A Most Dangerous Book Tacitus S Germania From The Roman Empire To The Third Reich

“A model of popular intellectual history. . . . In every way, ?A Most Dangerous Book is a most brilliant achievement.”—Washington Post When the Roman historian Tacitus wrote the Germania, a none-too-flattering little book about the ancient Germans, he could not have foreseen that centuries later the Nazis would extol it as “a bible” and vow to resurrect Germany on its grounds. But the Germania inspired—and polarized—readers long before the rise of the Third Reich. In this elegant and captivating history, Christopher B. Krebs, a professor of classics at Harvard University, traces the wide-ranging influence of the Germania, revealing how an ancient text rose to take its place among the most dangerous books in the world.

Offers case studies of the past embedded in the past as a window into the ancient historians' workshop.

From her seminal Eros the Bittersweet (1986) to her experimental Float (2016), Bakkhai (2017) and Norma Jeane Baker of Troy (2019), Anne Carson's engagement with antiquity has been deeply influential to generations of readers, both inside and outside of academia. One reason for her success is the versatile scope of her classically-oriented oeuvre, which she rethinks across multiple media and categories. Yet an equally significant reason is her profile as a classicist. In this role, Carson unfailingly refuses to conform to the established conventions and situated practices of her discipline, in favour of a mode of reading classical literature that allows for interpretative and creative freedom. From a multi-praxis, cross-disciplinary perspective, the volume explores the erudite indiscipline of Carson's classicism as it emerges in her poetry, translations, essays, and visual artistry. It argues that her classicism is irreducible to a single vision, and that it is best approached as integral to the protean character of her artistic thought. Anne Carson/Antiquity collects twenty essays by poets, translators, artists, practitioners and scholars. It offers the first collective study of the author's classicism, while drawing attention to one of the most avant-garde, multifaceted readings of the classical past.

Described by two prominent twentieth century leftist academics as one of the "most dangerous books ever written," Roman historian Tacitus's 98 AD work Germania is credited with almost single-handedly creating modern German nationalism after the manuscript's rediscovery in 1462. Originally titled "On the Origin and Situation of the Germanic Peoples" (De Origine et situ Germanorum), it provides a vivid survey of the physical, cultural, and behavioral characteristics of the German people in what the Romans called Germania Magna-"Greater Germany"-that area east of the Rhine River. Germania begins with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the Germanic people, and then moves on to detailed descriptions of the individual tribes all the way up to the Baltic Sea. This includes Tacitus's famous description of the Germans as a "pure and unmixed race" with Nordic racial characteristics. It then describes the Germanic systems of government, religion, the egalitarian status of women in German society, and even a form of folk assembly, or parliament, at which important decisions were made by common vote and consensus, among many other things. All copies of Germania were lost during the Middle Ages and the work was forgotten until a single manuscript was rediscovered. At that time, most of Germany was known as the Holy Roman Empire, and the word "Germani" was almost never used. The book's rediscovery and distribution directly led to the widespread use of that word once again, and it was first used in a nationalist sense in 1471 during a crusade against the invading Turks. In 1956, Jewish historian Arnaldo Momigliano, professor at University College, London, described Germania as "among the most dangerous books ever written," and in 2008, professor Christopher Krebs, assistant professor of Classics at Harvard produced a separate book on the topic called A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich, in which he claimed that all top Nazis were familiar with the work, including racial scientist Hans F.K. Gunther. The second work in this book, Agricola, originally titled "On the life and character of Julius Agricola" (De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae) is a biographical work which tells the story of the author's father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, one of the most prominent Roman generals who took part in the final conquest of Britain. It includes many valuable comments about the racial characteristics of the pre-Roman British people and society, as well as fascinating details of the conquest of Britain and of how Agricola served as governor of the new province.

Described by two prominent twentieth century leftist academics as one of the "most dangerous books ever written," Roman historian Tacitus's 98 AD work Germania is credited with almost single-handedly creating modern German nationalism after the manuscript's rediscovery in 1462. Originally titled "On the Origin and Situation of the Germanic Peoples" (De Origine et situ Germanorum), it provides a vivid survey of the physical, cultural, and behavioral characteristics of the German people in what the Romans called Germania Magna-"Greater Germany"-that area east of the Rhine River. Germania begins with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the Germanic people, and then moves on to detailed descriptions of the individual tribes all the way up to the Baltic Sea. This includes Tacitus's famous description of the Germans as a "pure and unmixed race" with Nordic racial characteristics. It then describes the Germanic systems of government, religion, the egalitarian status of women in German society, and even a form of folk assembly, or parliament, at which important decisions were made by common vote and consensus, among many other things. All copies of Germania were lost during the Middle Ages and the work was forgotten until a single manuscript was rediscovered. At that time, most of Germany was known as the Holy Roman Empire, and the word "Germani" was almost never used. The book's rediscovery and distribution directly led to the widespread use of that word once again, and it was first used in a nationalist sense in 1471 during a crusade against the invading Turks. In 1956, Jewish historian Arnaldo Momigliano, professor at University College, London, described Germania as "among the most dangerous books ever written," and in 2008, professor Christopher Krebs, assistant professor of Classics at Harvard produced a separate book on the topic called A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich, in which he claimed that that all top Nazis were familiar with the work, including racial scientist Hans F.K. Gunther. The second work in this book, Agricola, originally titled "On the life and character of Julius Agricola" (De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae) is a biographical work which tells the story of the author's father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, one of the most prominent Roman generals who took part in the final conquest of Britain. It includes many valuable comments about the racial characteristics of the pre-Roman British people and society, as well as fascinating details of the conquest of Britain and of how Agricola served as governor of the new province.

This incredible history was written by the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus around 98 AD. It is a well-written historical and ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. The writer brilliantly describes the Germanic people's lands, laws, and customs. In addition, it tells about individuals, beginning with those living closest to Roman lands and ending on the shores of the Baltic.

Focusing on German society immediately following the First World War, this vivid historical narrative explains how fake news and political uproar influenced Hitler and put him on the path toward dictatorial power. How did an obscure agitator on the political fringes of early-20th-century Germany rise to become the supreme leader of the "Third Reich"? Unlike many other books that track Adolf Hitler's career after 1933, this book focuses on his formative period--immediately following World War I (1918-1924). The author, a veteran producer of historical documentaries, brings to life this era of political unrest and violent conflict, when forces on both the left and right were engaged in a desperate power struggle. Among the competing groups was a highly sophisticated network of ethnic chauvinists that discovered Hitler and groomed him into the leader he became. The book also underscores the importance of a post-war socialist revolution in Bavaria, led by earnest reformers, some of whom were Jewish. Right wing extremists skewed this brief experiment in democracy followed by Soviet-style communism as evidence of a Jewish-Bolshevik plot. Along with the pernicious "stab-in-the-back" myth, which misdirected blame for Germany's defeat onto civilian politicians, public opinion was primed for Hitler to use his political cunning and oratorical powers to effectively blame Jews and Communists for all of Germany's problems. Based on archival research in Germany, England, and the US, this striking narrative reveals how the manipulation of facts and the use of propaganda helped an obscure, embittered malcontent to gain political legitimacy, which led to dictatorial power over a nation.

A UNIQUE EXPLORATION OF GERMAN CULTURE, FROM SAUSAGE ADVERTISEMENTS TO WAGNER Sitting on a bench at a communal table in a restaurant in Regensburg, his plate loaded with disturbing amounts of bratwurst and sauerkraut made golden by candlelight shining through a massive glass of beer, Simon Winder was happily swinging his legs when a couple from Rottweil politely but awkwardly asked: "So: why are you here?" This book is an attempt to answer that question. Why spend time wandering around a country that remains a sort of dead zone for many foreigners, surrounded as it is by a force field of historical, linguistic, climatic, and gastronomic barriers? Winder's book is propelled by a wish to reclaim the brilliant, chaotic, endlessly varied German civilization that the Nazis buried and ruined, and that, since 1945, so many Germans have worked to rebuild. Germania is a very funny book on serious topics—how we are misled by history, how we twist history, and how sometimes it is best to know no history at all. It is a book full of curiosities: odd food, castles, mad princes, fairy tales, and horse-mating videos. It is about the limits of language, the meaning of culture, and the pleasure of townscape.