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> > I tend to agree with artesian's take on this. The unification of Germany > by Prussian arms was probably a step forward for Germany, the narrative of > which that we were presented by Nestor being the standard one held > throughout most of German society, true but unremarkable, with the Nazis > later put their own demonic-even from the standpoint of Greater German > chauvinism-anti-semitic spin on this later. I'm reading a book about Louis > Brandeis whose father was an ethnic German Jew from Bohemia or what is now > the Czech Republic and whose first ethnic identity was always German. It > was only in the wake of the Great War that his son began seriously embracing > Zionism. Ironically, many of the German Americans who volunteered for > Germany in WW1 during the US' period of neutrality were actually Jewish. > Whether Germany's unification necessarily entailed an invasion of France or > the subjugation of the Parisian people is another question entirely as that > task would have been carried out one way or another before too long as it > was in Italy in that period given the overwhelming consensus in support of > it at all levels of society. 1870-71 was not 1848 and the Prussian army was > not a revolutionary one, not even by the watered down standards of Napoleon > I. It's ironic that Marx, conditioned by his German nationality comments > positively on the defeat of the first Napoleon in 1815, as that was > definitely a setback for the German people and progress generally, > representing the triumph of Reaction in Europe (in fact I think that term > originates from this period as do the political expressions "left" and > "right"). For example, the reason Marx's father, a lawyer, converted to > Christianity was because in the wake of the triumph of the Holy Alliance, > laws inspired by the French Revolution and Bonaparte lifting restrictions > against Jews in society were repealed and the Jews ordered back into their > ghettos. It was actually in this context that the Monroe Doctrine was > elucidated in 1821, a message, albeit a grandstanding one from a small > power, to the Concert of Europe, to not carry out a reconquest of Spain's > colonies in the Americas, as they had threatened to do as part of their > crusade to restore monarchical and imperial "legitimacy" per the precepts of > the Congress of Vienna. It's telling the Kissinger's intellectual outlook > is rooted in a study of the this period with Metternich as his model. > "It's clear that the support for Germany was not an endorsement, was quite > limited... and clearly was a mistake, as there is for capitalism, for the > establishment of capitalism or capitalist unity, no such thing as a > "defensive" war; that subjugation of the working class on either side of > the > conflict is the clear priority of the capitalism on any side of the > conflict, and that, in fact unified German capitalism was no more > progressive than the "decadent," "imperial," capitalism of Louis > Bonaparte's > France, and that the German working class has/had every need to establish > its unity, its unification of Germany but had no need whatsoever for the > establishment of a unified German capitalism." > > > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/tomcod3%40gmail.com > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
