Quantifying Resistance

This book presents and uses a major, new database of the most serious forms of internal resistance to the Nazi state to study empirically the whole phenomenon of resistance to an authoritarian regime. By studying serious political resistance from a quantitative historical perspective, the book opens up a new avenue of research for economic history.

The database underpinning the book was painstakingly compiled from official state records of treason and/or high treason tried before the German People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) between 1933 and 1945. It brings together material on resistance groups stored in the archives of the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria with previously inaccessible files from the former German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union. Through searching these records, the authors have been able to reconstruct in hitherto unattainable detail the economic, social, political, ethnic and familial profiles, backgroun ds, and influences of all 4,378 civilians of the Third Reich active in Germany, Austria and the outside territories for whom there are complete records.

The findings of their research afford fresh, new interdisciplinary insights and perspectives, not only on the configuration, timing, impact and profile of resistance to the Nazi state, but also on a range of real-world behaviours common within authoritarian states, such as defection, reward and punishment, and commitment to group identities. The book's statistical analysis reveals precisely the who, how, where and when of serious resistance. In so doing, it advances significantly our understanding of the overall pattern and nature of serious resistance within Nazi Germany.

Applies quantitative economic and social science techniques to the analysis of resistance behavior in Nazi Germany Offers new insights on resistance to Nazi Germany and authoritarian states more generally Affords fresh interdisciplinary perspectives on a range of real-world behaviours common within authoritarian states

Autorentext

Gary B. Magee is a Professor of Economics at Monash University, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has published widely in the fields of economic history, history and historical political economics. Wayne Geerling is an Associate Professor at Monash University. His expertise lies in European economic history. He has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals in the fields of economics, economic history and history. He is the author (with Gary B. Magee) of Quantifying Resistance: Political Crime and the People's Court in Nazi Germany (2018).

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Sources.- 3. Times and Places.- 4. Faces and Contexts.- 5. Groups and Organisations.- 6. Crimes and Punishments.- 7. Impacts and Implications.