. The reviews by Juergen Matthaeus in "Zeitschrift fuer Geschichte", Reinhard Ruerup in "Neue Politische Literatur", and Dieter Pohl in "Vierteljahreshefte fuer Zeitgeschichte" give Goldhagen credit where credit is due, but they also reveal repeated inconsistencies, undocumented assertions, and a selective reading of the primary sources and secondary literature. In all, this edition is a disappointment. For an overview of the Goldhagen debate it relies too heavily on statements by non-specialists and brief articles from a narrow range of newspapers.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Impressive compilation of essays on the "Goldhagen Debate.", June 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Unwilling Germans: The Goldhagen Debate (Paperback)

This book collects some thirty essays and other materials on Daniel Goldhagen's controversial 1996 book, "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust." Not every piece the reader might want to find is included here, but more than enough is presented to familiarize the reader with the chief objections to Goldhagen's theses raised by scholars and journalists, as well as the lines of defense offered by his supporters and Goldhagen himself. Although inherently somewhat repetitive, this book would prove rewarding to anyone interested enough in this arcane realm of Holocaust studies to be reading this review.

37 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accomplishes its objective, March 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Unwilling Germans: The Goldhagen Debate (Paperback)

This was a very well organized collection of essays on Daniel Goldhagen's controversial book "Hitler's Willing Executioners". Goldhagen's main thesis is that the Jewish Holocaust was not a secret project of the Nazi elite, but was perpetrated by hundreds of thousands of ordinary Germans motivated by murderous Anti-Semitism. Though it sounds obvious that Anti-Semitism would be the prime mover in this horror, a body of scholarship holds that either 1) coercion within the totalitarian state, or 2) careerist ambitions in competing and poorly defined bureaucracies (the "structuralist" thesis) are mainly responsible. Articles are reprinted in chronological order, tracing the arc of the debate from near-universal condemnation of the thesis in Germany, to a grudging acknowledgment of its importance in light of the book's hugely enthusiastic popular reception.

Though dry and necessarily somewhat redundant, this collection offers a good introduction to various Holocaust theories, along with revealing insights into the psychic burdens and vulnerabilities of modern Germans.