Know your enemy
Subtitle: the American debate on Nazism, 1933-1945
By: Michaela Hoenicke Moore
Series: Publications of the German Historical Institute; Publications of the German Historical Institute
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 390
ISBN-13: 9780521829694
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 (p. 351-380) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : defining the German problem; title: Part one: Prelude to war. Memories of World War I : Franklin D. Roosevelt and Germany ; News from the new Germany : conflicting interpretations, contested meanings, 1933-1940 ; The prospect of war, 1933-1941; title: Part two: Mobilizing the American home front, 1942-1943. "The principal battleground of this war is American public opinion" ; The Office of War information : "explaining Nazism to the American people is no easy assignment" ; Why we fight : the nature of the enemy seen differently; title: Part three: The public debate on Germany, 1942-1945. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde : Germans and Nazis ; The German disease and Nazism as gangsterism ; German peculiarities : Vansittartism in the American wartime debate; title: Part four: The governmental debate on postwar plans, 1943-1945. What do you do with people like that? ; How to prevent World War III? ; The enemy in defeat : German-American encounters at "zero hour."