A Little Obsession Is Good Obsession
Received a couple of e-mails recently suggesting I might be obsessed with the idea today’s Republicans are a Nazi-like political party.
Well, I think ‘obsessed’ could be an incorrect criticism. I say, could be… .
What I have attempted over the past three years – over and over and over again – is to remind Americans how much the Republican Party increasingly over the last couple decades unmistakably resembles the Nazis of Germany and Fascists of Italy during the period between the World Wars right through the end of WWII. This ‘resemblance’ has been especially apparent since 2016.
So, today I offer a short reading list allowing for an easy comparison. And, yes, History does at times repeat itself – when we allow it.
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The story of the republic makes depressing reading. It records the rise and fall of a venture in democracy. Had this venture succeeded, World War II might never have taken place. Its failure plunged a nation into slavery. Democracy, like peace is indivisible. What happened in Germany had profound repercussions throughout the world. These repercussions are with us still.
In January, 1919, the republic had the support of most Germans. Fourteen years later, it was dead.*
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S. William Halperin, GERMANY TRIED DEMOCRACY: A Political History of the Reich from 1918 to 1933. Toronto, 1946, 1965.
Erich Eyck, A History of the Weimar Republic: From the Collapse of the Empire to Hindenburg’s Election. Harvard College, 1962.
William L. Patch, jr. Christian Trade Unions in the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933: The Failure of “Corporate Pluralism”. New Haven, 1985.
William Sheridan Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of A Single German Town, 1922-1945. Toronto, 1965, 1984.
Detlev J.K. Peukert, INSIDE NAZI GERMANY: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life. Cologne, 1982. London, 1987.
Ian Kershaw, HITLER. LONDON, 1991.
William Carr, Hitler: A Study in Personality and Politics. London, 1978. Baltimore, Maryland, 1986, 1987.
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More
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The Leads
* S. William Halperin, GERMANY TRIED DEMOCRACY: A Political History of the Reich from 1918 to 1933.