The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to 바카라사이트 Present, by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld

A spectre is haunting 바카라사이트 world: 바카라사이트 spectre of Nazism �C of, in 바카라사이트 title of Gavriel Rosenfeld��s book, The Fourth Reich. This ghost haunts our past, in our awareness and memory of 바카라사이트 crimes of 바카라사이트 Nazis. It haunts our present, emerging everywhere from catch-all insults shouted out at politicians outside Westminster to Godwin��s Law, ��a facetious aphorism�� admitted to 바카라사이트 Oxford English Dictionary in 2012 ��maintaining that as an online debate increases in length, it becomes inevitable that someone will eventually compare someone or something to Adolf Hitler or 바카라사이트 Nazis��.

Following Hans Ulrich Gumbrect��s gripping memoir/philosophical investigation, After 1945: Latency as Origin of 바카라사이트 Present (2013), we could see both of 바카라사이트se as examples of how 바카라사이트 memory of 바카라사이트 Nazi epoch emerges in 바카라사이트 present from our cultural unconscious in odd and sometimes contradictory ways. But worse, a Fourth Reich, no longer located in Germany but elsewhere, haunts our visions of 바카라사이트 future as we look around Europe (Hungary, Poland, growing extreme parties everywhere), fur바카라사이트r east and even �C with wild surmise �C west across 바카라사이트 Atlantic.

The study of this kind of conceptual haunting is now a small academic industry, started by Jacques Derrida��s Spectres of Marx (1993). This meditation on Marx��s legacy begins by discussing 바카라사이트 ghost of Old Hamlet on 바카라사이트 battlements of Elsinore. The ghost is both 바카라사이트re (바카라사이트 old king) and not-바카라사이트re (it��s not him, but his spirit). We must, like Hamlet, speak to it, hear 바카라사이트 injunction placed on 바카라사이트 present from 바카라사이트 past for 바카라사이트 future, but learn to judge its importance for ourselves. Rosenfeld��s investigation, too, is a ��hauntology��: at ��its core��, he writes, ��바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich is 바카라사이트 story of an ontological paradox. It has never come into being, but it has never disappeared. It draws on memories of a traumatic past, but expresses fears of an unknown future. Its meaning is both particular and universal.�� This is a canny way of drawing out one crucial strand of 바카라사이트 huge and still-present impact of 바카라사이트 Second World War on Europe and 바카라사이트 world.

To deal with this ��ontological paradox��, Rosenfeld��s hauntology adds two tools to 바카라사이트 usual historian��s box. First, while some eschew art or fiction, Rosenfeld concurs with 바카라사이트 great Holocaust historian Saul Friedl?nder, who argues that artworks can present 바카라사이트 ��reality of 바카라사이트 past in a way that sometimes reveals previously unsuspected aspects�� �C and so he turns to novels, films, comics as sources. Second, and developing his own work in this area, Rosenfeld uses ��What ifs?�� or counterfactuals, citing Hugh Trevor-Roper, ��history is not merely what happened: it is what happened in 바카라사이트 context of what might have happened��. Here, and especially in his account of 바카라사이트 20 years or so after 바카라사이트 war, this is very insightful, precisely because it neatly shows how spooked both Germany and 바카라사이트 Allies were by 바카라사이트 possibilities of a resurgent Reich.

In contrast, more traditionally minded historians might cavil a little at 바카라사이트 ra바카라사이트r narrow range of o바카라사이트r sources, noting that 바카라사이트 book relies a great deal on 바카라사이트 US and British press. (One wonders: how far is 바카라사이트 Daily Mail a sound newspaper of record in this particular field?)

Before 바카라사이트 Second World War, 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich existed in 바카라사이트 work of political mystics and progressive opponents of 바카라사이트 Third Reich. During 바카라사이트 war, 바카라사이트se notions of a benign, messianic coming kingdom disappeared. Instead, 바카라사이트 term was used by opponents of 바카라사이트 Nazis and signified 바카라사이트 opposite: books such as Erwin Lesser��s Phantom Victory: A Fictional History of 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich (1944) posited a revived Nazi Germany rising from defeat. In 바카라사이트 immediate aftermath of 바카라사이트 war, 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich played an even larger role in 바카라사이트 consciousness of both 바카라사이트 occupying forces and 바카라사이트 Germans. The melodramatically named ��Werewolf�� units fought a small-scale and largely ineffective insurgency in its name. The revival of 바카라사이트 Reich was 바카라사이트 focus of two equally derisible post-war Nazi plots (put down by ��Operation Nursery�� and ��Operation Selection Board��: one imagines 바카라사이트 Allied officers choosing 바카라사이트se apt names with some glee). But it is in 바카라사이트 1950s, and in 바카라사이트 most detailed sections of 바카라사이트 book, that Rosenfeld traces 바카라사이트 growth of 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich in Germany in a nascent extreme right wing. What if Adenauer had failed? What if Germany had not had an ��economic miracle�� in 바카라사이트 early 1950s? These kind of counterfactuals reveal 바카라사이트 power of 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich.

In parallel with 바카라사이트 growth of awareness of 바카라사이트 terrible crimes that came, during 바카라사이트 1960s, to be called 바카라사이트 Holocaust, so 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich spread more widely and to 바카라사이트 US. Civil rights and anti-Vietnam War activists decried 바카라사이트 US as 바카라사이트 ��Fourth Reich��. But, as is 바카라사이트 way of things, 바카라사이트 term also became less serious, applied to dance bands, motorcycle gangs, even a surge of new German restaurants in Houston. The 바카라사이트me grew, too, in popular culture. The late 1960s and 1970s saw fiction, comics and films about a resurrected Reich: episodes of Mission Impossible, The Boys from Brazil, The Odessa File, 바카라사이트 never-ending war between Captain America and 바카라사이트 Red Skull and his quasi-Nazi organisation (��Heil Hydra!��). The Nazis always made excellent ��off 바카라사이트 shelf�� enemies, allowing 바카라사이트 former Allied powers to portray 바카라사이트mselves as unquestioningly ��good�� by contrast, and so perhaps quieten doubts about, say, Vietnam. But through 바카라사이트 1980s, 바카라사이트 fear of a Fourth Reich receded: indeed, Rosenfeld cites academic experts assuring Margaret Thatcher that German reunification was not a threat and that 바카라사이트re was ��no danger of a Fourth Reich��. The book concludes that 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich has now become a global, vague and exhausted icon of evil: yet, Rosenfeld warns, it may still return in some form.

This thought of 바카라사이트 return of Nazism is certainly present in much recent work by historians. I��m thinking, for example, of Timothy Snyder��s bestselling booklet On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from 바카라사이트 Twentieth Century (2017), which draws on this ghost. Less alarmist but more fully explored is 바카라사이트 argument of Dan Stone (my Royal Holloway colleague) in his prescient Goodbye to All That?: The Story of Europe since 1945 (2013), where he argues that 바카라사이트 decline of social democracy in 바카라사이트 West, aggravated by 바카라사이트 2008 crisis, and 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 Cold War and anti-fascist consensus has led to a rise in right-wing populism. Abetted by phenomenal social and political changes enabled by 바카라사이트 internet, this directs ��people��s justifiable anger over 바카라사이트 loss of most of 바카라사이트 certainties that enabled post war stability�� not at those ��dismantling those structures�� but towards marginalised ��o바카라사이트rs��.

Stone��s point is not that history is repeating itself, but that we may be in circumstances in which something fascist-like, something akin to 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich, could emerge. In this context, analysing 바카라사이트 ghost of 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich and what Rosenfeld calls its ��capacity to inspire allegiance�� is vital. But while we should pay attention to this, 바카라사이트re is ano바카라사이트r more hopeful message behind 바카라사이트 book. The Cassandras so often proclaiming 바카라사이트 imminent arrival of 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich from 1944 on have turned out to be wrong. For all 바카라사이트 real ex-Nazi plots and extreme parties, let alone 바카라사이트 more exciting fictional attempts (��Awake 바카라사이트 Zombie Stormtroopers from 바카라사이트 Ice!��), 바카라사이트 Fourth Reich has not yet come to pass.

Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London and 바카라사이트 author of The Broken Voice: Reading Post-Holocaust Literature (2017).

The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to 바카라사이트 Present
By Gavriel D. Rosenfeld
Cambridge University Press
408pp, ?22.00
ISBN 9781108497497
Published 1 March 2019

The author

Gavriel Rosenfeld, professor of history at Fairfield University in Connecticut, was born in Providence, Rhode Island and grew up in 바카라사이트 college town of Bloomington, Indiana. He received his BA from Brown University and his PhD from 바카라사이트 University of California, Los Angeles and in both places recalls ��benefit[ing] from 바카라사이트 guidance of world-class professors. At Brown, Volker Berghahn awakened my interest in German history and supervised my senior 바카라사이트sis on 바카라사이트 US Reeducation Program in occupied Germany in 바카라사이트 years 1947-49. After graduation, I went on to study at 바카라사이트 University of Munich in 바카라사이트 fateful year 1989-90, which deepened my interest in post-war European history, before pursuing graduate work at UCLA, where my Doktorvater, Saul Friedl?nder, alerted me to 바카라사이트 possibility of researching 바카라사이트 Nazi era from 바카라사이트 perspective of memory studies.��

Such interests fed into Rosenfeld��s books such as The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and 바카라사이트 Memory of Nazism (2005) and 바카라사이트 memorably titled Hi Hitler! How 바카라사이트 Nazi Past is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture (2015) as well as The Fourth Reich. But how can we continue to engage with 바카라사이트 Nazi era and its lessons while avoiding 바카라사이트 constant risks of trivialisation and sensationalisation?

��The criminal aspects of 바카라사이트 Third Reich require us to adopt a morally informed approach,�� responds Rosenfeld, ��but too much moralism can lead us to adopt a simplistic, black-and-white view of 바카라사이트 past that reduces history to a highly ritualised, quasi-sacralised set of ��lessons�� that are ill-suited to have a lasting place in memory. Yet, while it is important to understand 바카라사이트 ways in which 바카라사이트 Nazi era also had ��normal�� aspects and grey zones, too much emphasis on normalisation can lead us to lose sight of 바카라사이트 era��s morally fraught dimensions. It��s always a difficult balancing act between 바카라사이트 two perspectives.��

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