Synopses & Reviews
The Nazis created nature preserves, contemplated sustainable forestry, curbed air pollution, and designed the autobahn highway network as a way of bringing Germans closer to nature. How Green Were the Nazis? is the first book to examine the ideology and practice of environmental protection in Nazi Germany.
Environmentalists and conservationists in Germany welcomed the rise of the Nazi regime with open arms, for the most part, and hoped that it would bring about legal and institutional changes. However, environmentalists soon realized that the rhetorical attention that they received from the regime did not always translate into action. By the late 1930s, nature and the environment became less pressing concerns as Nazi Germany prepared and executed its extensive war.
Based on prodigious archival research, and written by some of the most important scholars in the field of twentieth-century German history, How Green Were the Nazis? illuminates the ideological overlap between Nazi ideas and conservationist agendas. Moreover, this landmark book underscores that the green” policies of the Nazis were more than a mere episode or aberration in environmental history.((BLURB))---"The environmental ideas, policies, and consequences of the Nazi regime pose controversial questions that have long begged for authoritative answers. At last, a team of highly qualified scholars has tackled these questions, with dispassionate judgment and deep research. Their assessment will stand for years to come as the fundamental work on the subjectand provides a new angle of vision on 20th-century Europe's most disruptive force."John McNeill, author of Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World---EDITORS---Franz-Josef Brueggemeier is a professor of history at the university of Freiburg, Germany. He has published extensively in the field of environmental history in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe.Mark Cioc is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and editor of the journal Environmental History. He is the author of The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815-2000. Thomas Zeller is an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of Straße, Bahn, Panorama, translated as Driving Germany.
Review
An invaluable English introduction to the history of conservation in the Third Reich.”
Journal of Contemporary History
Review
Instead of courting controversy,
How Green Were the Nazis? both draws on, and contributes to, recent trends in the historiography of the Third Reich. It treats the regime not as a historical aberration but as a barbaric mutation of modernity that displayed a mixture of atavistic and avante-garde ideas in environmental as in other policy areas.”
Environment and History
Review
The environmental ideas, policies, and consequences of the Nazi regime pose controversial questions that have long begged for authoritative answers. At last, a team of highly qualified scholars has tackled these questions, with dispassionate judgment and deep research. Their assessment will stand for years to come as the fundamental work on the subject and provides a new angle of vision on 20th-century Europes most disruptive force.”
John McNeill, author of Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World
Synopsis
The Nazis created nature preserves, championed sustainable forestry, curbed air pollution, and designed the autobahn highway network as a way of bringing Germans closer to nature. How Green Were the Nazis?: Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich is the first book to examine the Third Reich's environmental policies and to offer an in-depth exploration of the intersections between brown ideologies and green practices.
Environmentalists and conservationists in Germany welcomed the rise of the Nazi regime with open arms and hoped that it would bring about legal and institutional changes. However, environmentalists soon realized that the rhetorical attention they received from the regime did not always translate into action. By the late 1930s, nature and the environment had become less pressing concerns as Nazi Germany prepared for and executed a global conflagration.
Based on prodigious archival research, and written by some of the most important scholars in the field of twentieth-century German history, How Green Were the Nazis? examines the overlap between Nazi ideology and conservationist agendas. This landmark book underscores the fact that the "green" policies of the Nazis were more than a mere episode or aberration in environmental history.
Contributors: Franz-Josef Br ggemeier, Mark Cioc, Thomas Zeller, Charles Closmann, Michael Imort, Thomas Lekan, Frank Uek tter, Gesine Gerhard, Thomas Rohkr mer, Mark Bassin, and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn.
Synopsis
Based on prodigious archival research, and written by some of the most important scholars in the field of twentieth-century German history, How Green Were the Nazis? illuminates the ideological overlap between Nazi ideas and conservationist agendas. Moreover, this landmark book underscores that the “green” policies of the Nazis were more than a mere episode or aberration in environmental history.
About the Author
Franz-Josef Brueggemeier is a professor of history at the university of Freiburg, Germany. He has published extensively in the field of environmental history in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe.
Mark Cioc is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and editor of the journal Environmental History. He is the author of The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815-2000.
Thomas Zeller is an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of Straße, Bahn, Panorama, translated as Driving Germany.