Hitler in History
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how history has struggled to explain the enormity of the crimes committed in Germany under Adolf Hitler: we have had theories of ‘totalitarianism’, and of ‘distorted modernity’, debates between ‘intentionalists’ and their opponents the ‘structuralists’. The great political philosopher Hannah Arendt said, “Under conditions of tyranny, it is far easier to act than to think”. But somehow none of these explanations has seemed quite enough to explain how a democratic country in the heart of modern Europe was mobilised to commit genocide, and to fight a bitter war to the end against the world’s most powerful nations.
→ Listen on BBC Sounds website
Guests
-
Ian Kershaw No other episodes
Historian and biographer of Hitler - Niall Ferguson
3 episodes
Fellow and tutor in Modern History at Jesus College Oxford -
Mary Fulbrook No other episodes
Professor of German History at University College London
Related episodes
-
Hannah Arendt
25 Jun, 2020 320 Political science -
Atrocity in the 20th Century
28 Oct, 1999 900 History -
New Wars
13 Apr, 2000 350 Public administration and military science -
Bismarck
22 Mar, 2007 940 History of Europe -
War in the 20th Century
15 Oct, 1998 320 Political science -
Psychoanalysis and Democracy
11 Jul, 2002 150 Psychology -
The Frankfurt School
14 Jan, 2010 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology -
Hegel’s Philosophy of History
26 May, 2022 900 History -
The Art of War
12 Jun, 2003 350 Public administration and military science -
Wagner
20 Jun, 2002 780 Music
Programme ID: p00546wh
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546wh
Auto-category: 940.5318 (Germany during World War II and the Holocaust)
Hello (First sentence from this episode)
Hello. Historians have struggled to explain the enormity of the crimes committed in Germany under Adolf Hitler.