Over the course of the semester we trace the rise and fall of National Socialism. The first half of the course focuses on Germany’s first democracy, the Weimar Republic and explores Nazism’s roots in postwar political culture. The Republic’s radical democratic visions and social programs may have failed to produce a lasting consensus in the 1920s, but they did not naturally or inevitably lead to the rise of National Socialism and the assumption of power in 1933. In the second half, we focus on the Nazi period itself and explore how National Socialism consolidated its power, remade society, transformed culture, and maintained popular legitimacy in order to create a social order based on the concepts of race and struggle. The concept of race is crucial here and we will spend a significant amount of time, reading, thinking, and talking about the construction of race in Germany at the time and place it into its global historical contexts. In the name of the “racial purity,” the Nazi state moved ruthlessly against Germany’s Jewish population and cleansed German society of all “undesirable” elements. Racial politics also chiefly drove the genocidal war for territorial expansion that underwrote the entire Nazi project. Lastly, we will begin to sketch the complicated consequences for postwar Europe in the aftermath of the Third Reich’s collapse in 1945.

Course Requirements:

Read. Think. Participate in discussion and lecture. Two Essay Exams. Short Writing Assignments. In-lecture quizzes.

Intended Audience:

Suitable for students at all levels who are not afraid to read

Class Format:

Two 90 minute Lectures, One Discussion per week