Amidst a backdrop of protests, the pandemic, and presidential politics, historian Anne Berg shares her thoughts on whether American democracy is at risk, historical parallels to the current situation, and what ordinary people can do.
Anne Berg, assistant professor of history, takes the long view on such topics. This fall, she is teaching a course called Origins of Nazism: From Democracy to Race War and Genocide. Her knowledge of the topic is both professional and personal. Trained in German and European history in the United States, Berg was born in Germany and raised in a small village near Frankfurt. Her grandparents were Nazis, sort of; her parents are perhaps best described as left-leaning ’68ers. Her interest in perpetrator history is at least in part informed by her desire to understand how people she experienced as loving and caring—her grandparents—nonetheless found entrance into a genocidal regime.
Read the entire interview at https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/american-democracy-breaking-point