The Oh, Hello and

I'm welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood.

The usual of two guests today, in moments we'll hear from James Whitman on the American

origins of Nazi race law.

And then Alex Gurevich will talk about the right to strike. of the While the influence of American practice on Nazis is not unknown, for example Hitler and his colleagues were inspired by our Indian reservations when they conceived of the concentration camps, Whitman's book is a study of what the Nazis learned from US racial classification

schemes and our legal culture in general. While this might not shock people on the

left, it will make liberals and other conventional type squirm. Whitman is also the author of a 2003 book

Harsh Justice, Criminal Punishment in the widening divide between America and

Europe, a study of just what it is in American culture that it makes our criminal

justice system so harsh and degrading.

We discuss that only in passing, but it's a worthy topic in itself.

Whitman was first a historian, and then he became a a lawyer so this dual experience is perfect

for the topic of the US influence in the Nazis. James Whitman.

Welcome, let's just start with a couple of general issues.

Nazis, despite their images as bloodthirsty barbarians,

were actually quite learned in their approach to law.

They're very much by the book types.

Can you talk a bit about that, the Nazi legal culture?

Well, some of them were, certainly by the book legal types.

I don't want to drop the term barbarian myself and talking about the Nazis,

or maybe even bloodthirsty.

But it is very much the case, as you say,

...