Countless people have grappled with these questions, but few have come up with answers as original and perceptive as those of German historian Gotz Aly. Tracing the prehistory of the Holocaust, from the 1800s to the Nazis' assumption of power in 1933, Aly shows that German anti-Semitism did not originate with racist ideology or religious animosity, as is often supposed. Instead, through striking statistics and economic analysis, he demonstrates that it was rooted in a more basic emotion: material envy. Resenting the success of the urban, well-educated Jewish minority in the rapidly modernizing world, Germans embraced compensatory theories of Jewish racial inferiority. And the growing resentment, pervading society, provided fertile ground for Hitler and his genocidal politics.

A remarkable, fresh look at one of the defining events of modern human history.

About the Author
Gotz Aly is the author of Hitler's Beneficiaries and Into the Tunnel, among other books. One of the most respected historians of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, he has received the National Jewish Book Award, Germany's prestigious Heinrich Mann Prize, and numerous other honors.


Book Information
ISBN 9781250062642
Author Goetz Aly
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint St Martin's Press
Publisher St Martin's Press
Weight(grams) 282g
Dimensions(mm) 226mm * 144mm * 21mm