|
Spring 2012 |
Poli 388W - AR |
Sammy Basu |
|
MW 2:30-4:00 |
Democracy and Nazism |
SMU 317 |
|
|
|
|
What can we learn from the
failed Weimar Republic and the consolidation of authoritarianism in the form
of the Nazi Third Reich about the constitutive elements of democracy in
general at the institutional, cultural, and cognitive levels? In exploring the historical record,
this course considers the nature of political and moral argument in relation
to several modes of discourse: philosophy, art, worldview (Weltanschauung),
propaganda, ideology, and deception.
In argumentative, ethical, aesthetic, and affective terms, what made
agitation for the demise of Weimar democracy persuasive, and conversely, what
legitimized participation in the Nazi racial state? Finally, what insights can we apply to contemporary
democratic politics? |
|
Two contemporaneous accounts as well as other
primary texts including documents, posters, and films will be read in
conjunction with secondary scholarship. |
|
|
|
Seminar Discussion, Exams, and Term Paper |
|
|
|
|
Joseph Roth. What I Saw: Reports from Berlin, 1920-1933. [1920-33] (2003) |
Sebastian
Haffner. Germany Jekyll & Hyde: A Contemporary Account of
Nazi Germany [1939] (2008) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stephen J. Lee. The Weimar Republic (2010) |
Stephen J. Lee. Hitler and Nazi Germany (2010) |
