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4 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Purpose
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Originally aimed at explaining the origins of Hitler's evil. However, Rosenbaum believes explanations of Hitler tell more about the explainers than about Hitler. This perspective is informed by A. Schweitzer's The Quest for the Historical Jesus.
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Thesis
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Hitler explainers project meanings on to unknowable (and perhaps inconsequential) Hitler data in order to accomplish their own agendas in explaining or explaining away Hitler's evil (xxv, xxi).
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Problem of History
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Historical data are too inaccessible, too unverifiable, and too complex to justify a definitive conclusions about the past. Rosenbaum's work illustrates the reality that facts do not "read" themselves and are never read objectively by others. Personal agendas, biases, assumptions, experiences, education, and other factors ad infinitum influence which data are considered relevant in historical reconstruction and how to read those data.
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Rosenbaum's Position
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History is an endeavor measured by probability, not certainty. Myriad factors likely contributed to making Hitler the moster he was. However, no one theory is impervious to rejection.
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