The Historic Struggle Receives A Review

My friend Daniel who is currently enrolled in Mercer's Theology graduate program has graced this blog with a review. Daniel is running a pretty interesting blog titled "The New Adult Life". If one word could explain this blog it would be diverse.  He addresses numerous issues and subjects which can be on the other side of the fence from political correctness. I do not wish to go on and on about Daniel's blog but I would rather you look for yourself; check it out at the above link. Also be sure to check out our review.

A Book Review - "Life and Death in the Third Reich"

This book review is rather longwinded in my opinion. The requirement for the class in which this was written was two to five pages. This is different from the usual requirement of only 2 pages. Fearing that a usual analyzation of the book as a whole was too short for the requirement I included in it analyzation of the four parts of the book as well. So although the review is longwinded, it is also more informative in regards to information. Enjoy.

            Fritzsche, Peter. Life and Death in the Third Reich. Cambridge, Massachusettes, London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008. pp. 307.

            In Germany from 1933 to 1945 there existed a political and military element known as the Nazi party. This militant political organization would grow into an expansive and powerful empire self-titled the “Third Reich.” This empire growing out of central Europe and spreading to the European channel is often remembered as an empire of destruction, xenophobia, and chaos. The goals and directions of the once small political party were never made secret and were flaunted openly. This begs the question, “Why would one become a Nazi?” Often than not, the Nazis are separated as a group that was ruling Germany tyrannically. American propaganda in the 1940’s was implying the same idea of Nazi control of German peoples. It is this embellishing of German victim fantasy that Peter Fritzsche wants to address in his book Life and Death in the Third Reich.

            The organization of Fritzsche’s book is divided both chronologically and ideologically into four chapters with an introduction. Each chapter advances the story in time while also representing a different approach, rationale, or justification of Nazi actions in relationship with the German people. The book opens with the explanation of German victimhood as heavily propagated by the book Death in Poland. The book continues beyond this point into the Nazi rise of power and a summary of chapter contents. This allows the reader to keep the general idea of each chapter so as to not be lost in continuous first-hand accounts. The book ends without a clear separate conclusion, but with ending remarks attached to the last chapter which covers the end of the war and a period of historical reconciliation.  By arranging the book in this manner, Fritzsche is able to follow a familiar narrative of history chronologically while representing a steady stream of arguments as the Reich progresses.

            This process allows Fritzsche to answer a self-imposed question of, “To what extent did Germans become Nazis in the years 1933-1945, and what efforts did they make?” That is not to say that all Germans were Nazis or that the Nazis’ tyrannical reign was one completely of control. German and Nazi relations, as it exists in these pages, was a much more complex concept in which the author contends that the former had a much more active role. This is justified by Fritzsche as the result of new studies outlining the legitimacy of the people’s community or volksgemeinschaft.  The author uses primary accounts of soldier, common citizens, Jews, and others that allow Fritzsche to pursue his final aim of analyzing what ordinary Germans knew and their comprehension of Nazi atrocities. The four main parts of the book, allow the author to categorize his analyzation around the premises of: Reviving the Nation; Racial Grooming; Empire of Destruction; and Intimate Knowledge. Each part contains different approaches to Fritzsche’s argument.

            “Reviving the Nation” is centered on the Volksgemeinschaft or people’s community. To do this Fritzsche has separated the chapter into five parts: Heil Hitler; How Far Did Germans Support the Nazis; Volksgemeinschaft, or the People’s Community; Consuming the Nation; and Unter Uns, or Nazism’s Audiovisual Space. Each subsection reveals new elements of how the German population gradually began to conform to Nazi ideals as a sense of community. Fritzsche points out that through the use of the “Stab in the Back Myth,” and Audio/visual outlets,  the Nazi’s were able to propagate this new notion of a strong German state. The German people are said to conform to this notion. This is supremely argued in “Heil Hitler” where so much of the German population is using this greeting “Heil Hitler” on a regular basis. Of course, as Fritzsche points out, this formal German greeting loses its appeal rapidly in some areas of the Reich and begins to become unordinary.

            Chapter two entitled “Racial Grooming,” explores Nazi strives to improve upon the volksgemeinschaft by making it racially pure. This chapter is divided into six parts entitled: Aryan Passports; Biology and the National Revolution; Seeing like an Aryan; The Camp; Unworthy Life; and The Assault on German Jews.  Fritzsche argues that the idea of strengthening the volkgemeinschaft through racial purity would instill a sense community with a common race. Through the use of school propaganda and community camps the Nazis were able to racially purify the volksgemeinschaft, in which Fritzsche argues that many Germans bought into the anti-Semitism.

            “Empire of Destruction” differs from the first two chapters in that it focuses on the Nazis attempt of expansion of the volksgemeinschaft and the third reich through war. Separated into the subheadings of: Writing Letters; The Imperial Project; The Expansion of the German Empire; Final Solutions to the “Jewish Problem;” The Deportation of German Jews; and the Holocaust, Fritzsche shows the new German occupation of conquered territories and also the development of the Holocaust. To improve upon his point the author points to letters from the soldiers deployed in foreign nations. An interesting aspect also pointed out is the way that these letters confirmed the efforts of Nazi propaganda at home. This works in favor of the authors arguments towards the volksgemeinschaft and all its atrocities included. The author does fail to mention Nazi censorship of mail which hinders his analyzation.

            The final chapter entitled “Intimate Knowledge,” is centered on the idea of remembrance. After war and political struggle that lasted over a decade Germans and Jews had to consider how to comprehend, interpret, and remember these events. This chapter goes into some length also to examine how the German fear of losing the war was intertwined with their fear of cultural collapse. The chapter separates itself into six subheadings to explain this in depth: Train Station; Jewish Witnesses; German Witnesses; Perpetrators and Victims; Imagining the End of the War; and Reading Catastrophe. This chapter goes into great length as well to address the notion of reconciliation that the Germans assumed at the end of the war. Fritzsche argues that these are explanations of Nazism. Assuming the victim role, the Germans defended their Nazi crimes by stating they were also Nazi victims. This chapter includes a small conclusion to some of the other arguments of the book, although it is not presented in great detail.

            The complexity of German history in the timeframe of 1933 to 1945 is translucent and often hard to comprehend. Its many layers of divisional and cultural differences even in the face of an imposed people’s community only add to delude this understanding even more. Peter Fritzsche goes in depth to explain or provide new theory in the hopes simplifying this portion of history. In this matter, Fritzsche succeeds. The author presents primary material that alters the perspective and provides new scholarship for this era. He does not state that the Germans were victims, but that they had an active, voluntary role in the misconduct of Nazi Germany. Although Fritzsche does provide ample material to make this suggestion, his efforts to solidify his arguments are often inadequate. The author often presents one or two person’s first-hand account without providing numerous other sources to reinforce this stance. In this manner he reveals the ideology of one person and not the bulk of the German populous. What could be the big weakness of the book is its lack of a conclusion to round up all points and perhaps provide reinforcement for his arguments. To his defense, Fritzsche does realize this complexity is not so easily explained even by him in his final comments, “Part of the knowledge about life and death in the Third Reich is the lasting incompleteness of explanation.” (307)

North Georgia College and State University

Robert L. Baker

A Book Review-"Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War"

 UPDATE: I apologize for the typos, I am in the process of revising this post.

Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. (New York: Vintage Books 1998). 432 pages.

            There is an existing element, especially with those from the Southern United States that comes with the remembrance of the Civil War. This anomaly exists separate from scholarship, instead being reinforced by oral tradition, propaganda, nostalgia, romanticism, personal belief, cultural adherence and many other reasons. This seemingly infinite amount of possibilities directing memory can be negative, positive, and absolutely radical. This memory however, is very much real, dividing, and manipulative. This remembrance of the Civil War and how it affects some Americans, is the object of study in Tony Horwitz’s exciting novel Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War.  In the novel, Horwitz goes on a pilgrimage that takes him from the holiest of holy Civil War sites, the most obscure of Civil War shrines, and some of the most unscrupulous towns and people. In this ‘holy march’ through the South, Horwitz takes the time to reflect on the people, the culture, and the sites of the Civil War; not only what they are, but how they affect us today.

            Horwitz’s book is divided into fifteen chapters, which each chapter designated around the events of a particular trip or event. The majority of Horwitz’s chapters, are the detailed descriptions of Horwitz’s trips through southern states. Among these states are South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. Maryland and Pennsylvania are the exception here. Each trip comes with its own small towns, with characters too big to fit inside the city limits. Whether these characters are the most luxurious of southern belles, or the most psychotic of bikers, and radical of Alabama school teachers Horwitz’s encounters provide in-depth knowledge and objective observance of the diverse population of the Southern United States. Horwitz comes across those that believe in conspiracy theories to the extreme and radical racists rallying around the slaying of a young man that adhered to neo-confederate tendencies. 

            Probably the most interesting parts of Horwitz’s journeys came from his friendship with a hardcore reenactor. This reenactor, known as Robert Lee Hodge, allowed Horwitz to become one with the culture he was merely observing (whether he liked it or not). Hodge, is by far the most colorful character in the novel and is whoem Horwitz becomes most attached to in his journeys. So much so that Horwitz often partakes in re-enacting events such as marches and camp of instruction or COI. COI is a simulated camp in which re-enactors march and train as the soldiers of the 1860’s would have. Horwitz and Hodge’s relationship takes a new direction when Hodge convinces Horwitz to accompany him on the “Civil Wargasm.” These two men traveled in 19^th century unforms, whool pants, kepis, brogans, and other garb to as many civil war sites as they could possibly see. The gasm represents an escape from the 20^th century and an attempt to experience what Hodge calls, ‘the rush.’ The “rush” is the closes simulated experience one can feel, as though they are actually there. From the outside looking in this may seem like an odd, perhaps fanatical thing, but as Horwitz writes about the encounters, readers can see the purity and beauty in remembering History. Of course this realization comes as a result of direct conflict with obscured History, and those that have commercialized it.

            Horwitz’s journey takes him to Stone Mountain, Georgia where he sees firsthand, the commercialized view of history. The enormous carving on the granite rock is shrouded in commercialism from the laser show accompanied by music from different walks of life.  Other towns such as Montgomery, Alabama are cashing in on the stories of the past advocated Civil War and Civil Rights tours. Horwitz shows some condemnation of the “New South,” and only then realized the beauty of what Hodge already knew. Of course this did not depreciate the fact that there is a difference between passion and radicalism. This radicalism was evident in Todd County Kentucky early in the book just as it is in Rose Sander’s Classroom, a small black school in Selma, Alabama. Horwitz highlights the notions of “you keep your ‘x,’ and I’ll keep mine.” This is a reference to the confederate flag and the ideology of Malcolm X. Horwitz is confronted with a different aspect in this classroom, and a different type of history that is radical and anti-Civil War. The teacher felt Civil War figures on the South were criminals. In this,  Horwtiz realized after private discussion with the teacher, he had found the opposite end of the spectrum.

            Confederates in the Attic is an incredible tale of ideology. It is a handbook of remembrance for some because it gives an outside perspective to the common practice of some people’s everyday lives. Horwitz realizes there are different sides of the argument with validity and in the end even comes to respect the passion of some. His closing statements seem to call out as to why Americans see this conflict as such an important part of their lives, quoting from a Robert Penn Warren Essay he states, “A high proportion of our population was not even in this country when the war was being fought. Not that this disqualifies the grandson from experiencing to the full the imaginative appeal of the Civil War. To experience this appeal may be, in fact, the very ritual of being American,” (389). The Civil War is a part of the ideology, perhaps it is a badge of citizenship. Or maybe it is just the grandeur of the stories.

North Georgia College and State University

Robert L. Baker

A Book Review-"Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory" by David W. Blight

Blight, David W. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001). 397 pp. Notes, Acknowledgements, Index.

The American Civil War brought with it the hardships of war itself and the destructive aftermath of Reconstruction. There is, however, a looming problem concerning what the war was fought over. David W. Blight, professor of History at Yale University has sought to bring to light the reasons the Civil War was fought in his book Race and Reunion. Blight sheds new light on how something such as “reconciliation” could bring about a total social and ideological change that can affect the very outcome of a War.

Blight’s work has ten chapters with both a prologue and an epilogue all containing a fairly common theme, that the war had two competing view points as to the meaning of war. The view points were that of reconciliation and freedom, or emancipation. Blight argues that these competing viewpoints did not coexist and that eventually the view of reconciliation took center stage. To that end the viewpoints of the Confederacy eventually won in terms regarding the meaning of the Civil War. Blight argued that the emancipationist view was wiped completely from the national memory, not just isolated in the South.

In his book, Blight pays particular attention to the evolution of Civil War memory in line with the Decoration Days events, African-American celebration of progress and freedom obtained from the war. Blight argues that African-Americans still only occupy marginal spaces in the history of the conflict however. Blight brings to light that African-Americans had competing views amongst themselves of what exactly their memory of the conflict should be. Booker T. Washington’s viewpoint of conciliation and working towards progress was widely popular, more so than W.E.B. Dubois’s rhetoric or that of Frederick Douglas, the famous abolitionist. These passages, found largely in the chapter “Black Memory and Progress of the Race”, help to illustrate the dilemma that African-Americans faced of coping with a horrific past, and attempting to remember it.

The author recognizes that the celebrations of the “Lost Cause,” and viewpoints of “states’ rights,” would suppress the former view point. Reinforced by histories written by southern academics, and novels of happy slaves, the issue or cause of slavery rather, began to disappear from public memory in regards to the Civil War. All of these viewpoints were reinforced by the North out of fear of the consequences that might arise out of Reconstruction and support of black suffrage.

Blight argues that the reconciliation viewpoint was furthered by a swarm of regimental histories and soldiers memoirs that all pointed to a sentimental reconciliation and that those of black soldiers were suppressed. Post war groups such as the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) and Confederate Veterans also worked towards reconciliation. Though opposition remained, this alternate history was constantly furthered in the mind of the public, bringing about a new history, a white history of the Civil War.

In opening and closing the book, Blight explains the semi-centennial reunion at Gettysburg in 1913 where thousands of dollars of public funds were used to care for, and transport tens of thousands of Confederate and Union veterans to the event. The veterans told stories and reconciled, but they did it without any of the black veterans, who were not invited.

In Race and Reunion, gives a stunning argument on how the white washing of history has occurred in regards to the Civil War. He succeeds in bringing to light these details, making it apparent that poor historiography and scholarship has taken place, altering the very memory and causes of war. The book is a terrific source of information on the issue of slavery during the civil war, and a source of argument against the alternate history or memory that has come about since the war’s end.

North Georgia College and State University

Robert L. Baker