Robert Weiner, Jones Professor of History, lectures on "The Origins of World War II" as part of Lafayette College's Alumni Summer College. See alumnicollege.lafayette.edu for details.
23:35 Hungary did not want any piece of Poland in 1939. Actually, when Adolf Hitler asked Miklós Horthy if Germany could use the Hungarian railway system to invade Poland, Horthy said that they will sooner blow up their railway tunnel rather than get involved in attacking Poland.
The implementation of the Idea and the "roots" to build up an army for "Bewegungskrieg" and therefore inventing the Panzerdivisions goes back to the 1920 with Hans von Seeckt in command. It didn´t start in 35 under AH. There is sometimes a bit much lack of precision in his lesson, but it is entertaining.
Reminds me of the best teacher I ever had . . .also in history. Engaging, demonstrative, a wonderful story teller bringing the dynamics of personality to explain history. I can't stop watching him. Simply spell binding. Just makes me remember why I was so very fascinated by history.
Sadly, the fact that 'history' is ignored and neglected in my country's education curriculum! Peoples elected ignorance of how the Second World War formulated staggers me, especially when so many events of today seem to be leading us to such nationalism, populism of oligarchs, regimes, supported by so-called democracies.....the deliberate diluting of democratic processes by so-called liberal governments/Prime Ministers and Presidents.......😔
This is one of those moments of 'epiphany' that makes this one of the most outstanding lectures I have ever heard. To understand any of the sciences you need the thread of 'nuclear physics'. In my future this will be my thread for the understanding of the humanities, and well beyond the narrow confines of 'modern' history. Thank you Professor Weiner.
Despite the pressure of Berlin the Kingdom of Hungary did not contribute to the German aggression on Poland in September 1939, but rather later secretly supported the evacuation of Polish soldiers to France.
Skip to 6:50 minutes. An interesting story of the governments and people of Europe leading up to WW2, told with the ease and depth of someone who knows his subject . Minor video and audio issues :-)
When I write the history of the WAR OF THE 20TH CENTURY, no more first or second world wars, it was all one big mélange of Imperialist power centers. I will refer to the Long War as the War of the Eight Empires. The motive forces of this long war were the eternal striving of regional hegemonies for more and more power and wealth. One set of empires lost the struggle and others mainly the USA and Soviets, which became the overweening empires of the second half of the 20th century, won enhanced power. The USA became power drunk, fortunately another great empire is rising and is changing the imperial power equation. Hopefully the imperial forces will not fight in a time of nuclear capabilities, but i would not bet on it.
I would have liked him to spend some more time on the people who DID see Hitler for who he was, specifically Churchill from the mid-1930s, and Roosevelt right from the beginning. I would have liked him to have discussed Roosevelt more overall, in fact, ans the dichotomy between him and Hitler. He was Hitler's most dangerous enemy right from the beginning - one that could not be invaded or defeated, and the one with the most resources.
@@ziblot1235 That was too harsh. Many commentators are amateurs at best. Why lash out at people. Certainly it can’t be a positive experience for you. Be kind to others and yourself. Life is good.
@@larryg5698 Not well said at all, Larry. Eksteins' "Rites of Spring" is about the consciousness of the entire 20th Century, or "the long 19th Century" in Eksteins' words. If it's about any particular war, that would be WWI, seen as a coda to a comparatively peaceful century since the Napoleonic Wars. The excellent book "Rites of Spring" takes its title from Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring."
I simply wanted to make a distinction between the "antisemitism" of pre-Nazi Germany and the "antisemitism" of Nazi Germany. While they did tap into older more conventional grievances involving the Jews, the Nazis were mainly concerned with what they saw as racial pollution of the German[ic] race. These were essentially two different rationales for opposing Jewish presence in German society, although there was a lot of overlap...
Communism and economics were the main motivating factors. "Racial purification" was the least of it. There were still Jews that were serving prominent roles in the Nazi power structure, and within the military
Whoever thinks the Jews killed God is mistaken, in my opinion. Some people who professed to be Jewish killed the Jewish Messiah, but they didn't kill God. One cannot kill God. Jesus was given authority to take back His life and was alive again in three days.
@@stevenrowlandson4258 True ! As Hitler was FINANCED by the USA and the Rothchild Banking Empire of Europe ! Read Prof. ANTONY SUTTON's , " WALL ST. and the RISE of HITLER ! 1 of 3 books dealing with the powers of world finance and industrial monopoly !
It's not even remotely a complete answer. The ideas of fascism were certainly much more popular after WW1 than they would have been hadn't WW1 been the bloody mess that it was. Nevertheless, fascists would have eventually gained power in major states anyway.
Appreciate the class he is teaching but much of this lecture is a very very simplified view of Europe and the causes of WW2. Noticeable that there is no reference to Professor Ian Kershaw’s two volumes on Hitler.
You don't need Kershaw to understand. What really gives new points of view is the book of Ernst Hanfstaengl "White House and Brown House" Hitlers rise to power was possible only, because he had help from all over the world.
Dr Weiner seems like the kind of professor I would love to have lunch with and discuss various history issues. We would not agree on everything which would only make our discussion more interesting. I pray he has a long and happy retirement.
world history is as important as U.S. history. so that Americans will know more about the world...and not just America alone. a good chance to study about Europe..
Not to sound like I'm defending this man's perspective, but I was wondering if anyone could source anything that contradicts what Professor Weiner says? I only ask because I'm and amateur historian focusing on WW2. That being said Weiner's interpretation follows the way my understanding of the causes of WW2, however if there are sources that contradict this I would like see this myself and decide if these contradictions have merit.
@@Stahlgewitter David Irving is a Holocaust denier bro. "There is a whole chain of evidence from 1938 right through to October 1943, possibly even later, indicating that Hitler was completely in the dark about anything that may have been going on." This is the David Irving that you're so much shilling for.
@@Stahlgewitter Don’t read David Irving as he has been flat out rejected by other historians and found guilty in court for publishing false information.
how was everyone doing so well economically going into ww2 sorry i think im missing something here i have to go back and review this again this was said at the 11 12 minute mark ill come back again tomorrow im not understanding that
The British say to the French do nothing we can appease Germany? We hear that rot again and again. Appeasement does not involve the question of a possibly dangerous neighbour, of rearmament, of public opinion, so where does the term and theory apply here? Simply because the term was applied 1936-39! No appeasement, just the term, so indeed the British said no such thing to France, they said Play the game.
I take issue with the statement that western Europe was materially better off and living at its highest ever standards. There was a world depression going on and SO many people lived in abject poverty that was virtually indistinguishable from (in Britain) the Victorian era.
23:36 wrong from the basis -> if Hungary wanted part of any other state, it would be mainly Romania, not Poland. Both countries (Poland and Hungary) had utmost perfect relations.
Are a lot of college lectures like this? I doubt that a lot professors have such an outgoing attitude like this one. I'm a soon to be senior in high school please forgive me for my ignorance!
Michael, I was fortunate to have great professors and instructors. They were all passionate about teaching. The lectures were this style. Some would display photos on the SMART Board while some would simply lecture. But they had one thing in common: they kept my attention. I only had one professor that I could not stand. The dude was about 78, gave power points out and read straight from the slides for 3 straight hours.
Seeing as this post is 6 years old I'm assuming you're out of college now; hope you found the good profs, but I assume you know now that like any profession there are the good, the mediocre, the bad and the disinterested. Also, your college experience is obviously dependent on what type of Uni you went to. I went Michigan State stating fall 2002 and graduating in fall semester 2007. And as a large research institution the profs there researched first, taught second. Many of my best instructors were not even profs but grad students. I also spent a semester at Kalamazoo College which is very very different. Compared to MSU it is tiny and the profs there teach first and foremost. So you get what you'd typically expect; smaller classes, more office hours etc. So if I could write to you 6 years ago I'd say what professor you get is most dependent on the type of school you go to. Small liberal arts schools with 1,000 undergrads and major research universities with 50,000 undergrads are just so different their bachelor's degrees should almost be called something different from one another
@William Jones What type of school did you go to? I'm curious because I went to Michigan State from fall of 2002 until graduating in fall 2007 but also spent a summer term at Kalamazoo College. MSU had 50,000+ undergrads, and K-College I believe had something like 1,000-1,500 and the average undergrad course could not be more different. At MSU you'd have classes with 200 kids and at K I had classes with fewer than 10. (Although summer course are almost always smaller)
I had 3 Nobel Laureates teaching freshman chemistry when I was an undergrad. Yes, some professors are QUITE passionate about their subjects! Not all...
@@thomasjamison2050 more like typing on cellphone. But to make a log story short. In our entire (1k years) history we never had a conflict with Hungary, ever. However , during the famous three partitions of Poland at the end of xviii century, one of the countries that invaded Poland was Austria, which became Austria-Hungary in mid XIX century. So maybe this guy here is refering to this topic, and mixing with II world war, or simply thinking about Czechoslovakia or Latvia, which is closer to truth, however still it is bid poor service if such information is provided via univeristy lectures. cheers.
He may have accidentally mixed it up with Slovakia. If memory serves, when Czechoslovakia was partioned, Hungary was given a slice of eastern Slovakia.
Good lecture. A few minor points. 1. It's true that Congress was still investigating World Wat I war profiteering and the so-called 'merchants of death', It is important to point out that never found any connection between the wars and the industrialists. And that it was industrialists who played a key role in saving Western Civilization during World War II. Contrary to what the Marxist professors are telling our kids, capitalists do no seek war for the simple reason that it is bad for business. 2. It is also important to point out that President Roosevelt from the beginning criticized Hitler and the NAZIs.
The professor knows very little of Europe and even its geography. His claim that Hungary wanted a part of Poland is absurd. He also uses quotes completly out of context.
@@mareklakomski2256 Thanks. Yeah. I heard it myself after i posted my question. I understand Hungary and Poland get along better than maybe any two countries on Earth. So I imagine he got Poland and Chekoslovokia mixed up. I think every country bordering Chekaslavakia waa guilty of taking a piece of it once Germany commited to taking over t rest of it beyond just the Sudatenland.
Talk about the Havaara and the transfer agreement and all this propaganda goes out the window. Standard reinforcement of the standard narative. Nothing new here just a whole lot of baloney
Notice how he shot down the Hitler had no Jewish roots. Maybe the real issue was Hitler’s Jewish cousins didn’t treat him right, and he didn’t like the religious and talented ones too much.
@@Baczkowa78 What he didn't like was how they turned Germans into second-class citizens in their own country and transformed it into an economic and moral sewer.
The financing gloss over is ridiculous, he had to fire his economic adviser because he refused to spend more on the military, he had to stop building the Autobahn, just to build the Siegfried Line. Then he had to take over Czechoslovakia to seize the gold reserves and the modern arms factories, inflation was starting to climb again. jeez! He had boxed himself into a corner he knew his takeover of Central Europe was pure plunder. It worked until his Russia blunder. No mention of the German wiretaps of the other embassies or the telephone lines where Hitler knew what the leaders were saying to each other.
There was no Russian blunder. Nazi's had just spread them self too thin Western Europe, North Africa and to the east. The Luftwaffe could not engage on that many fronts. Even if they did not enter Russia they still would have lost due to the fact they could not compete in North Africa and western Europe and the mediterranean. And they ran out of fuel as they had no oil reserves.
How is that a war with Germany and USSR against Poland if the soviets brought their forces into Poland only AFTER the polish government fled the country. Why the soviets stopped at the Curzon Line, recovering only their territories lost in soviet-polish war in 1920's and not invading national parts of Poland at all? If there was secret protocol dividing Poland - how come German generals wrote in their diaries they didn't know anything about it and soviet advance took them by surprise?
The brutality of the Germans was second to none during the war. Their crimes against the Soviet peasants, Jews, Polish and Czech were unmatched in human history. To say that it was the work of just a few SS men is disingenuous. They perpetrated 5 wars since 1850 and their "racist" leanings was merely catalyzed by Hitler. One theory on why the Germans with their warring mindset suddenly went quiet after WWII postulates that nearly all of the men with a violent genome were obliterated during the war. Overall, Germany paid a much lesser price for the Armageddon they created. It is unthinkable to imagine what the plight of the occupied peoples might have been had Hitler won the war. Several thousand German POW's did starve after surrender. There were no buildings left to house them, they had been destroyed during the war. The USA was sending food to England, Russia, France, Belgium, Holland, China and other far east countries. Americans at home were rationed on food items. America simply did not have the food to feed them, our own military came first. A sad fact but they brought it on themselves. There was not any food aid sent from European countries? that is an outright lie. They didn't have it to send. Germany had already stripped their countries of everything including food and sent it back to Germany. France and Belgium wouldn't have pissed in any Germans ear if their brains were on fire. Both countries had bee occupied and brutalized by Nazi Germany and had serious food shortages for at least 2 years after the wars end. The Russians did starve German troops that surrendered to them. They treated the Germans exactly the same way they treated Russian POW's Germany starved 2 1/2 million Russian POW's to death out of the 3 million they captured. The Nazis deserved no sympathy. They tortured and murdered 30 million civilians in the countries they occupied in Europe. They voted Hitler and his gang into power and he led them to the very worst ass kicking a country could get and Germany deserved it.
bullshit. Stop watching Khazar Jewish Hollywood films. Read the book HELLSTORM THE DEATH OF NAZI GERMANY 1944-1947 written by the American historian Thomas Goodrich and you will know who did what.
FrancisJoa It is fun to watch the nazi's self destruction...it is even more fun to watch the neo-nazi muslims slaughtering each others on a monstrous scale...CARRY ON, ASSHOLES, KEEP ENTERTAINING US!!!
An amusing professor. Occasionally his contemporary liberal views come to bias his argument ( i.e., a traditional view on balancing budgets) during the great Depresion)
