Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Why the Germans? Why the Jews?: Envy, Race Hatred, and the Prehistory of the Holocaust

3.9/5 ( ratings)

A provocative and insightful analysis that sheds new light on one of the most puzzling and historically unsettling conundrums
Why the Germans? Why the Jews? Countless historians have grappled with these questions, but few have come up with answers as original and insightful as those of maverick German historian Götz Aly. Tracing the prehistory of the Holocaust from the 1800s to the Nazis’ assumption of power in 1933, Aly shows that German anti-Semitism was—to a previously overlooked extent—driven in large part by material concerns, not racist ideology or religious animosity. As Germany made its way through the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution, the difficulties of the lethargic, economically backward German majority stood in marked contrast to the social and economic success of the agile Jewish minority. This success aroused envy and fear among the Gentile population, creating fertile ground for murderous Nazi politics.Surprisingly, and controversially, Aly shows that the roots of the Holocaust are deeply intertwined with German efforts to create greater social equality. Redistributing wealth from the well-off to the less fortunate was in many respects a laudable goal, particularly at a time when many lived in poverty. But as the notion of material equality took over the public imagination, the skilled, well-educated Jewish population came to be seen as having more than its fair share. Aly’s account of this fatal social dynamic opens up a new vantage point on the greatest crime in history and is sure to prompt heated debate for years to come.

Language: English

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Release: April 15, 2014

ISBN: 0805097007

ISBN 13: 9780805097009

Why the Germans? Why the Jews?: Envy, Race Hatred, and the Prehistory of the Holocaust

3.9/5 ( ratings)

A provocative and insightful analysis that sheds new light on one of the most puzzling and historically unsettling conundrums
Why the Germans? Why the Jews? Countless historians have grappled with these questions, but few have come up with answers as original and insightful as those of maverick German historian Götz Aly. Tracing the prehistory of the Holocaust from the 1800s to the Nazis’ assumption of power in 1933, Aly shows that German anti-Semitism was—to a previously overlooked extent—driven in large part by material concerns, not racist ideology or religious animosity. As Germany made its way through the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution, the difficulties of the lethargic, economically backward German majority stood in marked contrast to the social and economic success of the agile Jewish minority. This success aroused envy and fear among the Gentile population, creating fertile ground for murderous Nazi politics.Surprisingly, and controversially, Aly shows that the roots of the Holocaust are deeply intertwined with German efforts to create greater social equality. Redistributing wealth from the well-off to the less fortunate was in many respects a laudable goal, particularly at a time when many lived in poverty. But as the notion of material equality took over the public imagination, the skilled, well-educated Jewish population came to be seen as having more than its fair share. Aly’s account of this fatal social dynamic opens up a new vantage point on the greatest crime in history and is sure to prompt heated debate for years to come.

Language: English

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Release: April 15, 2014

ISBN: 0805097007

ISBN 13: 9780805097009

More books from Götz Aly

Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Into the Tunnel: The Brief Life of Marion Samuel, 1931-1943

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Fromms: How Julius Fromm's Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Architects of Annihilation: Auschwitz and the Logic of Destruction

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Unser Kampf: 1968 - ein irritierter Blick zurück

3.3/5 ( ratings)

Die Belasteten. "Euthanasie" 1939 - 1945. Eine Gesellschaftsgeschichte

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Das Prachtboot: Wie Deutsche die Kunstschätze der Südsee raubten

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Europa przeciwko Żydom 1880-1945

4.3/5 ( ratings)

Volkes Stimme. Skepsis und Führervertrauen im Nationalsozialismus

National-Socialist Extermination Policies

Das letzte Kapitel: Mord an den ungarischen Juden. 1944 - 1945

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Volk ohne Mitte. Die Deutschen zwischen Freiheitsangst und Kollektivismus

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Sozialpolitik und Judenvernichtung: Gibt es eine Ökonomie der Endlösung?

4.5/5 ( ratings)

The Value of the Human Being: Medicine in Germany 1918 - 1945

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Państwo Hitlera

4.5/5 ( ratings)

The Nazi Census: Identification and Control in the Third Reich

4.5/5 ( ratings)

The Nazi Census: Identification and Control in the Third Reich

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Macht, Geist, Wahn

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Europe Against the Jews, 1880-1945

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?