Hitler’s Ostkrieg and the Indian Wars

According to conventional wisdom, a generalist is one who eventually knows everything in the world about nothing at all. To that, Edward Westermann observes that one who engages in comparative history does twice the work for half the credit. In this book, however, Westermann does twice the work but deserves full credit for venturing into the minefield: the comparative study of genocides, with no case as explosive as how to interpret American treatment of the Indians. In a very balanced assessment, he focuses on the appropriateness of the comparison between the Nazi genocide in Eastern Europe during World War II and the actions of American settlers, the U.S. Army, and the federal government, in the conquest of the American West. To accomplish this, he considers four specific categories of analysis: philosophies of subjugation (Lebensraum vs. Manifest Destiny); government policy (race vs. space); military strategies of conquest; and the function of massacre and atrocity. Additionally, he moves beyond the theoretical constructs that so often cloud issues to discuss specific historical events, situating them in their historical context. Although Hitler certainly believed that the American example provided a historical precedent for his own murderous plans, Westermann—as suggested in the subtitle—demonstrates convincingly (while not minimizing the violence directed against the Indians) that fundamental differences distinguished the two undertakings

Context (archaeology · Genocide · Government (linguistics · Nazism · Nothing · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Indian History and Philosophy · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · History · Law · Philosophy