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Alexander CaraccioloWorld Civilizations II (A)Spring 2014ARTICLEHitler and the Uniqueness of national socialismIan Kershaw, Journal of coeval History, Vol. 39, No. 2, Understanding Nazi Germany (Apr., 2004), pp. 239-254 I INTRODUCTIONThough Nazism can be sited as a form of fascism or type of totalitarianism, these universal concepts inadequately account for what was unique about the regime that unleashed such devastating inhumanity a terrible war of annihilation and the worst genocide the humanity has yet experienced. This article suggests the answer is located in a unique mixture of potent forces emulsified in a vicious cocktail, Hitlers dictatorship. The extraordinary power of his charismatic authority, the classifiable climate of German political culture, and the bureaucratic capacity of a highly unexampled state system ultimately lead to uprising and the uniqueness of Nazism.II. heavyset1.IntroductionIn the introduction, Ian Kershaw discusses what he considers common knowled ge about the Nazi regime. Through a series of counterexamples, he disproves these theories as the singular causes of Nazism uniqueness. The thought process that Hitler alone was unique is disproved, the idea that First World War was instrumental in Nazisms uniqueness was disproved and countless others.2. Hitlers IndispensabilityWhen describing Nazism it seems only natural to begin with Hitler. Although he himself cannot account for Nazisms uniqueness, his role as a dictator is indispensable in making this claim. Kershaw explains, no Hitler no SS-police state, no general European war by the late 1930s, no attack on the Soviet Union, no Holocaust, no state form _or_ system of government aimed at wiping out the Jews of Europe (245). Yet the forces that led to the undermining of law, to... ...mbodied and its corrupting effect on the instruments and mechanisms of the most advanced state in Europe. Both the broad adoption of the project of national salvation, seen as personified in Hi tler, and the internalization of the ideological goals by a new, modern power-elite, operating along-side weakened old elites through the bureaucratic sophistication of a modern state, were necessary prerequisites for the world-historical catastrophe of the Third Reich.III. SOURCESThis article is not based on any one primary source, but is instead smattered with the ideas from several historians. IV. SIGNIFICANCE/ diachronic CONTEXTIn addressing previous historical scholarship, Kershaw sheds new light on what is commonly thought of as Nazism. He recognizes other theories a being give way Nazism but uses several sources to explain how they were not what was unquie to it.