THE NAZIFICATION OF AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE. Folklore in the Third Reich.
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, [1994]. First Edition (& 1st printing). Octavo, original black cloth lettered in silver on spine panel. 354 pp., Notes; List of Translations, Terminology, and Abbreviations; Bibliography; Index. Small dampstain to upper corner of outer cloth cover leaving a mark on the interior of the jacket; there is no internal staining to the text block at all, and the staining on the cloth is faint (black cloth, it just doesn't really show at all). A very good copy in the dust jacket. Item #314499
¶ Edited and Translated by James R. Dow and Hannjost Lixfeld, this volume explores the involvement of German and Austrian folklorists with the institutions and ideology of the Third Reich. In his introduction, James Dow traces the roots of this Nazification of folklore to the Nazis' exploitation of eighteenth-century concepts and philosophies. Contributors examine the establishment of folklore departments at German and Austrian universities during the National Socialist era; the perversion of the discipline for political ends by the government; and the attempt to establish a pan-German Reich Institute as an instrument of a fascist ideology.
The establishment of departments of Volkskunde offered scholars the opportunity to broaden the base of their discipline. Ambition led many to implicitly and explicitly support the aims of their Nazi benefactors. Although not all the scholars in positions of authority were Party members, most became tools of a regime obsessed with its own racist mythology. In the postwar years there was no attempt to investigate this abuse of folklore. Instead, a legend of two folklores evolved - one of a racially biased and tainted discipline and one of a discipline that maintained itself above Nazi aims and manipulations.
Here German and Austrian scholars examine this long-unexplored past in recent essays, now made available to the English-speaking world. Also included are previously unpublished documents that laid the groundwork for the National Socialists' perversion of folklore.
Price (CAD): $125.00