“Hitler’s American Model: The U.S. and the Making of Nazi Race Law” with James Q. Whitman

An Evening with author James Q. Whitman reading and discussing his new book, HITLER’S AMERICAN MODEL: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law.

Professor James Q. Whitman has written bracing new work of history — a study of how the Nazis studied and adapted Jim Crow segregation in the U.S. He recounts how German praise for American practices, already found in Hitler’s Mein Kampf, was continuous throughout the early 1930s, and the most radical Nazi lawyers were eager advocates of the use of American racist models. And in fact, when Nazis rejected certain segregationist American practices, it was sometimes because they found them too harsh.

“…The book, in effect, is a portrait of the United States assembled from the admiring notes of Nazi lawmakers, who routinely referenced American policies in the design of their own racist regime… “
–Jeff Guo, Washington Post
“This is one of the most engrossing and disturbing pieces of legal history I’ve read in a long time… Whitman’s book stands apart from, indeed above, everything I’ve read regarding America’s influence on the making of the Nazi state.”
— Lawrence Powell, Tulane University

James Q. Whitman is Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law at Yale Law School. The book was published in February 2017 by Princeton University Press.











When: Thu., Aug. 10, 2017 at 7:00 pm
Where: Revolution Books
437 Malcolm X Blvd./Lenox Ave. @132nd St
212-691-3345
Price: $5-$10 suggested donation, sliding scale
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An Evening with author James Q. Whitman reading and discussing his new book, HITLER’S AMERICAN MODEL: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law.

Professor James Q. Whitman has written bracing new work of history — a study of how the Nazis studied and adapted Jim Crow segregation in the U.S. He recounts how German praise for American practices, already found in Hitler’s Mein Kampf, was continuous throughout the early 1930s, and the most radical Nazi lawyers were eager advocates of the use of American racist models. And in fact, when Nazis rejected certain segregationist American practices, it was sometimes because they found them too harsh.

“…The book, in effect, is a portrait of the United States assembled from the admiring notes of Nazi lawmakers, who routinely referenced American policies in the design of their own racist regime… “
–Jeff Guo, Washington Post
“This is one of the most engrossing and disturbing pieces of legal history I’ve read in a long time… Whitman’s book stands apart from, indeed above, everything I’ve read regarding America’s influence on the making of the Nazi state.”
— Lawrence Powell, Tulane University

James Q. Whitman is Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law at Yale Law School. The book was published in February 2017 by Princeton University Press.

Buy tickets/get more info now