Becoming Hitler: Myths & Lessons of Demagogues Past & Present

Type: 
Lecture
Audience: 
Open to the Public
Building: 
Nador u. 9, Monument Building
Room: 
Gellner
Friday, May 25, 2018 - 2:00pm
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Date: 
Friday, May 25, 2018 - 2:00pm

In his talk, Thomas Weber asks how it was it possible that Adolf Hitler, returning from World War One as an awkward loner with no clear political ideas, turned into a star propagandist of the nascent Nazi Party in an extremely short period of time, and soon thereafter became not only the party’s leader but a cunning, skillful political operator and man of ideas. He also argues that Hitler’s metamorphosis into fascist leader is the story of how demagogues are made when liberal democracy and globalism are in great crisis and when that crisis is translated into a yearning for strongmen and novel kinds of leaders.