Goldhagen oversimplifies. And he does it a lot. Post-WWII Germany, the American South (almost anything he uses as a comparison, really), his model of the psychology involved.
What I found helpful in this book though--and which I still think is helpful--is the demonstration of the continuum between pre-Nazi German antisemitism and Nazi German antisemitism. The demonstration that part of went so horribly wrong in Germany was exactly that the Nazis' completely stark barking madness was an exploitation, an exaggeration (and sometimes not even much of an exaggeration, given what he quotes of 19th century antisemitic literature), of ideas that were present in German culture. The Social Darwinism as much as the antisemitism.
I'm not pretending to be any kind of an expert; I'm saying that this book made me think in ways that I find valuable.
no subject
What I found helpful in this book though--and which I still think is helpful--is the demonstration of the continuum between pre-Nazi German antisemitism and Nazi German antisemitism. The demonstration that part of went so horribly wrong in Germany was exactly that the Nazis' completely stark barking madness was an exploitation, an exaggeration (and sometimes not even much of an exaggeration, given what he quotes of 19th century antisemitic literature), of ideas that were present in German culture. The Social Darwinism as much as the antisemitism.
I'm not pretending to be any kind of an expert; I'm saying that this book made me think in ways that I find valuable.