What was G. K. Zipf's opinion of the Nazis?
Upvote:3
Concerning the connection between George Kingsley Zipf and the Nazis, a couple of modern works give us some indication of the source of these concerns. The connection seems to mainly be from Zipf's 1941 publication, National Unity and Disunity; The Nation as a Bio-Social Organism.
The 2017 book The Organization of Cities: Initiative, ordinary life, and the good life by John R Miron, has a section discussing Zipf on page xxvi of the preface. In a footnote (45) he discusses a particularly controversial section of Zipf's earlier work.
In a particularly suspect agrument, Zipf (1941,p.197) presents the combined city size distribution for greater Austria-Germany-Sudetenland in a way that appears to justify the Nazi policy of Lebensraum in the lead up to World War II.
This connection can also be noted in a review of the book published in The American Political Science Review, vol 35, Issue 6 December 1941 pp 1178-1179.
...and that Germany suffered disastrously from the Versailles Treaty, but that, as a result of her acquisitions in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, she has been approaching normality.
Another book can also be found discussing Zipf's application of his power law to social situation in 1941 Europe. Psychomythics: Sources of Artifacts and Misconceptions in Scientific Psychology, by William R. Uttal. This book, in a footnote on page 51 seems to be referencing the same thing:
It does not require too much reading of Zipf's last chapter to appreciate both his explicit anti-Semitism and his pro-Nazi outlook. Particularly dangerous was his justification of Germany's aggression in terms of his empirical law.
Since a readable copy of this work has come up (Thanks @Sempaiscuba), I can include some direct information from the source (emphasis mine):
National Unity And Disunity by Zuof, George Kingsley
if we view the Treaty of Versailles as the disease, then we might view Mussolini and Hitler as cures on the one hand which may in turn become diseases on the other, which may in turn elicit cures elsewhere and so on indefinitely.
This is from the very first use of the name Hitler within the book, pg. 151. This disease-cure analogy is carried on later in the book (since Zipf's law is also applied to linguistics it might be worth noting that the word cure comes up 51 times in this book...):
It is a fair question to ask today whether the European war of September, 1939, should be viewed primarily as a disease or as a cure of diseased con-ditions, and whether Mr. Hitler is primarily a source of infection or a symptom of an infection, — a symptom that will pass as the infection of disequilibrium recedes.
(emphasis mine). This 'disequilibrium' is shown in his chart on page 197 where he shows the effect of Lebensraum, comparing the curve representing city population dynamics before and after May of 1939.
The paragraph before this chart states the following (emphasis mine):
In view of the marked differences between 1934 and 1939, we cannot but conclude that somehow, during this interval, the assumed social-economic forces involved in this total situation suddenly moved towards greater social-economic equilibrium.
Ok. One more. (sorry for the multiple edits) From page 369 (of course emphasis is mine):
It may well be that anti-Semitism is in the order of a “cure” rather than of a “disease”; that is, in the order of a reaction instead of an action
More post
- 📝 Did Egyptian civilization start from North to South or vice versa?
- 📝 Who was the richest person in the world at the start and end of WW2?
- 📝 Would the USA staying out of WWI have prevented WWII?
- 📝 If SS Californian were within 5 miles of Titanic, could she have saved more passengers?
- 📝 British Warships and Their Crew In Hawaii in the Mid-1800s
- 📝 Have any historical pandemics actually originated in the United States?
- 📝 The Sumatrans told Marco Polo that there was an island to the Southeast. Were they referring to Australia?
- 📝 Did any age of sail ship have a "back-bone cannon"?
- 📝 How did pagination come to be used?
- 📝 How was the 1849 "Proclamation to the People of California" announcing the formation of a Constitution communicated to the people?
- 📝 Why was the US army slow to adopt the use of radar prior to Pearl Harbour?
- 📝 How well did American bombers fight enemy fighters in World War II?
- 📝 What percentage of British people during the industrial revolution were rich?
- 📝 What examples from history are there of a dictator successfully annexing countries by force over the long term?
- 📝 What does "the purpose of history is ideological" mean?
- 📝 What percentage of British and American troops were involved in direct combat with enemy in World War II
- 📝 Did Heydrich actually take orders from Himmler?
- 📝 Nazi Germany - Income of low-wage workers, and prices of food and other items?
- 📝 What metallurgy advancement allowed the transition from mail hauberk to plate armor?
- 📝 Why were Upper and Lower Egypt consolidated into a single kingdom?
- 📝 What were the thoughts of the Celts, Romans and other ancient European people about the standing stones which survive from prehistoric times?
- 📝 What happened to the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia in c. 1975 and c.1990?
- 📝 What was the goal behind the 9 state approval of the United States constitution?
- 📝 What is the methodogy used to determine the exact genetic flow from one area to another and the times in which it flowed?
- 📝 What were all the countries of the First, Second and Third Worlds, when WWII ended?
- 📝 What is the origin of this coin? Willem WRL
- 📝 Flag with 13 white stars and a crescent on red background
- 📝 What was the capacity of Vemork power station?
- 📝 Why did Japanese samurai disembowel themselves?
- 📝 What is the meaning of the cross on a Chinese bronze Gu Chalice?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What was the Victorian opinion of the American Revolution?
- 📝 What was the contemporary German public opinion on the Herero Genocide?
- 📝 What was the Catholic Church's opinion of Diệm's South Vietnam?
- 📝 What was the contemporary popular opinion of the Anglo-Irish Treaty?
- 📝 What was the basis for the Nazis to support various ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and elsewhere over the majority populations?
- 📝 What was the Romans or Roman Empires opinion on the Vikings?
- 📝 What was the opinion of Hitler regarding p**nography?
- 📝 What was G. K. Zipf's opinion of the Nazis?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?
- 📝 What was the religion of the Arabic people before conversion to Islam?
- 📝 What was the purpose of Nazi extermination camps?
- 📝 What was the internal Soviet reaction to the moon landing?
- 📝 What was the function of the walls of Jericho?
- 📝 What was the pound (unit of weight) initially equal to?
- 📝 At what point was the Byzantine Empire's decline irreversible?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 What was the point of horse armour?
- 📝 What was the first solar eclipse that was demonstrably predicted in advance?
- 📝 What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
- 📝 What was the plan for an abort of the Enola Gay's mission to drop the atomic bomb?
- 📝 What was the economic basis for West Berlin?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 What was the average height of Roman men and women?
- 📝 What was the longest a World War II submarine stayed at sea without being resupplied at a port?
- 📝 What was the cleanest war ever fought?