Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944Franz Neumann's classic account of the governmental workings of Nazi Germany, first published in 1942, is reprinted in a new paperback edition with an introduction by the distinguished historian Peter Hayes. Neumann was one of the only early Frankfurt School thinkers to examine seriously the problem of political institutions. After the rise of the Nazis to power, his emphasis shifted to an analysis of economic power, and then after the war to political psychology. But his contributions in Behemoth were groundbreaking: that the Nazi organization of society involved the collapse of traditional ideas of the state, of ideology, of law, and even of any underlying rationality. The book must be studied, not simply read, Raul Hilberg wrote. The most experienced researchers will tell us that the scarcest commodity in academic life is an original idea. If someone has two or three, he is rich. Franz Neumann was a rich man. Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. |
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administration agencies Alfred Rosenberg Anti-Semitism army autarky banks basis Berlin bureaucracy capital capitalistic Carl Schmitt cartel cent central civil servants civil service combine commissioner complete constitutional corporations council courts decisive decree democracy deputy Deutsches Recht doctrine economic chamber employers enterprises exist finance foreign Four Year Plan Frankfurter Zeitung freedom function Gauleiter German industry German Labor Front Germany's Göring groups handicraft Hermann Göring Hitler Hitler Youth Ibid ideology imperialism imperialist institution international law Jewish Jews Labor Front leader leadership legislative liberal masses ment military minister of economics ministry monopolistic Munich National Socialism National Socialist Nazi nomic organization plant political principle production profits propaganda Prussian racial raw materials regime Reich rule Social Democratic party social imperialism society Speer statute structure Sudetenland supreme territories theory tion tional totalitarian trade unions wages Weimar Republic whole workers