Hitler's Ostkrieg and the Indian wars : comparing genocide and conquest / Edward B. Westermann

Object Details

author

Westermann, Edward B.

NMAI copy Purchased from the NMAI Library Endowment.

Contents

Visions of conquest : Manifest Destiny and Lebensraum -- National policies of race and space -- Strategy and warfare -- Massacre and atrocity -- War in the shadows : guerrilla warfare in the West and the East

Summary

As he prepared to wage his war of annihilation on the Eastern Front, Adolf Hitler repeatedly drew parallels between the Nazi quest for Lebensraum, or living space, in Eastern Europe and the United States's westward expansion under the banner of Manifest Destiny. The peoples of Eastern Europe were, he said, his "redskins," and for his colonial fantasy of a "German East" he claimed a historical precedent in the United States's displacement and killing of the native population. Edward B. Westermann examines the validity, and value, of this claim in Hitler's Ostkrieg and the Indian Wars. The book takes an empirical approach that highlights areas of similarity and continuity, but also explores key distinctions and differences between these two national projects. The westward march of American empire and the Nazi conquest of the East offer clear parallels, not least that both cases fused a sense of national purpose with racial stereotypes that aided in the exclusion, expropriation, and killing of peoples. Westermann evaluates the philosophies of Manifest Destiny and Lebensraum that justified both conquests, the national and administrative policies that framed Nazi and U.S. governmental involvement in these efforts, the military strategies that supported each nation's political goals, and the role of massacre and atrocity in both processes. Important differences emerge: a goal of annihilation versus one of assimilation and acculturation; a planned military campaign versus a confused strategy of pacification and punishment; large-scale atrocity as routine versus massacre as exception.

2016

19th century

20th century

Type

Books

History

Physical description

xiii, 322 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place

West (U.S.)

Soviet Union

Europe, Eastern

United States

Germany

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Manifest Destiny

Wars

Indians, Treatment of--History

Massacres--History

World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns

World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities

Genocide--History

Territorial expansion

History

Record ID

siris_sil_1093304

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0