Know your Enemy
The American Debate on Nazism, 1933–1945

Analyses the intellectual side of the American war effort against Nazi Germany, showing how conflicting interpretations of 'the German problem' shaped American warfare and postwar planning.

Michaela Hoenicke Moore (Author)

9780521829694, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 November 2009

410 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.4 cm, 0.75 kg

'Michael Moore's excellent study is a deeply researched, well-written and analytically sharp intellectual history of how Americans struggled to understand the origins of, and the extent of the German people's responsibility for,Nazism in the years 1933–45 …the book provides a great service by prompting us to think more deeply about where history ultimately stands in the spectrum between utility and liability.' The Journal of Central European History

This book analyzes the intellectual side of the American war effort against Nazi Germany. It shows how conflicting interpretations of 'the German problem' shaped American warfare and postwar planning. The story of how Americans understood National Socialism in the 1930s and 1940s provides a counter-example to the usual tale of enemy images. The level of German popular support for the Nazi regime, the nature of Nazi war aims, and the postwar prospects of German democratization stood at the center of public and governmental debates. American public perceptions of the Third Reich - based in part on ethnic identification with the Germans - were often forgiving but also ill-informed. This conflicted with the Roosevelt administration's need to create a compelling enemy image. The tension between popular and expert views generated complex and fruitful discussions among America's political and cultural elites and produced insightful, yet contradictory interpretations of Nazism.

Prologue: Thomas Wolfe and the Third Reich
Introduction: defining the German problem
Part I. Prelude to War: 1. Memories of World War One: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Germany
2. News from the new Germany: conflicting interpretations, contested meaning, 1933–40
3. The prospect of war, 1933–41
Part II. Mobilizing the American Home Front: 4. The principal battleground of this war is American opinion, 1941/42
5. OWI: explaining Nazism to the American people is no easy assignment
6. Why we fight: the nature of the enemy seen differently
Part III. The Public Debate on Germany, 1942–5: 7. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Germans and Nazis
8. The German disease and Nazism as gangsterism
9. German peculiarities versus human universality: Vansittartism
Part IV. The Governmental Debate on Postwar Plans, 1942–5: 10. What do you do with people like that?
11. How to prevent World War III
12. The enemy in defeat: German-American encounters at zero hour
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], African history [HBJH], European history [HBJD]