Know your enemy
Subtitle: American response to Nazism, 1933-1945
By: Michaela Hoenicke Moore.
Series: Publications of the German Historical Institute
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780521829694
Subjects: Hitler, Adolf, -- 1889-1945 -- Public opinion; National socialism -- Public opinion; Public opinion -- United States -- History -- 20th century; United States -- Relations -- Germany; Germany -- Relations -- United States; Germany. -- Foreign public opinion, American -- History -- 20th century; United States -- Foreign relations -- 1933-1945; United States -- Intellectual life -- 20th century
Description: "This book analyzes the intellectual side of the American war effort against Nazi Germany. It shows how conflicting interpretations of "the German problem" shaped American warfare and postwar planning. The story of how Americans understood National Socialism in the 1930s and 1940s provides a counter-example to the usual tale of enemy images. The level of German popular support for the Nazi regime, the nature of Nazi war aims, and the postwar prospects of German democratization stood at the center of public and governmental debates. American public perceptions of the Third Reich - based in part on ethnic identification with the Germans - were often forgiving but also ill-informed. This conflicted with the Roosevelt administration's need to create a compelling enemy image. The tension between popular and expert views generated complex and fruitful discussions among America's political and cultural elites and produced insightful, yet contradictory interpretations of Nazism"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Prologue: Thomas Wolfe and the Third Reich; Introduction: defining the German problem; Part I. Prelude to War: 1. Memories of World War One: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Germany; 2. News from the new Germany: conflicting interpretations, contested meaning, 1933-1940; 3. The prospect of war, 1933-1941; Part II. Mobilizing the American Home Front: 4. The principal battleground of this war is American opinion, 1941/42; 5. OWI: explaining Nazism to the American people is no easy assignment; 6. Why we fight: the nature of the enemy seen differently; Part III. The Public Debate on Germany, 1942-1945: 7. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Germans and Nazis; 8. The German disease and Nazism as gangsterism; 9. German peculiarities versus human universality: Vansittartism; Part IV. The Governmental Debate on Postwar Plans, 1942-1945: 10. What do you do with people like that?; 11. How to prevent World War III; 12. The enemy in defeat: German-American encounters at zero hour; Conclusion.