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Johann Chapoutot

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French historian born 1978
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Johann Chapoutot
Johann Chapoutot in 2024
Academic work
DisciplineHistorian

Johann Chapoutot (born 30 July 1978) is a French historian in contemporary history, Germany and nazism.

Biography

Early life

Johann Chapoutot was born in Martigues (France). In 1995, his eleventh graade history teacher enrolled him to the Concours Général in history category where the topic was "Was it one or several fascisms in interwar period Europe?". Chapoutot ranked first at the competition.

He got his PhD in History in 2006 thanks to his thesis "National-Socialism and Antiquity"

Career

He was successively docent at Pierre Mendès-France University (2008–2014), at Sorbonne Nouvelle University (2014–2016) and at Sorbonne University(2016–).

In 2015, he criticized the choice to republish Mein Kampf as it would foster a then "Hitlero-centric" interpretation of Nazism.

Analyses

Johann Chapoutot theorizes that Nazism comes from a coherent and deeply-thought worldview where humanistic and universalistic values are rejected. The nazi ideology sees the Germanic man as deeply corrupted by modern society and pulled away from its natural state. The German people must enact a "cultural revolution" in order to come back to their natural state, way of living and relationships with others. Nazism follows an organicistic interpration of society (Volksgemeinschaft): the individual only exists as a member of an ethnical group. That "cultural revolution" is rooted in a racialist interpration of History where "race wars" shape cultures and politics, as such there is a need for "racial preservation" for the Aryan people, threatened biologically, morally and intellectually by other races. The Germanic race, lest it should disappear, must therefore distance itself from Christianity, The Enlightenment, and materialism. That revolution has to take place on both a collective and an individual spectrum.

In 2014, Chapoutot published The Law of Blood: Thinking and Acting as a Nazi, which was translated into English by Miranda Richmond Mouillot in 2018. According to this book, Nazi Germany was deeply rooted in European culture and history. As such Nazism merely an historical accident and must therefore be taken seriously for what it is. He argues that the Nazi ideology directly follows romanticism, particularly its appeal to a return to "the origin" and its disgust for the French Revolution.

Notes

  1. The nazis used the term "revolution" with its pre-French Revolution meaning.

References

  1. Chapoutot, Johann (2018). Comprendre le nazisme [To understand nazism]. ISBN 979-10-210-3042-8.
  2. "Le palmarès du Concours général 1995". Le Monde (in French). 1995-06-14. Retrieved 2025-01-28.
  3. Chapoutot, Johann (2006). National-Socialism and Antiquity (in French).
  4. "Johann Chapoutot professeur des universités". ihtp.cnrs.fr. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021.
  5. Douroux, Philippe. "Johann Chapoutot : «Cette focalisation sur "Mein Kampf" a l'inconvénient d'encourager une lecture hitléro-centriste du nazisme»". Libération (in French). Retrieved 2025-01-28.
  6. ^ librairie mollat (2017-07-07). Johann Chapoutot - La révolution culturelle nazie. Retrieved 2025-01-28 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ Maison Heinrich Heine Paris (2019-06-21). Johann Chapoutot : La "révolution culturelle" nazie. Retrieved 2025-01-28 – via YouTube.
  8. ^ Chapoutot, Johann (2017). La Révolution culturelle nazie [The nazi cultural Revolution].
  9. Simmons, Thomas E. (2018). "Review of The Law of Blood: Thinking and Acting as a Nazi". Shofar. 36 (3): 219–221. doi:10.5703/shofar.36.3.0219. ISSN 0882-8539.
  10. Donoghue, Steve (2018-04-04). "The Law of Blood: Thinking and Acting as a Nazi by Johann Chapoutot". Open Letters Review. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
  11. Chapoutot, Johann (2018). The Law of Blood. Translated by Mouillot, Miranda Richmond. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674660434.
  12. Antithèse (2024-08-25). Le Nazisme est-il au cœur de notre Modernité? l Johann Chapoutot. Retrieved 2025-01-28 – via YouTube.
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