The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich

by George L. Mosse

Overview

This new edition revisits the renowned historian George L. Mosse's landmark work exploring the ideological foundations of Nazism in Germany. First published in 1964, this volume was among the first to examine the intellectual origins of the Third Reich. Mosse introduced readers to what is known as the völkisch ideal-the belief that the German people were united through a transcendental essence. This mindset led to the exclusion of Jews and other groups, eventually allowing Nazi leaders to take their beliefs to catastrophic extremes. The critical introduction by Steven E. Aschheim, the author of Beyond the Border: The German-Jewish Legacy Abroad and many other books, brings Mosse's work into the present moment.

George L. Mosse (1918-99) was a legendary scholar, teacher, and mentor. A refugee from Nazi Germany, in 1955 he joined the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was both influential and popular. Mosse was an early leader in the study of modern European cultural and intellectual history, fascism, and the history of sexuality and masculinity. Over his career he authored more than two dozen books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299332044
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	06/22/2021
Series:	The Collected Works of George L. Mosse
Edition description:	2nd Edition
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	968,306
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

George L. Mosse (1918-99) was a legendary scholar, teacher, and mentor. A refugee from Nazi Germany, in 1955 he joined the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was both influential and popular. Mosse was an early leader in the study of modern European cultural and intellectual history, fascism, and the history of sexuality and masculinity. Over his career he authored more than two dozen books.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments xiii

Critical Introduction Steven F. Aschheim xv

Introduction 3

Part I The Ideological Foundations

1 From Romanticism to the Yolk 15

2 A Germanic Faith 33

3 The New Romanticism 54

4 Ancient Germans Rediscovered 69

5 Racism 89

6 Germanic Utopias 109

7 The Jew 127

Part II The Institutionalization of the Ideology, 1873-1918

8 Education Comes to the Aid 151

9 The Youth Movement 173

10 University Students and Professors on the March 192

11 Leadership, Bund, and Eros 206

12 Organizations Carry On 220

Part III Toward National Socialism, 1918-1933

13 Bedeviled Conservatives 239

14 Veterans and Workers 256

15 From Bourgeois to Anti-Bourgeois Youth 268

16 A German Revolution 282

17 The Anti-Jewish Revolution 295

Conclusion 313

Notes 319

Index 355

Editorial Reviews

"A disturbing but necessary book."--Catholic Historical Review

"A milestone in the study of National Socialism. . . . Indispensable for any serious student of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe."--New York Review of Books

"Mosse takes us back to a vital undercurrent of the German mind. . . . A major contribution to scholarship."--American Historical Review

From the Publisher