The Goldhagen controversy actually debated German national self-concept

Evidence

Although in his book Goldhagen explicitly refuses to understand the “German national project” of murdering the European Jews in terms of collective guilt on the part of all Germans, he claims that “anti-semitism greatly dissipated” after 1945 (Goldhagen, 1996). Many commentators attacked Goldhagen for “returning to the collective guilt reproach” as well as for being “racist” against all Germans (Shandley, 1998). The lack of factual grounds for such accusations suggests that the public controversy had little to do with the book’s contents and implies that something else was being debated: namely the German national self-concept and the role of guilt in it. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1216

Categorization

• QUESTION: A striking case study in how public ‘scholarly’ controversies can be proxy arenas for unresolved identity conflicts — applicable to many contemporary media storms.
• XREF: connects to: German rightists, not leftists, first promoted the idea of collective guilt — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1202; Goldhagen claimed anti-Semitism alone but sufficiently explains the Holocaust at every level — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 314

Broader Connections

• Goldhagen claimed anti-Semitism alone but sufficiently explains the Holocaust at every level #corroborates (0.95) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 314