The Germane were a group the Romans always had great difficulty conquering. Tacitus wrote Germania in 98 CE, to describe the Germanic Tribes. This is an excerpt from Germania written by one of Rome’s greatest historians, Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 CE – 120 CE). 14 black-and-white illustrationsįor my own part, I agree with those who think the tribes of Germania are free from all taint of inter-marriages with foreign nations, and that they appear as a distinct, unmixed ethnicity, like none but themselves Krebs, a professor of classics at Harvard University, traces the wide-ranging influence of the Germania over a five-hundred-year span, showing us how an ancient text rose to take its place among the most dangerous books in the world. In this elegant and captivating history, Christopher B.

But the Germania inspired-and polarized-readers long before the rise of the Third Reich. When Tacitus wrote a not-very-flattering little book about the ancient Germans in 98 CE, at the height of the Roman Empire, he could not have foreseen that the Nazis would extol it as 'a bible,' nor that Heinrich Himmler, the engineer of the Holocaust, would vow to resurrect Germany on its grounds.

The pope wanted it, Montesquieu used it, and the Nazis pilfered an Italian noble's villa to get the Germania, by the Roman historian Tacitus, took on a life of its own as both an object and an ideology. The riveting story of the Germania and its incarnations and exploitations through the ages.

In every way, A Most Dangerous Book is a most brilliant achievement.'-Washington Post 'A model of popular intellectual history. Winner of Phi Beta Kappa's 2012 Christian Gauss Book Award. Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year.

Krebs traces the wide-ranging influence of the Germania over a five-hundred year span, showing us how an ancient text rose to take its place among the most dangerous books in the world.The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice. But the Germania inspired and polarised readers long before the rise of the Third Reich. When Tacitus wrote a not very flattering little book about the ancient Germans in 98 AD, at the height of the Roman Empire, he could not have foreseen that the Nazis would extol it as 'a bible' and that Heinrich Himmler would vow to resurrect Germany on its grounds. The pope wanted it, Montesquieu used it and the Nazis pilfered an Italian noble's villa to get it: the Germania, by the Roman historian Tacitus, took on a life of its own as both an object and an ideology. This, the riveting story of the Germania, tells of its incarnations and exploitations through the ages. Print A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich

Christopher krebs a most dangerous book