SOCY 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Total War, Lebensraum, Anti-Americanism
15 Jun 2018
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WEEK 11
March 27, 2017
Hitler signs a peace treaty with Stalin then decides to break the treaty.
- He ramps up the ideologies of the evils of the soviet union
Action and Discipline
- Blitzkrieg to war of attrition
o Conquers Poland and then wants to conquer France
▪ But France had a border set up between southern France and northern
Germany
• He went through the Netherlands and then down through the north
of France
o War of attrition:
▪ Soldiers experienced increasingly degrading conditions
- Discipline alone rarely explains conformity
- Wide scale official actions of brutality – criminal actions accepted
- Combat brutalized troops
- Dehumanized troops engaged in “wild actions”
- Regarded by plunder, settling scores, ideological conformity
o Settling scores—not killing the soviets but torturing them—this made up for the
lives of the Germans that were lost
o Ideological conformity – getting rid of a lesser group
- Outlet for troops won misery and suffering
- Officers and troops complicit in genocidal actions and “wild actions”
- Concern over insubordination, cowardice, desertion still remained
o German soldiers tried to escape the eastern front by getting injured and then
trying to get sent home. People who did this were executed
- Harsh punishment – massive executions
- Hardened troops’ resolve to endure and survive
- 16-19 year old boys were conscripted
Total war:
- Fear from WWI over domestic unrest
- January 31st 1943 surrender turned tide of WWII
- Total war only option – significant consequences for both sides
- Hitler knows he can’t win the war but still has the plan to get rid of the soviets and jews
- Throughout the war, hitler protected the homeland from hardships—there were virtually
no rations. Life in Germany up till 1943 was pretty good. The plunder they got from
conquering other nations was distributed to Germans.
- January 1942 – Wannsee conference establishes vernichtunglager (Death Camps)
o 6 death camps were established after the conference
▪ Puts into motion the Holocaust
The eastern front and the holocaust
- Specific ideology; process of internalization; actions; discipline; lived-experiences of the
front; consequences of not fighting on
- Historikerstreit – comparability of Nazi/Soviet camps; “normalization” of German
history; victims of war
- Comparing is not equating; examining socio-cultural factors crucial
Neo-classical economics:
- Labour theory of value and price replaced by marginal utility theory
- Focus shifts to consumer as arbiter of value and price
- Consumer demand a new focal point of economic theory
- Social economics – intersection of economics and sociology critical to understanding
dynamics of social life
Post-industrial society:
- Industrial society replaced class-based society
- Class conflict now institutionalized
- Societies more open, meritocratic, consumer oriented, diverse economies and labour
markets
- Post-industrial society centered on information, computer technology, knowledge
workers
- The whole idea of what the economy will look like in 30 years shifts dramatically
Keynesian Economics:
- The economic consequences of peace
- The general theory of money and employment
- Keyes believed that the German economy would decrease – he was at the treaty of
Versailles
- Keynes worried about the business cycle
- Taxation – strategic investment
o Governments should use taxation strategically
o As the economy is doing well – tax more
o When the economy starts to decline, take the tax revenue and invest in
infrastructure – this creates jobs and they get more money and can buy consumer
goods and this will pick up the economy
- Ignored political forces
o The government started to spend the money
- Taxes spent as collected
o The government had to loan money from banks
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SOCY 122 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Hitler signs a peace treaty with stalin then decides to break the treaty. He ramps up the ideologies of the evils of the soviet union. Blitzkrieg to war of attrition: conquers poland and then wants to conquer france, but france had a border set up between southern france and northern. Germany: he went through the netherlands and then down through the north, war of attrition: of france, soldiers experienced increasingly degrading conditions. Wide scale official actions of brutality criminal actions accepted. Regarded by plunder, settling scores, ideological conformity: settling scores not killing the soviets but torturing them this made up for the lives of the germans that were lost, ideological conformity getting rid of a lesser group. Outlet for troops won misery and suffering. Officers and troops complicit in genocidal actions and wild actions . Concern over insubordination, cowardice, desertion still remained: german soldiers tried to escape the eastern front by getting injured and then trying to get sent home.
