Nazi Germany

by Caplan, Jane

• ISBN13: 9780199276868
• ISBN10: 0199276862
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Short Oxford History of Germany series provides a concise, readable, and authoritative point of entry for the history of Germany, from the dawn of the nineteenth century to the present day. In each chapter a leading expert offers focused and penetrating insights into the major themes and influences of the period.

Author Biography

Jane Caplan is a Professor of Modern European History and a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. She has worked mainly on the history of Nazi Germany. Her current research interests include the history of concentration camps in Nazi Germany, and the documentation of individual identity in 19th-century Europe, especially the written and visual marks of identity on and of the body. She is executive editor of New German Historical Perspectives, and a member of the editorial board of History Workshop Journal.

Table of Contents

List of maps	p. x
List of contributors	p. xi
Abbreviations and glossary	p. xiv
Introduction	p. 1
Contexts of interpretation	p. 4
The 'Historians' Dispute'	p. 8
Willing executioners?	p. 12
Institutions and intentions	p. 14
Biopolitics	p. 19
History and memory	p. 22
The emergence of Nazi ideology	p. 26
Historiography	p. 26
Ideology and material interest	p. 29
Origins of Nazi anti-Semitism	p. 32
Regenerating the nation	p. 38
The Nazi ideological synthesis	p. 43
The NSDAP 1919-1934: from fringe politics to the seizure of power	p. 48
The first Nazis	p. 52
The Nazis mobilize	p. 59
The Nazi breakthrough	p. 66
The consolidation of power	p. 69
Hitler and the Nazi state: leadership, hierarchy, and power	p. 73
Hitler as 'Fuhrer'	p. 73
Tensions between party and state	p. 77
The Nazi Party's Political Organization and the SS	p. 82
Integrative and disintegrative forces	p. 88
The war years, 1939-1945	p. 93
Inclusion: building the national community in propaganda and practice	p. 99
The persistence of social divisions	p. 101
Sex, race, and population policy	p. 104
The Nazification of social life	p. 107
The Nazi Party, its formations, and affiliates	p. 108
Education for 'valuable' citizens	p. 112
Social integration: strategies and responses	p. 114
Opposition	p. 116
Conclusion	p. 118
The policy of exclusion: repression in the Nazi state, 1933-1939	p. 122
1933: the year of terror	p. 123
Political opponents	p. 128
Social outcasts	p. 133
'Racial aliens'	p. 137
1939 and beyond	p. 143
Religion and the churches	p. 146
Introduction	p. 146
Catholics	p. 148
Protestants	p. 153
Persecuted religions	p. 162
Conclusion	p. 166
The economic history of the Nazi regime	p. 168
The stuff of Volksgemeinschaft	p. 169
Managing rearmament	p. 178
Reinterpreting the Nazi war economy	p. 184
Mobilizing the Nazi racial empire	p. 190
Conclusion: ideological-pragmatic synthesis	p. 194
Foreign policy in peace and war	p. 196
Introduction	p. 196
Initial steps	p. 197
Rearmament and plans for war	p. 201
New ties to Italy and remilitarization of the Rhineland	p. 203
The shift to open aggression	p. 205
War ordered but cancelled	p. 209
War ordered and started	p. 214
Foreign policy during the war	p. 216
Occupation, imperialism, and genocide, 1939-1945	p. 219
Experimentation, 1939-1940	p. 220
Expansion, 1940-1941	p. 226
Culmination: the peak years of killing, 1942 and 1943	p. 230
Death throes, 1944-1945	p. 239
The Third Reich in post-war German memory	p. 246
War stories in East and West Germany	p. 253
Back to the future: the politics of memory in unified Germany	p. 262
Further reading	p. 267
Chronology	p. 288
Maps	p. 297
Index	p. 305
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