so I saw this twitter thread today and found it very interesting. going to have to look into this book.
Jeff Guo reviewed a book called Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law by James Whitman and then expanded on it today in a bunch of tweets. basically Hitler and the Nazis were really impressed with how America went about white supremacy and learned a lot about how the United States went about that with their laws and such.
some excerpts from the twitter thread. full thread can be read here and the book review can be read here
there's more in the links
Jeff Guo reviewed a book called Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law by James Whitman and then expanded on it today in a bunch of tweets. basically Hitler and the Nazis were really impressed with how America went about white supremacy and learned a lot about how the United States went about that with their laws and such.
some excerpts from the twitter thread. full thread can be read here and the book review can be read here
While drafting laws to exclude Jews from civic life, Nazi lawyers keenly studied how the U.S. suppressed immigrants and minorities.
The Nazis discussed how the U.S. model could be transposed to Germany, and even dismissed certain American race laws as too extreme
Racism was fashionable around the world in the 1930s, but only the United States had developed a robust set of laws to reinforce it.
For instance, Nazi lawmakers struggled to find any examples of laws forbidding interracial marriage.
Such policies were rareexcept in America, where dozens of states not only banned black-white unions, but imposed lengthy jail sentences
The harsh criminalization of mixed-race marriages was an American tendency that the Nazis pointed to repeatedly in closed-door sessions
The Nazis would later implement their own harsh penalties for mixed marriages as part of the landmark Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
The Nazis also took special note of Americas restrictive immigration and citizenship laws, another area where the U.S. led the world.
Though many countries set limits on foreigners, Americans had developed an unusual race-conscious quota system which favored people from Western Europe, discouraged immigrants from other parts of Europe and Africa, and banned Asians outright.
Hitler praised Americas quota system in Mein Kampf comparing it favorably to Germanys more liberal citizenship policies at the time
There is at present one State where at least feeble attempts of a better conception [of race] are perceptible," Hitler wrote.
This is of course not our German model republic, but the American Union. Hitler literally said that
There's no comparison between the United States and Nazi Germany, but the Nazis did help us better understand ourselves.
As much as Hitler resented the liberal ideals of the United States, he admired Americas yearnings toward racial oppression.
Hitler correctly identified one of Americas most enduring traditions: Our asterisked promise of liberty for all.
there's more in the links