Course Description
This course serves as a general introduction to the historiography of Nazi Germany, with emphasis on the interpretation of social and political trends leading to the Nazi seizure of power, their subsequent attempts to create a race-based society and state, and the implications for understanding modern society generally. Foundational historical and historiographical works in the field will be studied.
Course Credits: 3
Prerequisites: No prerequisite courses, though a general knowledge of 20th-century European history is of course helpful.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Students will gain familiarity with the major historiographical issues regarding the origins of Nazi Germany. These will include an understanding of long-term trends of political development in German history, as well of shorter-term trends regarding the difficulties of stabilizing and legitimizing the Weimar Republic.
- Students will gain familiarity with the major historiographical issues regarding the political dynamics, social policies of the Nazi German state, how these manifested themselves in social trends and in everyday life, and how both provided a foundation for both World War II and the Holocaust.
- Students will gain familiarity with the major historiographical issues regarding the legacy of Nazism on later German society and of German efforts to understand and integrate their legacy into their politics and culture.
- Students will gain familiarity of the interlinking of these historiographical issues, and with the issues arising from comparing German developments with those of other countries.
- Students will apply and deepen their critical thinking skills in reading and writing (to be demonstrated in the paper proposal and the final paper).