Synopses & Reviews
This incisive study of the ethics of war is the only work to focus on the moral dilemmas of resistance
and collaboration in Nazi-occupied Europe. Rab Bennett provides a comprehensive guide to the harrowing ethical choices that confronted ordinary citizens as they tried to survive the Nazi onslaught.
Bennett explores how the Resistance responded to German security policy that had at its foundation the doctrine of collective responsibility. He shows how Nazi tactics, including the systematic taking and killing of hostages, reprisal killings, and the destruction of entire villages, complicated the attempts of the Resistance to fight back. He also includes a detailed discussion of the controversial role of the Jewish police.
Under the Shadow of the Swastika analyzes morally questionable methods of resistance, such as torture, the mutilation and killing of German prisoners of war, and guerrilla warfare. By assessing their conduct in relation to the laws of war and the just war tradition, Bennett mounts a revisionist challenge to longstanding myths about the Resistance.
Review
"This is a history book of the best sort: an even-handed account that makes us question the assumptions we have taken for granted and look back at the details we have too often overlooked, tried hard to forget, or swept away." -Robert Eaglestone,Royal Holloway, University of London
Synopsis
Bennett (politics, Manchester Metropolitan U.) takes a close and often uncomfortable look at the moral dilemmas facing resisters, community leaders, and ordinary people in Nazi-occupied Europe, including the Jewish responses to Nazi rule. He especially notes the impact of the Nazi doctrine of collective responsibility, in which entire populations paid for the actions of a few determined rebels. He also considers questionable resistance practices such as torture, mutilating and killing prisoners, and guerilla warfare.
Synopsis
The central focus of The Communist Manifesto Now is the profound relevance of the famous pamphlet today. This theme is explored in essays on the relationship between the Communist Manifesto and contemporary political and democratic theory, the labor movement, feminism, the history of the left, environmentalism, and postmodernity.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 292-313) and indexes.
About the Author
Leo Panitch is professor of political science at York University in Toronto and author of
Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy, and Imagination.
Colin Leys is professor of political science at York University, Toronto, and author of Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy, and Imagination..