New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.

415 pages ; 24 cm

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Race and the memory of evil

Includes bibliographical references (pages [385]-398) and index.

German lessons -- On the use and abuse of historical comparison -- Sins of the fathers -- Cold War memory -- Southern discomfort -- Everybody knows about Mississippi -- Lost causes -- Faces of Emmett Till -- Setting things straight -- Monumental recognition -- Rights and reparations -- In place of conclusions.

"As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past."--Provided by publisher.

As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights–era South and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. Working from this unique perspective, she combines philosophical reflection, personal stories, and interviews with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories. Through discussions with Germans, including Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who created the breakthrough Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibit, and Friedrich Schorlemmer, the East German dissident preacher, Neiman tells the story of the long and difficult path Germans faced in their effort to atone for the crimes of the Holocaust. In the United States, she interviews James Meredith about his battle for equality in Mississippi and Bryan Stevenson about his monument to the victims of lynching, as well as lesser-known social justice activists in the South, to provide a compelling picture of the work contemporary Americans are doing to confront our violent history. In clear and gripping prose, Neiman urges us to consider the nuanced forms that evil can assume, so that we can recognize and avoid them in the future.

World War (1939-1945)

Collective memory -- Germany.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities -- Germany -- Public opinion.

National socialism -- Public opinion.

Denazification -- Germany.

African Americans -- Crimes against -- Public opinion.

Racism -- United States -- Public opinion.

Civil rights movements -- United States -- History.

Collective memory -- United States.

Public opinion -- United States.

Public opinion -- Germany.

Civil rights movements.

Collective memory.

Denazification.

National socialism -- Public opinion.

Public opinion.

Racism -- Public opinion.

Germany.

United States.

History.

9780374184469 (hardcover)

0374184461 (hardcover)