The Nazis put a remarkable amount of effort into anti-Semitic propaganda, intending to bring ordinary Germans around to the destructive ideology of the Nazi party. Julius Streicher (1885-1946) spearheaded many of these efforts, publishing anti-Semitic articles and cartoons in his weekly newspaper, Der StYrmer, the most widely read paper in the Third Reich. Streicher won the close personal friendship of Hitler and Himmler, and drew deserved attacks from the world press. Bytwerk's biography examines Streicher's use of propaganda techniques, and the hate literature towards Jews that continued to appear after his death, bearing his influence.
Were black masters different from white? An analysis of all aspects and particularly of the commercialism of black slaveowning debunks the myth that black slaveholding was a benevolent institution based on kinship, and explains the transition of black masters from slavery to paid labor.
Stepping back from the immediate controversy surrounding the merits and shortcomings of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners, this edited volume intervenes in the continuing discussion by exploring aspects of the public's reception to Goldhagen's book--what the authors call the "Goldhagen Effect."
The first essay, by Omer Bartov, examines the extent to which the book's reception in the United States, Germany, France, and Israel reflected differing attitudes toward the Holocaust, thereby highlighting the role that the genocide of Jews has come to play in a variety of national contexts. Atina Grossman then analyzes the "Goldhagen Effect" in Germany, looking at Germans' shifting reactions to the American and German editions of the book and the accompanying publicity tour. Grossman considers these responses in the broader context of Germans' ambivalent relationship to their history.
Next, Pieter Judson turns his attention to the reception to Hitler's Willing Executioners in Austria, exploring why most Austrians--particularly those on the far right--calmly accepted Goldhagen's conclusions. Finally, Jane Caplan describes some of the ways in which Goldhagen's book resonates with contemporary American sensibilities and suggests why the book experienced such popular success in America.
The revised and expanded essays in this volume were originally presented in a symposium organized by Kathleen Canning for the University of Michigan Center for European Studies to discuss the response of academia and the broader intellectual public to Goldhagen's work. The "Goldhagen Effect" will be of interest to historians and others in the humanities and social sciences, as well as to the informed general reader.
Geoff Eley is Professor of History and German Studies, University of Michigan.
(9)Obama, the son of a white American mother and a black African father, writes an elegant and compelling biography that powerfully articulates America's racial battleground and tells of his search for his place in black America. 8 pages of photos.
In spring 1945, as the Russians moved on Berlin and it became clear the Nazi cause was lost, Adolf Hitler assured his most trusted henchmen that even if he were to die, "the seed of National Socialism will grow again one day [in] . . . a radiant rebirth." Several times after the war, the distinguished author Peter Wyden, himself a victim of the Nazis, returned to Germany to discover, to his dismay, that Hitler's prediction was all too true. In these unsettling pages, Wyden documents the reality that the "Hitler virus" is still very much alive. A harrowing companion to Daniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners, this book is Wyden's legacy to the world.
A landmark work of New Journalism is now available in softcover. Safe Area Gorazde is Joe Sacco's 240-page opus about the war in the former Yugoslavia. Sacco spent four months in Bosnia in 1995-1996, immersing himself in the human side of life during wartime, researching stories rarely found in conventional news coverage. The book focuses on the Muslim enclave of Gorazde, which was besieged by Bosnian Serbs during the war. Sacco spent four weeks in Gorazde, entering before the Muslims trapped inside had access to the outside world, electricity or running water. The hardcover edition of Safe Area Gorazde put Sacco on the map as one of the pre-eminent journalists of his time, and the softcover edition will present his work to a wider audience. The book has been prominently featured in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Time, Utne Reader, Spin, The London Times, The Washington Post, Brill's Content, several NPR programs, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, and other media. The book also led to Sacco being named a recipient of a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship. Safe Area Gorazde features an introduction by Christopher Hitchens, political columnist for The Nation and Vanity Fair.
