"Interwar Germany and the U.S. Today: Are They Comparable Cases of the Failure of Democracy and the Rise of Dictatorship?"
A Zoom Conversation with Christopher R. Browning ’67, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Given the propensity to invoke Hitler, Nazism, and fascism in current political discussion (a temptation so pervasive on the internet that it has led to “Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies”), historians of Europe in the era of fascist dictatorship, World War II, and the Holocaust should set a high bar for responsible and informed analogizing, against which facile and distorted attempts can be measured and found wanting. This talk will attempt a careful comparison and contrast between Hitler and Trump as personalities and politicians, as well as between the fall of Weimar and rise of Nazi dictatorship on the one hand and current events and trends in the U.S. on the other. Professor Browning will do so operating from the premise that insights based upon knowledge of the past are very important for illuminating and understanding our current situation, but the careless weaponizing of the past simply to stigmatize one’s opponents is self-defeating.
Christopher R. Browning ’67 is Frank Porter Graham Professor History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he taught from 1999-2014. He is a specialist on the Holocaust and renowned for work documenting the Final Solution, the behavior of those implementing Nazi policies, and the use of survivor testimony. Earlier, he taught at Pacific Lutheran University from 1974-1999. Christopher is the author of nine books, including three–Ordinary Men (1992), The Origins of the Final Solution (2004), and Remembering Survival (2010)—which received the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust Category. He has served as historical expert witness at two Holocaust denial trials: Ernst Zündel v. Crown Prosecution in Toronto in 1988, and David Irving v. Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Press in London in 2000. Christopher was a History major at Oberlin and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2014. He earned his PhD in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with his wife Jenni Horn Browning ’67.
