A CASE STUDY IN THE PHENOTYPE WARS

PART 1 OF LESSONS FROM THE GERMAN “HOMETOWNS”

INDEX TO THE SERIES:

PART 2: INCUBATING PLURALIST FEDERALISM

PART 3: THE MAKING OF ORGANIC COMMUNITY

PART 4: BULWARKS AGAINST THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT

PART 5: ASSAULT ON GEMEINSCHAFT

PART 6: FROM INSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION TO IDEOLOGICAL COOPTATION

PART 7: POPULAR GOVERNANCE REIMAGED?

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Even ignoring the prior history of the ancient tribes of Germania. From the formation of the Hanseatic League in the 12th century, through the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, and even the Congress of Vienna in 1815, for the better part of seven centuries the Germanic people have overwhelmingly (Prussia was long the thorn of centralist bureaucratic rationality which would ultimately undue this long legacy) lived within communal, political, organizational structures characterized by pluralist federalism. In the process, they promoted gemeinschaft, local customary law and governance, and communal freedom, while generating among Europe's greatest music, poetry, and philosophy. Yet, following the German unification of 1871 (thanks Prussia), it was less than 3/4 of a century to the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act, leading to the hell scape of WWII and the Holocaust. Just a reminder of the virtues of pluralist federalism over that of the sovereign state.

A really remarkable history, by Mack Walker, German Home Towns, documents and explores a key phase of that history. Originally it covered the period from the Westphalia Treaty up to the unification of 1871. But fascinatingly, he later added an additional section that, among other things, addressed how the National Socialists exploited the discourse and symbolism of the German hometown¹ tradition – even as in policy they acted to snuff out any remnants of pluralist federal institution or ethos.

I found Walker’s book fascinating for a variety of reasons. One worth pointing out to readers here is how his book, while working in tandem with, is also a kind of a mirror image of, Robert Nisbet’s work. Where Nisbet tended to invoke history as an example and seedbed for his theoretical work, Walker in contrast is first and foremost writing history. Indeed, he is writing a history of the world invoked in the lost tradition at the heart of that lamenting quest for community observed by Nisbet. With Walker though the theoretical insights, rather than driving the analysis, are addressed as he goes, arising organically from consideration of relevant questions associated to the history and historiography of the German hometowns. He particularly notes how certain uncritically standard historiographic methods have resulted in distorted representations of the German hometowns.

Furthermore, Walker's book in fact is a history of the phenotype wars. It is one strain in (what I, in an earlier post, called) a nomos of fractals. Of course, he doesn't use the nomenclature of temporals and spatials. (Those wanting to understand that nomenclature and its significance should read my new book, A Plea for Time in the Phenotype Wars.) And only intermittently does he address the conflict in personality structures that animated that history. Though he does draw the relevant distinction between what he calls hometownsmen and "movers and doers." Aside of that though this is an unambitious history of the longue durée constituted by the centuries-long struggle between those promoting durable community, traditional social order, and customary law and governance, on the one hand; and on the other, those promoting social and geographic mobility, free markets, political bureaucratic centralism, and state expansion. This is as blatant a battle between time biased and space biased society as one could ask to see. (Again, to understand these references, see the new book.)

So, I’ve concluded that Walker’s book and the ideas associated with it, triggered in my thinking, warrant a series of its own. (Yes! A series! I haven’t done one of those in a while.) As usual, I reserve the right to rejig the organization of the presentation. But, for now, I think the next post will explore the geopolitical conditions that facilitated the autonomy of the German hometowns. In subsequent posts I’ll flesh out the historical character of the German hometowns; parse the battle over the hometowns, fought out between temporals and spatials, all coming to a head in the late 19^th century; address the connections, and disconnections, between National Socialism and the hometown tradition; and finally, I’ll sketch out what I see as an important lesson to be learned from all this for a rejuvenated populism moving forward.

While there is of course always a risk of reading someone else's historiography through the lens of one’s own theoretical premises, not only is such a reading of Walker's justified by the plain empirical claims he makes, but both the history and the theory are deepened by the synthesis. But to minimize the risk that I’m reading through self-serving eyes, I will, as I have in previous series, provide Walker’s words plenty of space to speak for themselves. I think it’s a fascinating story on its own, but an especially informative case study from which we can draw lessons both for a theoretical understanding of the phenotype wars, and for practical insight into the potential for pluralist federal populism.

As with past series, I will aspire to space out the instalments in such a manner that the threads of the arguments do not grow foggy in readers memory, but not so often as to leave your in box feeling inundated. Well, that’s the aspiration, in any case.

So, stay tuned. If you want to be sure not to risk missing an instalment of the new series, please…

And if you know anyone else who might be interested in this kind of thing, please…

Be seeing you!

1. Walker writes “home town(s)” as two separate words. My Word grammar correct screams blue underlines at me everywhere I attempt this. So, I’ll use Walker’s own form when quoting him and accommodate Word otherwise.