UW Press: Toward the Final Solution

Toward the Final Solution
A History of European Racism
George L. Mosse
With a critical introduction by Christopher R. Browning

“Mosse claims once again his place in modern historiography as the foremost explicator and demythologizer of ideas which have inflamed and energized men’s minds and worked irreversible evil in human history. . . . Mosse has produced a strikingly original work whose conceptual brilliance and analytic keenness will surely make it the indispensable work on European racism.”
—Commentary

“This is a grim book, and I wish it weren’t such a necessary one. . . . Mosse tells the story well.”
—Boston Globe

Originally published in 1978, Toward the Final Solution was one of the first in-depth studies of the evolution of racism in Europe, from the Age of Enlightenment through the Holocaust and Hitler’s Final Solution. George L. Mosse details how antisemitism and dangerous prejudices have long existed in the European cultural tradition, revealing an appalling and complex history. With the global renewal of extreme, right-wing nationalism, this instrumental work remains as important as ever for understanding how bigotry impacts political, cultural, and intellectual life. This edition of Mosse’s classic book includes a new critical introduction by Christopher R. Browning, author of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.

George L. Mosse (1918–99) was a legendary scholar, teacher, and mentor. A refugee from Nazi Germany, he joined the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1955, where he was both influential and popular. Mosse was an early leader in the study of modern European cultural and intellectual history, the study of fascism, and the history of sexuality and masculinity. Over his career he authored more than two dozen books.

“Mosse has done more than any other historian to trace racism to its intellectual and social roots. . . . A brilliant study.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A talented historian entered a neglected field of study and opened the doors of serious scholarship to a topic that will no longer be sidestepped by others too timid to lead. . . . A pioneering volume of great significance.”
—Annals of the American Academy

The Collected Works of George L. Mosse
Nationalism and Sexuality Middle-Class Morality and Sexual Norms in Modern Europe George L. Mosse