(a six-lecture series ~ see titles below)

SATURDAYS at 7:00PM
JUL 13 – AUG 17

This six-lecture series surveys the life of Adolph Hitler and the history of the German nation as it fell under his sway. It considers how Hitler and his movement achieved such an extraordinary hold over German life, the character of the domestic regime they established, and the course and consequences of the world war that was required to bring them down.

Presented by

Daniel J. Moran, Ph.D.

JULY 13:  Part 1 ~ The Drummer (1889–1924)

Hitler’s early life reveals the development of his character and ideas. It also provides a useful lens with which to view the condition of Germany during and after the First World War, a conflict whose consequences made Hitler’s rise to power possible. TICKETS

JULY 20:  Part 2 ~ The Nazi Seizure of Power (1924–1935)

In 1924 Hitler was the embittered and imprisoned leader of a small fascist party on the margin of German politics. Ten years later the German army would swear personal allegiance to him as chancellor and Führer. This lecture will explain how this happened. TICKETS

JULY 27:  Part 3 ~ Hitler’s Germany (1933–1945)

Germany society under Nazis rule was shaped by the dystopian racism at the core of Hitler’s world view, and by recurring struggles for power within the Nazi elite. The chaos of the Hitler state stood in sharp contrast to the adamantine image of order and efficiency that the Nazis always sought to project. TICKETS

AUGUST 3:  Part 4 ~ Hitler’s War (1938–1942)

Hitler came to power determined to reverse Germany’s defeat in 1918. By 1938 he had settled on a policy calculated to provoke renewed war on terms that would insure Germany’s triumph. He failed, but even so, it was only in 1942 that the strategic initiative fell from his hands, as the forces arrayed against him became unmasterable. TICKETS

AUGUST 10:  Part 5 ~ At Bay (1942–1943)

The middle years of the war were defined by the efforts of both sides to assemble the moral and material strength required to wage “total” war. By the end of 1943 there could be little doubt how it would all end. Yet war continued unabated, even as it expanded to encompass mass murder on a previously unimaginable scale. TICKETS

AUGUST 17:  Part 6 ~ Downfall (1944–1945)

The final years of the Second World War present a spectacle of unparalleled violence and destruction that continues to cast its shadow in our own time. They also created the conditions out of which the basic features of the contemporary world order would emerge. TICKETS

LECTURES at 7:00PM

(Doors open at 6:15PM for wine, goodies, and dessert.)

TICKETS: $35 per lecture

Purchase tickets online using the TICKETS links above

or call (408) 864-4060 (M – F, 10AM – 6PM)

 

Daniel J. Moran, Ph.D., is Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Ca. He was educated at Yale and Stanford Universities, and has also been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and Professor of Strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Dr. Moran teaches courses and supervises doctoral research in strategic theory, American foreign relations, and the history of war and international relations since the end of the 19th century.  

Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

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The Institute’s summer 2018 programs are supported by a generous grant from The Valley Foundation.