Arno Joseph Mayer (June 19, 1926 -) is Luxembourg-born American historian of modern Europe, diplomatic history, and the Holocaust. A self-proclaimed "left dissident Marxist", Mayer's major interests are in modernization theory and what he calls "The Thirty Years' Crisis" between 1914 and 1945. June 19 is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 195 days remaining. ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Sometimes referred to as Rankian History, diplomatic history focuses on politics, politicians and other high rulers and views them as being the driving force of continuity and change in history. ... Selection at the Auschwitz ramp in 1944, where the Nazis chose whom to kill immediately and whom to use as slave labor or for medical experimentation, such as those of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...

Mayer received his education at the City College of New York and Yale University. He has been professor at Wesleyan University (1952-1953), Brandeis University (1954-1958), Harvard University (1958-1961) and Princeton University (1961-). The City College of The City University of New York (known more commonly as City College of New York or simply City College, CCNY, or colloquially as City) is a senior college of the City University of New York, in New York City. ... Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. ... Wesleyan University founded in 1831, is a private, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... It has been suggested that VoiceMale be merged into this article or section. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Princeton University, incorporated as The Trustees of Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is the fourth-oldest institution to conduct higher education in the United States. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In Mayer's view, Europe was characterized in the 19th century by rapid modernization in the economic field by industrialization and retardation in the political field. In particular, Mayer feels that the aristocracy in all of the European countries held far too much power, and it was their efforts to keep power that led to start the World War One, the rise of fascism, World War Two, and the Holocaust. ["From 1942 to 1945, certainly at Auschwitz, but probably overall, more Jews were killed by so-called 'natural' causes than by 'unnatural' ones" , cited from "Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?"].Mayer sees the Holocaust as primarily an expression of anti-communism and argues that Adolf Hitler only ordered the Holocaust ["To date there is no certainty about who gave the order, and when, to install the gas chambers used for the murder of Jews at Auschwitz. As no written command has been located, there is a strong presumption that the order was issued and received orally", cited from "Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? "] in December 1941 as gesture of despair when it became clear that the Wehrmacht could not take Moscow, hence ensuring Nazi Germany's defeat at the hands of the Soviet Union. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... Anti-communism is the opposition to communist ideology, organization, or government, on either an ideological or pragmatic basis. ... (help· info) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ... Look up December in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ... German cavalry and motorized units entering Poland from East Prussia during the Polish Defensive War of 1939 Wehrmacht (help· info) (Defence force) was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ... Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: (help· info)) is the capital of Russia and the countrys principal political, economic, financial, educational and transportation center, located on the river Moskva. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Many have criticized this account in that Mayer plays up anti-communism at the expense of Anti-Semitism as an explanation for the Holocaust. Others have argued that the historical evidence shows that Hitler was not convinced that the war was lost as early as December 1941, and that Mayer's theory is anachronistic. Along the same lines, the American historian Christopher Browning has contended that the decision to launch the Holocaust was probably taken sometime in September 1941. The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... Christopher R. Browning (born May 22, 1944) is an American historian of the Holocaust. ...

Mayer sees the Paris Peace Conference as a struggle between what he calls the "Old Diplomacy" of the alliances, secret treaties and brutal power politics and the "New Diplomacy" as represented by Vladmir Lenin's Peace Degrees and Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, which Mayer sees as promoting peaceful and rational diplomacy. In Mayer's view, the greatest failure of the Versailles Treaty was that it was a triumph for the "Old Diplomacy" with a thin "New Diplomacy" veneer. The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, negotiated the treaties ending World War I. The Paris Peace Conference, 1946, negotiated the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, with Germanys [[World War II allies and co-belligerents in Europe. ... Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) (April 22 (April 10 (O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the founder of the ideology of Leninism. ... Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States (1913–1921). ... United States President Woodrow Wilson delivered a speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, outlining Fourteen Points for reconstructing a new Europe following World War I. While many of the points were specific, others were more general, including freedom of the seas, abolishing secret treaties, disarmament, restored sovereignty of some... Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ...

Work

• Political Origins of the New Diplomacy, 1917-1918, 1959.
• "Post-War Nationalisms, 1918-19" pages 114-126 from Past and Present, Volume 34, 1966.
• Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking: Containment and Counter-Revolution at Versailles, 1918-19, 1967.
• Dynamics of Counter-Revolution in Europe, 1870-1956: An Analytical Framework, 1971.
• "Lower Middle Class as Historical Problem" pages 409-436 from Journal of Modern History, Volume 47, 1975.
• "Internal Crisis and War Since 1870" from Revolutionary Situations in Europe, 1917-22 edited by Charles L. Bertrand, 1977.
• The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War, 1981.
• Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? The "Final Solution" in History, 1988.
• "Memory and History: On the Poverty of Forgetting and Remembering about the Judocide" pages 5-20 from Radical History Review, Volume 56, 1993.

References

• Blackbourn, David & Eley, Geoff The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth Century German History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
• Fry, Michael and Gilbert, Arthur "A Historian and Linkage Politics: Arno J. Mayer" pages 425-444 from International Studies Quarterly, Volume 26, 1982.
• Lundgreen-Nielsen, Kay "The Mayer Thesis Reconsidered: The Poles and the Paris Peace Conference, 1919" pages 68-102 from International History Review, Volume 7, 1985.
• Righart, Hans "`Jumbo-History': perceptie, anachronisme en `hindsight' bij Arno J. Mayer en Barrington Moore" pages 285-295 from Theoretische Geschiedenis, Volume 17, 1990.
• Thompson, E. P. The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays, London: Merlin Press, 1978.