As I am busy finishing proofreading and indexing my book, I won't post anything this month. The title of the book is
Darwin's Racism: The Definitive Case, Along With a Close Look at Some of the Forgotten, Genuine Humanitarians of That Time. I hope it will be available by June.
Have you seen this blog?
ReplyDelete"Until Darwin: Science & the Origins of Race" contains reference materials, deleted comments, musings and further notes to my book
Until Darwin, Science, Human Variety and the Origins of Race
London: Pickering and Chatto Publishers, October 2010
http://www.pickeringchatto.com/monographs/race
info@pickeringchatto.co.uk
'Brown has tackled a complex subject with tools that could lead to valuable new insights.'
---British Journal for the History of Science
Also, have you seen this book?
ReplyDeleteDark Vanishings: Discourse on the Extinction of Primitive Races, 1800-1930.
The idea of "the extinction of lesser races by superior races" was not something Darwin came up but was prevalent among Christian (even creationist) scholars prior to Darwin's day.
Of all the comments you have left here, I have chosen to respond to this one because I have read "Dark Vanishings" and I briefly communicated with the author Patrick Brantlinger. Brantlinger and I have more in common than not.
DeleteAbout my work, I will just say that I have no interest in blaming Darwin for later Nazism. I stick strictly to Darwin's own time. I look at some of his contemporaries who were far more humane than he was. Darwin promoted hierarchy, or as he put it, groups subordinate to groups, in the study of nature and evolution, whereas the more humanitarian of his contemporaries were holistic thinkers, who believed the whole wanted each part to be cherished and preserved. I never bring in anachronistic standards or issues, or approach this with hindsight. What was possible in Darwin's time? That is my main concern.
Leon Zitzer
Also, I hope you agree with me that Weikart, the author of a book trying to blame the Holocaust on Darwinism is an historian suffering from extreme tunnel vision. He is highly critical of everyone's ideas from Bonhoeffer (a Christian theologian who died at the hands of the Nazis and whose books are sold in Evangelical Christian bookstores)-- to Darwin (whose ideas Weikart tried to link as directly as possible to Hitler and Naziism).
ReplyDeleteIn the latter case Weikert himself ADMITTED that "German Darwinists" before Hitler's day ought not be described as "proto-Nazis."
Weikert also ADMITTED that the Nazi focus on "blaming the Jews" was not something Darwin came up with, but was for centuries a deeply ingrained prejudice that existed within Catholicism and later, Protestantism.
In fact the Nazi party was founded in a very Catholic city in Germany.
Also, speaking of non-Darwinism roots of Naziism and the Holocaust, there are many:
ReplyDeleteCatholicism and the Roots of Nazism: Religious Identity and National Socialism – 2011 In the years after World War I--when National Socialism first emerged--to had close ties with Catholicism, particularly with a strand of Catholicism found in Bavaria that might be called "reform Catholicism" that was "nationalistic and non-ultramontane." In other words, it appealed to Catholics who wanted to minimize their allegiance to the Pope in Rome in favor of their German identity. Bavaria had long had a tradition of anti-ultramontanism. The author examines the activism of individual Catholic writers, university students, and priests and the striking Catholic-oriented appeals and imagery formulated by the National Socialist movement. In fact, the early Nazi movement was born in Munich, a city whose population was overwhelmingly Catholic. Focusing on Munich and the surrounding area, Hastings shows how Catholics played a central and hitherto overlooked role in the Nazi movement before the 1923 Beerhall Putsch. After his imprisonment for the failed putsch, Hitler repositioned the National Socialist party away from its Catholic roots in favor of a broader Protestant orientation. After this repositioning, many of the original Catholic supporters, including various priests who had provided some respectability to the movement, found themselves excluded from the National Socialist party, and the Catholics who remained either became nominal Catholics or fell into open apostasy. He discusses why the Nazis embarked on a different path following the party's reconstitution in early 1925, ultimately taking on an increasingly anti-Catholic and anti-Christian identity. http://www.amazon.com/Catholicism-Roots-Nazism-Religious-Socialism/dp/0199843457/ref=pd_sim_14_1
IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation-Expanded Edition - 2012 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0914153277/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl
Complicity in the Holocaust: Churches and Universities in Nazi Germany – 2012 "Explains how an advanced, highly-educated, Christian nation could commit the crimes of the Holocaust, and how Germany's intellectual and spiritual leaders enthusiastically partnered with Hitler's regime, thus becoming active participants in the persecution of Jews, and ultimately, in the Holocaust." http://www.amazon.com/dp/1107663334/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl
The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust – 2008 No mention of Darwin, Darwinism, nor the theory of evolution being a cause of focusing on the Jews or causing the Holocaust, but plenty mention of the major factors that were involved in declaring Jews "the enemy." http://www.amazon.com/dp/0674027388/ref=rdr_ext_tmb
Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust Paperback – 2006 The anti-Jewish quotations by famous Christians throughout the ages are eye blistering. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1403974721/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl
Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play – 2001 The Bavarian village of Oberammergau has staged the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ nearly every decade since 1634. Each production of the Passion Play attracts hundreds of thousands, many drawn by the spiritual benefits it promises. Its version of the suffering, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus has entailed blaming the Jews and aroused anti-Semitic fervor. Hitler praised the play for its Jew-hating message, and many Oberammergau villagers became members of the Nazi party. http://www.amazon.com/Oberammergau-Troubling-Worlds-Famous-Passion/dp/0375708529/ref=pd_bxgy_14_text_y
A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair – 2003 http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Reckoning-Church-Holocaust-Unfulfilled/dp/0375714170/ref=pd_sim_14_5
ADDITIONAL non-Darwinian roots of Naziism and the Holocaust:
ReplyDeleteAryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science – 2006 Traces the development of the Aryan idea through the nineteenth century—from its roots in Bible-based classifications and William Jones’s discovery of commonalities among Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek to its use by scholars in fields such as archaeology, anthropology, folklore, comparative religion, and history. Considering the developments of the twentieth century, Arvidsson focuses on the adoption of Indo-European scholarship (or pseudoscholarship) by the Nazis and by Fascist Catholics. A REVIEWER adds: Judged strictly on merit, the various Aryan theories rank among the shoddiest examples of scholarship, riddled with scientific contradictions and weighed down by political and racial prejudices. But in influence and longevity, especially in politics, they bid fair to compare with the theories of Einstein and Darwin. The ‘Aryan nation’ became the mantra of German unification, while in colonial India, Aryans became the common ancestors of the Indians and the British, the latter benevolently ruling over their degraded brothers. Neither Einstein’s Relativity Theory nor Darwin’s Theory of Evolution can match this.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0226028607/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl
The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany – 2008 During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. The Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. The Institute's director, a professor of the New Testament, and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0691125317/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl
Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence, and the Holocaust – 2007 Thirteen scholars of European history, Jewish studies, and Christian theology examine antisemitism’s insidious role in Europe’s intellectual and political life. The essays reveal that annihilative antisemitic thought was not limited to Germany, but could be found in the theology and liturgical practice of most of Europe’s Christian churches. They dismantle the claim of a distinction between Christian anti-Judaism and neo-pagan antisemitism and show that, at the heart of Christianity, hatred for Jews overwhelmingly formed the milieu of 20th-century Europe. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0253348730/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl
Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition – 2014 http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Judaism-Western-Tradition-David-Nirenberg/dp/0393347915/ref=pd_sim_14_3
YET MORE evidence of the non-Darwinian roots of Naziism and the Holocaust:
ReplyDeleteA Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich – 2011 When Tacitus wrote a not-very-flattering little book about the ancient Germans in 98 CE, at the height of the Roman Empire, he could not have foreseen that the Nazis would extol it as "a bible," nor that Heinrich Himmler, the engineer of the Holocaust, would vow to resurrect Germany on its grounds. Tacitus' book, Germania, was lost for centuries but resurfaced around 1500 as Germans were growing resentful of foreign domination—in this case from the Catholic Church in Rome. The rediscovered book launched a primitivist myth that captivated admirers over the next 500 years, from Martin Luther to Heinrich Himmler, who loved its portrayal of ancient Germans as freedom-loving warriors, uncultured but honorable, in contrast to decadent Romans. In fact, Tacitus probably never visited Germany, Krebs notes. Rather, using books and travelers' reports, he wrote for a Roman audience who shared his romantic view of northern barbarians. Enthusiastic German readers, culminating in the Nazis, ignored Tacitus's disparaging comments, misread passages to confirm their prejudices, and proclaimed that the ancient historian confirmed their national superiority. This is an inventive analysis of, and warning against, an irresistible human yearning to find written proof of one's ideology. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393062651/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl
Betrayal: German Churches and the Holocaust – 1999 The 'church struggle' in Nazi Germany was not a struggle against either the Nazi regime or the mass murder of Jews, it was the struggle of some Protestant churches to simply maintain their autonomy from governmental influence. That the German churches played a far more important role in the Nazi atrocities than has been hitherto realized---is convincingly documented here. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0800629310/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl
Theologians Under Hitler (Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus and Emanuel Hirsch) – 1985 What led so many German Protestant theologians to welcome the Nazi regime and its policies of racism and anti-Semitism? In this provocative book, Robert P. Ericksen examines the work and attitudes of three distinguished, scholarly, and influential theologians who greeted the rise of Hitler with enthusiasm and support. In so doing, he shows how National Socialism could appeal to well-meaning and intelligent people in Germany and why the German university and church were so silent about the excesses and evil that confronted them. Throws light on the fact that even pious Christians are susceptible to the seduction of social, racial and political ideas.