Dr. Richard Frankel

Professor Frankel specializes in the history of modern Germany, with particular interests in nationalism, antisemitism, and political culture. His first book, Bismarck’s Shadow: The Cult of Leadership and the Transformation of the German Right, 1898-1945 looked at the ways in which the image of Otto von Bismarck was manipulated and used by various political actors, primarily on the Right, to advance their own agendas. Ultimately, it shows how the Cult of Bismarck helped prepare the ground for the rise and eventual success of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Professor Frankel then turned to the study of antisemitism, comparing its development in Germany and the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. In numerous articles and papers, he’s pointed to remarkable similarities in the anti-Jewish environments of both countries. His current book project explores the relationship between antisemitism and globalization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with a focus on Germany and the United States.

Research Interests: Modern Germany, Nationalism, Antisemitism, Political Culture

Select Publications:

“One Crisis Behind? Rethinking Antisemitic Exceptionalism in the United States and Germany,” American Jewish History vol. 97, no. 3 (July 2013): 235-258.

“Klansmen in the Fatherland: A Transnational Episode in the History of Weimar Germany's Right-Wing Political Culture," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 7, no. 1 (2013): 61-78.

“The Paranoid Style in Antisemitic Journalism: Comparing Coverage of the ‘World Jewish Conspiracy’ in the Völkischer Beobachter and the Dearborn Independent, 1920-1923,” in Michael Nagel and Moshe Zimmermann, eds., Judenfeindschaft und Antisemitismus in der deutschen Presse über fünf Jahrhunderte/Five Hundred Years of Jew-Hatred and Anti-Semitism in the German Press, 2 vols. Bremen: Edition Lumière, 2013.

Bismarck’s Shadow: The Cult of Leadership and the Transformation of the German Right, 1898-1945. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2005.

Recently Taught Classes:

• World Civilizations, II
• The Holocaust
• Global Germany, 1900
• Twentieth-Century Germany
• Seminar: Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe
• Seminar: Holocaust Memory