This major reinterpretation of the Holocaust surveys the destruction of the European Jews within the broader context of Nazi violence against other victim groups. Christian Gerlach offers a unique social history of mass violence which reveals why particular groups were persecuted and what it was that connected the fate of these groups and the policies against them. He explores the diverse ideological; political and economic motivations which lay behind the murder of the Jews and charts the changing dynamics of persecution during the course of the war. The book brings together both German actions and those of non-German states and societies; shedding new light on the different groups and vested interests involved and their role in the persecution of non-Jews as well. Ranging across continental Europe; it reveals that popular notions of race were often more important in shaping persecution than scientific racism or Nazi dogma.
#1208190 in Books Cambridge University Press 2005-10-17Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x 1.77 x 6.14l; 2.55 #File Name: 0521615623824 pages
Review
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Understanding over polemicizingBy James A. SullivanThe Mind of the Master Class is a tour de force; a kind of Wagnerian opus that brings the Southern elites into focus. We learn what they thought about; Scripture; the French Revolution. the classics and yes; their own slave owning. Instead of viewing them as merely a plague in history; we follow their opinions in such detail that they are humanized despite the current mood to simply dismiss them as a countersign on our road to progress. The erudition in this work is overwhelming and it is certainly the case that anyone involved in the historical discussion about slavery should consult this book. While many diehards will lament an analysis of the slaveowners in such detail; the authors make no brief for slavery. Rather they contextualize the lives of the master class in such a way that we; the reader; get to slough off our own provincialism in the interest of a wider understanding.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A Wealth of Detail; Fascinating insightsBy Darrell J. HartwickFor a scholarly work; this is quite interesting. It will be of great interest to those with a passion for Southern history and culture; as well as those like me who are bewildered by the idea of decent; civilized people defending and profiting from such a brutal institution as slavery. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese is; in no way; an apologist for slavery or any other form of human oppression; but she does fairly treat this neglected side of the 19th c. debate. I was particularly fascinated by the thought that many slaveowners compared the condition of their slaves to those of masses of workers in Northern factories; manufacturing cotton goods under conditions that seemed to them even worse than the conditions of those who picked the cotton.4 of 7 people found the following review helpful. What they didn't teach you in school about the ante-bellum South.By W. F. RuckerI enjoyed this book immensely. It greatly added to my knowledge and understanding of the ante-bellum South and why secession and the Civil War occurred. Most of the history of this era I have read was written from a Northern point of view and showed little understanding of the Southern attitudes portrayed in this book. This book helped me to understand how fundamental the differences between North and South were.The volume of research cited in the book is imposing. The footnotes comprise one-third of the 718 pages of text. After the text are 80 pages of supplementary references on topics from Addison and Cato to Women and the Classics. The research notes provided a wealth of primary sources documenting the very active intellectual life of the South.The intellectual life in the South centered around the fact that is was a slave holding; agrarian; republican society. Much of Southern intellectual life was an attempt to justify slavery and define how to administer their duties as slave masters in accordance with historical and Christian standards. There is a discussion of Abramic slavery; slavery as practiced by Abraham. The South saw itself as a different and better place and some Southern writers recommended slavery for the workers of the North. The authors' last book Slavery in White and Black: Class and Race in the Southern Slaveholders' New World Order developed that theme further.The section on religion in Southern intellectual life is approximately one-third of the book. The South was a country of small towns and villages and the church was the primary social activity. The Southerners made great use of the Bible to justify slavery. They often cited the fact that Jews and other peoples in the Bible owned slaves and there was no criticism of slavery in the Bible. Southerners tried to justify African slavery with the curse of Noah and referred to Africans as "The sons of Ham". Southern theologians strongly criticized the Northern Transcendentalists and Unitarians. The authors make the statement that the Southerners showed they were correct and the Northern theologians wrong on this question. That is a strong statement but the authors also referred to the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression.The chapter on John Brown's raid on the Harper's Ferry armory showed the importance of that event in the development of the sectional hatreds that led to the Civil War. John Brown; contrary to his public statements; intended to start a slave uprising when he took over the armory. After he was arrested the fact that he was financed by Northern abolitionists became public knowledge. In the North John Brown became a hero and was compared to Jesus. The Southerners saw this incident as proof that Northern abolitionists intended to promote slave uprisings that would lead to the slaughter of white Southerners. The authors write that for many Southerners Harper's Ferry and its aftermath put them in the frame of mind to reject Lincoln's election more firmly than they might have done. The North and the South during this time were two societies who didn't know each other and increasingly didn't like each other. At the time of Lincoln's election the North and the South were two countries sharing one government After secession Abraham Lincoln and other Northerners thought that Union sentiment in the South would lead to reconciliation before any conflict. Reading this book made it clear that peaceful reunion was never a real possibility.
