Michael Burleigh: Nation

Michael Burleigh is American historian and writer. Explore interesting quotes on nation.
Michael Burleigh: 34 quotes0 likes

“Although Christianity was an integral aspect of many early socialist movements – and in Britain remains so to this day – in general the Churches arranged themselves on the side of conservatism, partly as a result of their traumatic experience at the hands of democratic mobs in revolutionary France and elsewhere. This alliance of throne and altar duly broke down as the temporal power of the Churches was challenged by the nation states which vied for ultimate human loyalties.”

Michael Burleigh

Source: Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, From the Great War to the War on Terror (2006), p. xii

“If faith and hope were integral to National Socialism, so too, surprisingly enough, was charity. This ceased to be an uncomplicated reflection of human altruism, still less something individuals do discreetly for the good of their souls, or to reap tax exemptions and titles. Instead, it became a favoured means of mobilising communal sentimentality, that most underrated, but quintessential, characteristic of Nazi Germany.”

Michael Burleigh

Source: The Third Reich: A New History (2000), p. 219

“The Nazis offered a combination of economic nationalism with unorthodox anti-cyclical measures to stimulate employment.”

Michael Burleigh

Source: The Third Reich: A New History (2000), p. 135

“The National Socialists not only joined the Communists in denouncing Social Democratic bosses, but also practiced egalitarianism, unlike bourgeois parties. One should not underestimate the extent to which working-class people bitterly resented being treated as infantile inferiors by the middle and upper classes.”

Michael Burleigh

Source: The Third Reich: A New History (2000), p. 134

“Nazi ideology offered redemption from a national ontological crisis, to which it was attracted like a predatory shark to blood.”

Michael Burleigh

Source: The Third Reich: A New History (2000), p. 12