Readings on German history

Kitty has been up to her whiskers auditing a course on the Holocaust and reading up on post-WWII German history and post-German reunification in particular.  Books on the coffee table include: The German Genius: Europe’s Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century; Blood and Culture: Youth, Right-Wing Extremism and National Belonging in Contemporary Germany; Jews, Turks, and Other Strangers: The Roots of Prejudice in Modern Germany; The Politics of the New Germany; Fascists; German Culture, Politics, and Literature into the Twenty-First Century; America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11; and United and Divided: Germany since 1990; among others.

For the Holocaust class, our first readings from David M. Crowe’s The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath cover four thousand years of Jewish history from “Abraham receives covenant from Hebrew God YHWH” in the Second Millenium B.C.E. to the days in 1939 before Hitler invades Poland on September 1.  All from the book’s first three chapters in 105 dense pages.  The professor wasn’t kidding when said it would be a reading-intensive course, and with close to 30 students enrolled, he was probably hinting that anyone not up to the task should drop.  The student next to me said it was the largest class he’s been in except for Biology.

No pictures in this post today.  🙁