The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses F First Paperback Edition Used

An amazing, maddening, informative and necessary read. Norwood's relentless focus on minute detail and use of relatively obscure sources (most notably college newspaper archives) uncovers an ugly truth about American academia that was largely swept under the rug by the outbreak of World War II. This book is full of forgotten heroes, like Toni Sender and Robert Burke, whose contribution and self-sacrifice is completely unknown to all but the most dogged specialists, and Norwood should be celebrated from bringing their stories to light. It is also full of, if not villains, many Americans who avoided doing the right thing until the last possible minute, if ever. Some of these private anti-semites went on to be lauded as Nazi opponents. Harvard President James Conant, whose opposition to the Nazi regime was lukewarm at best during the early and mid 1930's, and whose private correspondence reveals an ugly anti-semitism, stands out in this regard. Thank you Professor Norwood.

Great and important book on how far the prestigious men's colleges in this country went to have good relations with the Nazis during the 1930s. The Seven Sister schools were not much better. How a German warship, the Karlsruhe, could have been allowed to berth next to the USS Constitution in Boston is still mind-blowing. This book fits with other books, such as those by David Wyman, about the extent of anti-Semitism in this country in the 1930s and 1940s. Very important reading especially in view of the growth of nativism in this country in recent years.

This is a great book about academics who loved Nazis because they thought they looked great in their uniforms, and who hated Jews because they thought they looked too intense. Instead of listening or reading, these academics, who should have known better, only depended on what they saw. Clearly this is a valuable book because it is a warning to us all. This an excellent book!

Outstanding

This needs to be read by every college student. The information was not only new, but an eye opener. Especially, since most colleges sweep the truth about their past dirty laundry under the rug They are more concerned about PC image than the truth that has tarnished their image. I teach about America's involvement with the Eugenics program of Nazi Germany. Such groups as the Rockefeller Center, The Carnegie Institute, Henry Ford and IBM, as well as number of Ivy League Colleges and Universities were all embracing the Nazi Eugenics System, and some even went beyond it to assist in the Holocaust.

THIS BOOK IS A DENSELY-WRITTEN, SCHOLARLY DESCRIPTION OF THE PRO-NAZI PAST OF MANY PROMINENT UNIVERSITY FACULTIES. IT IS AN EYE OPENER FOR THOSE TOO YOUNG TO HAVE EXPERIENCED THAT ERA. TO THIS WRITER THE FACTS IN THE BOOK COME AS NO SURPRISE, BUT SERVE TO SHOW THAT HIS EXPERIENCES WERE NOT JUST HIS OWN, THEY WERE WIDESPREAD. FINALLY, THE BOOK SERVES TO WARN ALL OF US THAT IT COULD HAPPEN HERE!

Not absorbing. Nothing changes on campus, whether Fascist or Socialist, many students are still tend to be useful idiots.

This is the first book I have seen devoted to the topic of whether some American universities were too touchy-feely with the fascist regimes prior to the Second War. This is certainly the concluson reached by the author, who is professor of history at the University of Oklahoma. This extremely well-researched study first addresses Germany's reversion to the "dark ages" to give the reader a sense of what unfortunate developments were occurring in the Third Reich. The core of the book, however, are individual chapters on Harvard (1933-1937); Columbia (1933-1937); the Seven Sisters Women's Colleges; the University of Virginia Institute of Public Affairs Roundtables (1933-1941); and the German language departments of various universities (1933-1941). There is an additional chapter devoted to Catholic Universities, principally in reference to Mussolini's Italy. Finally, the author discusses the post-Kristallnacht (1938) period when the attitudes of many, but not all, of these institutions changed.At this point in time, more than 70 years after the fact, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about what was going on at these campuses. The author's position, I believe, is that many university administrators were at best uninformed, or at worst simply clueless or didn't care, about what was going on in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. He also suggests that anti-Semitism may have played a role in all this. But I think several considerations need to be factored into this argument. First, I don't think universities can be held to the same standards as other institutions since a primary norm of universities is to interact with each other, to serve as places for the discussion of sometimes controversial ideas, and to bridge cultural differences. Universities are not agents of foreign policy but educational institutions with different priorities. Moreover, many of the activities to which the author points (such as conferences, junior years abroad, and banquets and speeches) are just the daily "meat and potatoes" of academic life, especially at such major institutions as Harvard and Columbia. Finally, I doubt whether whatever these institutions did had any effect on general American opinion about Nazi Germany or Italy.Nonetheless, the author makes an imposing case that something was amiss at these institutions. It is an interesting topic and the author's extensive research has unearthed a number of fascinating developments. There are 54 pages of helpful notes supporting the text and an imposing 11-page bibliography. Reading this book cannot help but get the reader to start thinking about this issue; and that is its greatest strength I believe.