Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

How American race law provided a blueprint for Nazi Germany Nazism triumphed in Germany during the high era of Jim Crow laws in the United States. Did the American regime of racial oppression in any way inspire the Nazis? The unsettling answer is yes. In Hitler's American Model, James Whitman presents a detailed investigation of the American impact on the notorious Nuremberg Laws, the centerpiece anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi regime. Contrary to those who have insisted that there was no meaningful connection between American and German racial repression, Whitman demonstrates that the Nazis took a real, sustained, significant, and revealing interest in American race policies. As Whitman shows, the Nuremberg Laws were crafted in an atmosphere of considerable attention to the precedents American race laws had to offer. 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 models. But while Jim Crow segregation was one aspect of American law that appealed to Nazi radicals, it was not the most consequential one.Rather, both American citizenship and antimiscegenation laws proved directly relevant to the two principal Nuremberg Laws--the Citizenship Law and the Blood Law. Whitman looks at the ultimate, ugly irony that when Nazis rejected American practices, it was sometimes not because they found them too enlightened, but too harsh. Indelibly linking American race laws to the shaping of Nazi policies in Germany, Hitler's American Model upends understandings of America's influence on racist practices in the wider world.

Table of Contents:
A Note on Translations ix Introduction 1 1 Making Nazi Flags and Nazi Citizens 17 The First Nuremberg Law: Of New York Jews and Nazi Flags 19 The Second Nuremberg Law: Making Nazi Citizens 29 America: The Global Leader in Racist Immigration Law 34 American Second-Class Citizenship 37 The Nazis Pick Up the Thread 43 Toward the Citizenship Law: Nazi Politics in the Early 1930s 48 The Nazis Look to American Second-Class Citizenship 59 Conclusion 69 2 Protecting Nazi Blood and Nazi Honor 73 Toward the Blood Law: Battles in the Streets and the Ministries 81 Battles in the Streets: The Call for "Unambiguous Laws" 81 Battles in the Ministries: The Prussian Memorandum and the American Example 83 Conservative Juristic Resistance: Gurtner and Losener 87 The Meeting of June 5, 1934 93 The Sources of Nazi Knowledge of American Law 113 Evaluating American Influence 124 Defining "Mongrels": The One-Drop Rule and the Limits of American Influence 127 Conclusion 132 America through Nazi Eyes 132 America's Place in the Global History of Racism 137 Nazism and American Legal Culture 146 Acknowledgments 163 Notes 165 Suggestions for Further Reading 197 Index 201

About the Author :
James Q. Whitman is the Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law at Yale Law School. His books include Harsh Justice, The Origins of Reasonable Doubt, and The Verdict of Battle. He lives in New York City.

Review :
"A small book, but powerful all out of proportion to its size in exposing a shameful history."--Kirkus "Interesting and eye opening... In spite of the Nazis' disdain, to put it mildly, for our stated and evident liberal and democratic principles, they eagerly looked to the United States as the prime example for their own goals of protecting the blood, restricting citizenship, and banning mixed marriages. Reading this book could make many Americans doubt the possibility of ever forming a more perfect union with such a legacy."--Thomas McClung, New York Journal of Books "The admiration for American immigration policy expressed in Mein Kampf was not a passing thought on the day's news ... Nor a one-off remark. Its place in the full context of Nazi theory and practice comes into view in Hitler's American Model... Many people will take the very title as an affront. But it's the historical reality the book discloses that proves much harder to digest. The author does not seem prone to sensationalism. The argument is made in two succinct, cogent and copiously documented chapters, prefaced and followed with remarks that remain within the cooler temperatures of expressed opinion."--Scott McLemee, InsideHigherEd.com "Stunningly well-timed."--Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph "[This] new history argues convincingly that institutionalized racism and common-law pragmatism in the United States inspired Hitler's policies... Historians have downplayed the connection between Nazi race law and America because America was mainly interested in denying full citizenship rights to blacks rather than Jews. But Whitman's adroit scholarly detective work has proved that in the mid-'30s Nazi jurists and politicians turned again and again to the way the United States had deprived African-Americans of the right to vote and to marry whites. They were fascinated by the way the United States had turned millions of people into second-class citizens."--David Mikics, Tablet Magazine "Whitman argues convincingly that American jurisprudence-federal and state alike-provided both inspiration and a model for the most radical Nazi lawyers."--Matthew Harwood, Reason "Hitler's American Model is overall, an erudite, well-researched, and thought-provoking study that raises important questions about America's laws - and leaders - in the not-so-distant past."--Rafael Medoff, Haaretz "In Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law, James Whitman ... makes a stunning and unsettling claim about the Nuremberg Laws."--Glen Altschuler, Jerusalem Post "Through intensive scrutiny of German language transcripts and other primary sources that he translated himself, Yale Law School professor James Whitman develops a story in Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law of unintended American inspiration for the infamous Nazi anti-Jewish laws. It's a story that will shock readers."--David Wecht, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Eerie... [Whitman] illustrates how German propagandists sought to normalize the Nazi agenda domestically by putting forth the United States as a model."--Brent Staples, New York Times "In his startling new history, Whitman traces the substantial influence of American race laws on the Third Reich. 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... Whitman's book contributes to a growing recognition of American influences on Nazi thought."--Jeff Guo, Washington Post