The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (Burleigh)

By Wolfgang Wippermann and Michael Burleigh

Book Overview

Between 1933 and 1945 the Nazi regime in Germany tried to restructure a class society along racial lines. This book deals with the ideas and institutions that underpinned this mission, and shows how Nazi policy affected various groups of people, both victims and beneficiaries. The book begins with a serious discussion of the origins of Nazi racial ideology, and then demonstrates the way in which this was translated into official policy. It deals with the systematic persecution not only of the Jews, but also with the fate of lesser-known groups such as Sinti and Roma, the mentally handicapped, the asocial, and homosexuals.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521398029
• ISBN13: 9780521398022
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 404 Pages
• Weight: 1.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Useful, enlightening text

This insightful text takes several perspectives in analysing the radical social engineering project known as National Socialism. Although not all of the Nazis' victims were racial 'undesirables,' all came under the boot in one way or another as a way of advancing that racial project. Wippermann and Burleigh have done an impressive job in exploring this theme, approaching it from Nazi policy to broad implementation, as well as looking at the refashioning of society by segments along Nazi lines. The concept of the untranslatable _Volksgemeinschaft_ can be somewhat difficult to convey to students in our atomised and pluralised culture. Not only does this text provide "thick description" of this social construct, but it also supplies a useful framework for comparative analysis without resorting to useless relativising and hierarchising of suffering. Highly recommended as a classroom text for undergraduate level and above.

Only in Germany?

This is an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the institutionalization of National Socialist racialism. However, I must disagree that Germany was unique in this. One has only to look around to see that the United States is pursuing similar social policies under the guise of "fairness" or "tolerance" as are all the Western democracies--which should tell you something about democracy.

Excellent book to help one understand how this happened.

Many Americans can't understand how Germany developed a racial state in the midst of modernism. This book gives vivid insight into the mechanisms & development of fascism. The National Socialist Party didn't just happen. The machinery of the state developed under the right conditions with the help of many non-military individuals, including both professors & doctors. Not only is this book interesting for its historical information, reading it enlightens the reader to more recent fascist development. After reading this book, you will never say it can't happen here.

Extremely Informative and Interesting

Techinically I was forced to read this book for a history cause I'm taking. However, instead of reading all the other source too, I read the whole thing instead of just the assignments for this book. If you have any interest in the Holocaust, this book is a must. The integration of documents and survivor's account gives the information alot of different perspective that really helps to better understand a situation that is so unimanigable.