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The Law of Blood: Thinking and Acting as a Nazi Hardcover – April 2, 2018

by Johann Chapoutot (Author), Miranda Richmond Mouillot (Translator)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 31 ratings
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Winner of the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research

The scale and the depth of Nazi brutality seem to defy understanding. What could drive people to fight, kill, and destroy with such ruthless ambition? Observers and historians have offered countless explanations since the 1930s. According to Johann Chapoutot, we need to understand better how the Nazis explained it themselves. We need a clearer view, in particular, of how they were steeped in and spread the idea that history gave them no choice: it was either kill or die.

Chapoutot, one of France’s leading historians, spent years immersing himself in the texts and images that reflected and shaped the mental world of Nazi ideologues, and that the Nazis disseminated to the German public. The party had no official ur-text of ideology, values, and history. But a clear narrative emerges from the myriad works of intellectuals, apparatchiks, journalists, and movie-makers that Chapoutot explores.

The story went like this: In the ancient world, the Nordic-German race lived in harmony with the laws of nature. But since Late Antiquity, corrupt foreign norms and values―Jewish values in particular―had alienated Germany from itself and from all that was natural. The time had come, under the Nazis, to return to the fundamental law of blood. Germany must fight, conquer, and procreate, or perish. History did not concern itself with right and wrong, only brute necessity. A remarkable work of scholarship and insight, The Law of Blood recreates the chilling ideas and outlook that would cost millions their lives.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    512 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
  4. Publication date
    April 2, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    6.12 x 1.6 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0674660439
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0674660434
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Law of Blood does invigorating work in attempting to explain how such a wildly repulsive ideology could take hold in the hearts and minds of shopkeepers, artisans, soldiers, and housewives―how a solid percentage of a modern nation could have aligned itself with such obvious, ham-handed, manipulative cruelty. The book has many strengths, but its greatest is a kind of stern empathy, a cold understanding of the complexities of the exchange that was taking place in Germany in the 1930s…Those conditions―crowds of glassy-eyed young men and women chanting ‘blood and soil’ in organized marches, civilized, compassionate people averting the gaze while government agencies carry out brutalities in their name, statesmen remaining mute while their government leaders pitch them into new antagonisms around the world―have seldom had an examination as detailed and ambitious as they get in these pages. The Belknap Press is to be praised for bringing the book to an English-speaking audience.”―Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review

“The Law of Blood is a useful addition to the literature on Nazi ideology…Readers will find much here to further their understanding of what Nazis thought and why they behaved the way they did.”―Dan Stone, Times Higher Education

“The author’s consistent refrain is a warning that scholars must take seriously what the Nazis said and wrote…Chapoutot adds to our understanding of Nazi ideas and their results by excavating the ‘moral universe’ from which myriad atrocities emerged.”―Chad S. A. Gibbs, Religious Studies Review

“Chapoutot [is] one of the most brilliant historians of his generation… The Law of Blood…is not only absorbing and informative but important―an event.”―Pierre Assouline, La République des Livres

“A vertiginous reflection on the dialectic of culture and barbarism.”―Grégoire Kauffmann, L’Express

“In this ambitious study, Johann Chapoutot contributes an extremely innovative, in-depth, and comprehensive picture of the mental world created by Nazism. He goes beyond the abstract notion of Weltanschauung and masterfully shows what Nazi thinkers affirmed about the origins of the world, about all life as a constant battle, and about their goal to reign over the world in an achievable eschatological time as a pure race. This mode of thinking, which pervaded all spheres of life, allowed for killing in general and the killing of the Jews―the ultimate Weltpest―in particular. The war against the Jews was a culmination of the essential features of National Socialism. This book is pathbreaking, and a must for anyone interested in National Socialism, the Shoah, or the collective behavior of genocidal societies in general.”―Dan Michman, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Professor Emeritus of Modern Jewish History, Bar Ilan University

“Chapoutot, one of the most gifted European historians of his generation, has enriched the French historiography of the Second World War, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust. He has personally altered the European discussions of Nazi ecology, Nazi law, and the Nazi view of the past. At a time when Nazi self-understanding should be of interest to us all, this book is very welcome indeed.”―Timothy Snyder, Yale University

“Chapoutot offer[s] many illuminating discussions of the ways in which Nazi intellectuals reinterpreted Germany’s history…Scholars of the Holocaust and modern European intellectual history will find much of value in this rich analysis of a diverse and perverse Nazi intellectualism.”―Alice Weinreb, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

“Chapoutot’s analysis casts important new light on the ideological texts the Nazis produced and their relation to the fearful crimes they committed…A compelling, deeply researched, and morally astute contribution to our understanding of Nazism.”―Casper Tybjerg, European Legacy

About the Author

Johann Chapoutot is Professor of Contemporary History at Sorbonne University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press (April 2, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674660439
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674660434
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.93 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 1.6 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
31 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Aaron E. Hinkley
5.0 out of 5 stars I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read it until I saw how much contemporary Nazis hated it
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2020
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Excellent book. Does a wonderful job of explaining Nazi ideology and how they justified their actions to themselves.

Before I ordered it, I was on the fence about whether I wanted to use my birthday Amazon gift card on such an “unfun” present, but when I saw all the negative reviews here on Amazon from white nationalist types, and I knew if they hated it so much, it was probably right about the Nazi worldview and they recoiled from it like a vampire from a crucifix, or better yet, from their own reflection in the mirror that the book held up to them.
9 people found this helpful
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David Labastida
5.0 out of 5 stars Great account
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2018
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This book presents a superb account of the Nazi mentality that helps us understand how the Nazis thought. This is an excellent narrative with an impressive understanding and treatment of primary sources.
6 people found this helpful
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A. Gutierrez
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2018
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Excellent book and a great seller.
One person found this helpful
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anthony
4.0 out of 5 stars ok book
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018
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book was for a friend
One person found this helpful
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Vagabond of Letters
1.0 out of 5 stars Obfuscatory propaganda with no objectivity and a deep hostility for its subject
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2018
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This work is disjointed and never sets up a sustained argument for the NS view or lets old Reich authors do it, but puts up a block quote just long enough to deconstruct by way of snark and sarcasm (/everything/ is put in scare quotes, down to 'German Academy of Sciences'). For now, I mark this book (which, judged on the cover, had so much promise) as a 'pass' unless you want to learn an exaggeration of how much those damn Nazis hated Christianity! mainly by portraying Rosenberg as having influence and authority that the inner circle of the Party fought stridently and successfully to keep him from ever obtaining. In fact, most of the first 160 pages has been the same material covered in 'The Holy Reich', but covered here much more propagandistically and with a heavy hand.

The later pages never develop the promise of the cover or flap: we never get an exposition of Nazi ethics or philosophy that can't be summed up in 'they were tribalistic and particularistic, treating the ingroup well and being amoral towards outgroups, like Talmudic Judaism for gentiles [indeed, fighting back against what those Talmudic ethics had done to Germany by fighting fire with fire--Ed.] or every other collectivistic group ever.'

Recommend instead the 100-page preface to the paperback reprint of 'A People that Shall Dwell Alone' by MacDonald and 'Individualism and Collectivism' by Triandis. Remember that NS Germany was an extremely 'vertical collectivist' society and you'll learn more of their ethics and Weltanschauung from Triandis' universalistic overview than from Chapoutot's supposedly deep and particular dive. Coupled with the primary sources in Tedor's 'Hitler's Revolution' Chapoutot looks like a rank amateur (or poor spin-doktor) in comparison.

The deep sarcasm and hostility that bends Chapoutot's work in to an unhistory seems to be the same that afflicts biographers of Hitler (but not Stalin or Mao) - an inability to look at his subject even half objectively or with a bit of detachment, instead of looking to write a demonology, promising to the reader (insight in to the Nazi ethical mind) that which he can not even get himself.
45 people found this helpful
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John F. McKeown
3.0 out of 5 stars OK, but flawed.
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2019
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Is Trump literally Hitler, are Republican and American conservatives Nazis? Who actually were the Nazis and what did they believe in? This is a well-written translation from a French scholar on the most controversial topic of our time. Keep in mind that there is no First Amendment in France and political incorrect writing can end an historians career. Just ask David Irving. Next, the author claims that Hitler said that "One can either be a Christian or a German, but not both". This was a WWII propaganda meme that is not considered authentic. It's presence in the book, taken with the above, should lead any reader to proceed with caution. The conclusion, that National Socialism promoted an explicitly non-Christian, non-democratic and extreme ethno-nationalist worldview is not surprising to this reader, but it may be to others. This provoked the terrible mistreatment of the Slavic peoples whose countries they invaded, which in turn led to the fierce resistance which ultimately led to the destruction of the Nazi state. This conclusion is no surprise either. Nevertheless it belongs in the library of every serious historian of WWII and NS Germany.
13 people found this helpful
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Jobi Wan Kenobi
1.0 out of 5 stars Beware of this book
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2020
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I hated this book.
2 people found this helpful
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Harrison neel
1.0 out of 5 stars Haven't germans suffered enough each year we see another smear campaign of academia
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2019
They never wanted war against the British Empire even though they took their colonies in africa and definitely didn't want a war with the United states their beef was against the Soviet union a total threat to all of europe read the myth of German villainy if you can find it the pc culture is ruining everything cant question anything anymore didn't Socrates die for free thought to promote a say in things and if you can find Germany's war another book to read and make your own asumptions take the red pill and look down the rabbit hole or be blue pilled your whole life question everything look for the truth
16 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Antonio Silvestre
5.0 out of 5 stars Serviço excelente
Reviewed in Spain on October 3, 2021
Verified Purchase
Conforme as expetativas. Entrega rápida.
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Apemantus
5.0 out of 5 stars useful access to hard-to-find primary source material
Reviewed in Italy on July 12, 2021
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The reviews from other countries (I am writing this simply as there are no other reviews currently from Italy) seem to be divided into those from the right who are in tune with the general Weltanschauung referred to, and those of the other extreme who are out of principle against the book. Having no axe to grind myself I would simply like to give a very brief overview of the book so others may decide whether or not it is what they are after.
The most positive aspect for me is the plethora of quotations from direct sources otherwise nigh on impossible to find - the bibliography lists 21 pages of PRIMARY source material i. e documents contemporary to the period under discussion – and where else could you handily have access to extracts from such snappy tomes as Friedrich Seemann’s doctoral thesis, “Die clausula rebus sic stantibus als voelkerrechtliche Revisionsnorm” of 1939? Having said that, and quite obviously from this example, as indeed from the title of the book itself, the focus is heavily on the legal aspect of the Third Reich – its policies and the way they were introduced into and enforced upon everyday life. It is definitely NOT a ‘guide to becoming a nazi’ (and I think the subtitle will mislead a good few) but will appeal to those like myself interested in all aspects of daily life in Germany from the 20s til 1945. I found the early sections on animal protection, the cult of nudism, and the attitude to ‘nature’ in general most interesting. The translation is fluid and the book in general is very readable.
2 people found this helpful
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jan engel
4.0 out of 5 stars solid historical
Reviewed in Germany on July 22, 2019
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Not yet finished it but so far enlightening
One person found this helpful
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