Synopses & Reviews
Review
"A historian who redefined the interpretation of European fascism and Hitler's Germany, and who made decisive contributions to the liberal historiography of modern Europe. [George Mosse] was a man of uncommon intellectual vivacity and a great teacher."—Saul Friedländer, The New Republic
Review
"A delightful and illuminating memoir of a man whose piercing insights changed our understanding of modern Europe."—Kirkus Reviews
Review
"A perceptive new analysis that encompasses the broad range of Mosse's work. The most thorough study on the historian that has been done."—Stanley G. Payne, Series Editor
Synopsis
Just two weeks before his death in January 1999, George L. Mosse, one of the great American historians, finished writing his memoir, a fascinating and fluent account of a remarkable life that spanned three continents and many of the major events of the twentieth century. Confronting History describes Mosse's opulent childhood in Weimar Berlin; his exile in Paris and England, including boarding school and study at Cambridge University; his second exile in the U.S. at Haverford, Harvard, Iowa, and Wisconsin; and his extended stays in London and Jerusalem. Mosse discusses being a Jew and his attachment to Israel and Zionism, and he addresses his gayness, his coming out, and his growing scholarly interest in issues of sexuality. This touching memoir—told with the clarity, passion, and verve that entranced thousands of Mosse's students—is guided in part by his belief that "what man is, only history tells" and, most of all, by the importance of finding one's self through the pursuit of truth and through an honest and unflinching analysis of one's place in the context of the times.
Synopsis
A taboo-breaker and a great provocateur, George L. Mosse (1918–99) was one of the great historians of the twentieth century, forging a new historiography of culture that included brilliant insights about the roles of nationalism, fascism, racism, and sexuality. Jewish, gay, and a member of a culturally elite family in Germany, Mosse came of age as the Nazis came to power, before escaping as a teenager to England and America. Mosse was innovative and interdisciplinary as a scholar, and he shattered in his groundbreaking books prevalent assumptions about the nature of National Socialism and the Holocaust. He audaciously drew a link from bourgeois respectability and the ideology of the Enlightenment—the very core of modern Western civilization—to the extermination of the European Jews. In this intellectual biography of George Mosse, Karel Plessini draws on all of Mosse's published and unpublished work to illuminate the origins and development of his groundbreaking methods of historical analysis and the close link between his life and work. He redefined the understanding of modern mass society and politics, masterfully revealing the powerful influence of conformity and political liturgies on twentieth-century history. Mosse warned against the dangers inherent in acquiescence, showing how identity creation and ideological fervor can climax in intolerance and mass murder—a message of continuing relevance.
About the Author
George L. Mosse (1918–99) was the John C. Bascom Professor of European History and Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was also the Koebner Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was selected as the first scholar-in-residence at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. He wrote more than two dozen books, including Nationalism and Sexuality, Toward the Final Solution, and Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural, and Social Life in the Third Reich, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction: The Serpent and the Dove The "Eternal Emigrant" Why an Intellectual Biography of George L. Mosse? The Link between Life and Work Machiavellism and the Holocaust The Great ProvocateurChapter 1. From Machiavellism to Totalitarianism Political Concerns Thomas Hobbes as the "Voice of the Future" The Serpent and the Dove: The Question of Political Morality From Machiavellism to National SocialismChapter 2. Beyond the History of Intellectuals From Ideas to Ideologies: The Turn to Popular Culture Between Consensus, Nihilism, and Propaganda From Nihilism to Liturgy: The Religion of Fascism Beyond the History of IntellectualsChapter 3. The Roots of the Anthropological and Visual Turn The Anthropological Turn: Myth Anthropology and Mass Movements Between Rationalism and Irrationality History and Psychology: Rationalizations, Motivations, Perceptions Anthropology and Historicism The Visual Turn: Aesthetics and Architecture Toward New PerspectivesChapter 4. The Dark Side of Modernity The "Failure of the Enlightenment" Nationalism, Racism, and Respectability Modernity and the Great WarChapter 5. From Machiavellism to the Holocaust Nihilism and the Holocaust Respectability and the Holocaust Reconsidering the "Ideal Bourgeois"Chapter 6. The Missing Link: The Nationalist Revolution The Fear of Ideology The Building Blocks of a General Theory: Fascism as Revolution The Missing Link: Fascism as a Nationalist Revolution The World through the Eyes of Its FaithsChapter 7. The "True Mission of Judaism" George Mosse, Zionism, and the Reality of Israel A Heritage Rediscovered: Redemption by Judaism Between Nationalism and Patriotism The "True Mission of Judaism"Chapter 8. The Granitic Foundation of a Faith The Meaning of History The Devil's Advocate The "History of Perceptions"Conclusion: George L. Mosse's Legacy Mosse's Work between Recognition and Neglect Mosse as Émigré Historian The Message of a Life Notes Index