The Language of Nazi Genocide (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521888660)

In the Nazi genocide of European Jews, words preceded, accompanied, and made mass murder possible. Using a multilayered approach to connect official language to everyday life, historian Thomas Pegelow Kaplan analyzes the role of language in genocide. This study seeks to comprehend how the perpetrators constructed difference, race, and their perceived enemies; how Nazi agencies communicated to the public through the nation's press; and how Germans of Jewish ancestry received, contested, and struggled for survival and self against remarkable odds. The Language of Nazi Genocide covers the historical periods of the late Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime, and early postwar Germany. However, by addressing the architecture of conceptual separation between groups and the means by which social aggression is disseminated, this study offers a model for comparative studies of linguistic violence, hate speech, and genocide in the modern world.

Author: Thomas Pegelow Kaplan
ISBN-10: 0521888662
ISBN-13: 9780521888660
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 08/24/2009
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.32lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.40w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2010