SOCS 639
Inside Nazi Germany, 1933-1945
Erik Grimmer-Solem
Course Description | |
This course analyzes the processes that led to Hitler’s rise to power, the nature of the National Socialist regime, and the origins and implementation of its policies of aggression and genocide that culminated in the Holocaust. The course will carefully analyze the racial, eugenic and geopolitical ideology of National Socialism and the policies of discrimination, conquest, economic exploitation and extermination that followed from it. At the same time, the role of structural factors in explaining these outcomes will also be explored in great depth from the perspective of everyday life. We will analyze how German society was shaped by Nazism, considering conformity and opposition in the lives of ordinary people in both peacetime and war. The course seeks to impart an awareness of the complex of factors that produced a regime of unprecedented destructiveness and it aims to develop a critical understanding of the ongoing problems of interpretation that accompany its history. |
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Course Requirements | |
Midterm paper of 8-10 pages (50%) Both papers will be essay assignments that will allow you to choose from a number of questions treating different aspects of the material covered in the first and second half of the semester, respectively. These essays must demonstrate a critical mastery of the assigned readings and a good command of the key points made from the additional material I will introduce in class. This supplemental material will include such things as key government documents, election posters, film and print propaganda, maps, photographs, as well as the oral and written recollections of Germans from many walks of life will be introduced and discussed in class. In order to be able to engage with this material in an informed and productive manner, it is important that students come to class having completed all of the required reading for each session. In making references in your papers, please use footnotes following the Chicago notes/bibliography style outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style (14th or15th edition). These citation conventions are usefully summarized in Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations,7th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007, chs. 15-16. Please use a font no smaller than 12 points and provide generous right and left margins (1 ¼ inches minimum) and at least 1 inch top and bottom margins on your papers. For your convenience, papers may be submitted to me as e-mail attachments but must arrive in my inbox on or before the day and time outlined on the syllabus. Papers received late will be penalized 1/3 of a grade for each day late (i.e., from A to A-, then A- to B+, etc.). If you do better on one of the exams than on the other, the better of the two will count for more in determining your final grade. |
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Required Texts | |
William Sheridan Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945, rev. ed.(New York: Franklin Watts, 1984). ISBN 0531056333. Omer Bartov, ed., The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation, Aftermath (London and New York: Routledge, 2000). ISBN 0415150361 Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich: A New History (New York: Hill and Wang, 2000). ISBN 080909326X Eric A. Johnson, Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews and Ordinary Germans (New York: Basic Books, 2000). ISBN 0465049087 Detlev J. K. Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday Life, trans. Richard Deveson (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1982). ISBN 0300044801 The textbooks will be available for purchase from the University Bookstore, 45 Broad Street, Middletown. Please call to assure the texts are in stock: 860-685-7323. For your convenience, I have supplied the ISBN numbers if you intend to purchase them elsewhere. |
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Course Schedule | |
January 31 |
The Great War, the Weimar Republic and the Origins of Nazism Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 26-84. |
February 7 |
Economic Depression and the Struggle for Power Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 85-145. |
February 14 |
Consolidating Power—The Nazi State Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 151-215. |
February 21 |
Manufacturing Consent Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 219-28. |
February 28 |
Jews, Anti-Semitism and the Christian Churches Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 252-277, 281-342. |
March 6 |
Women and Youth in the Fatherland Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 229-38. Midterm exam will be handed out |
March 13 | Midterm exam paper due by 6:30 pm. No class. |
March 20 | No class. |
March 27 |
Racial Ideology, Eugenics and “Euthanasia” Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 345-404. |
April 3 |
Blitzkrieg—Nazi Germany at War Burleigh, The Third Reich pp. 407-511 |
April 10 |
From War of Conquest to War of Annihilation Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 512-67. |
April 17 |
The War Against the Jews Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 571-629. |
April 24 |
“Final Solution” Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 630-62. |
May 1 |
The Defeat of Nazi Germany—Living with the Nazi Past Burleigh, The Third Reich, pp. 665-812. Final exam will be handed out |
May 8 | Final exam paper due by 6:30 pm. No class. |