Nazi Economics: Ideology, Theory, and Policy

By Avraham Barkai

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300044666
• ISBN13: 9780300044669
• Release Date: November 1990
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Goebell's newspapers, "To Overcome Capitalism"

This book dissects the ludicrous meme that hoodwinks so many in academia and Hollywood, that Nazism was someone the logical spawn of the free market. The Nazis believed in private property only insofar as it served the state, "The state should retain supervision and each property owner should consider himself appointed by the state. It is his duty not to use his property against the interests of others among his people...The 3rd Reich will always retain the right to control the owners of property." This ideology articulated in the Nazi party platform is foreign to and incompatible w/ Capitalism. Then when you look at the specifics of the job creation, unemployment was reduced entirely through public works and Gov't spending, and the price controls put in place in the mid-30s, and the capital punishment of "profiteers", well you get the picture, and there's plenty more in this book.The Nazis and Communists were both spawned from the late 19th Century ideological crisis outlined by Nietschze, the Death of God by Darwin and Newton and all that jazz. "What is to Be Done?", to quote the Leftist manifesto that inspired Lenin, well the Nazi Party agreed -- something drastic had to be done. The Commies, the fascists, the Nazis had all lost hope in individual liberty and eternal values secured by a just God -- the cornerstones of Anglo-American "conservatism" -- and so a strong Gov't was needed to replace the absentee, dead landlord. Society was to be reorganized from the top according to either nationalist, race, or class lines. The individual was merely a clog in the machine, worthless unless in relation to the group. The differences are cosmetic, the tyrannical results and intellectual structures the same. It is morally and intellectually irresponsible to put Nazism and Sovietism as opposite ends of the spectrum, while intentionally trying to shove classical liberalism in w/ the Nazis. There is nothing in common between Friedrich Hayek and the Nazi economist Lautenbach, who outlined Keynesianism before Keynes did.The Nazis were interventionists, Socialists, New Dealers, and eerily similair to the "Corporate" Wellfare State Capitalism of modern France and Germany. This is one of the books that proves it. Other good books, the "Logic of Evil" (which describes National Etatism more in depth) and "Heaven on Earth" by Muravchik, which describes Socialism and its fascist variant under Mussolini.

disturbing insights

Barkai's book explores an aspect of Nazism that seldom gets serious attention. It is often the case that people assume that Hitler was a supporter of capitalism because he opposed communism and attacked the USSR. Barkai proves that Hitler was an extreme interventionist. Barkai demonstrates that Hitler tolerated private property only so long as private owners used "their" property in ways that served the common good, as defined by Hitler. He shows how Hitler reserved and frequently exercised unlimited power to regulate enterprise and personal behavior in Germany. Barkai also demonstrates the close similarity between the thinking of Nazi economists and the ideas of the founder of demand side economics, John Maynard Keynes. This book is disturbing because it shows a similarity in both economic policies and thinking between western social democracies and one of the two most horrible dictatorships ever. It also renders the notion of Hitler as a pro- free market capitalist absurd. I recommend this book to both Historians and Economists, though I suspect that many will find that it makes comparisons that hit too close to home for comfort.