# Niall Ferguson: The Treason of the Intellectuals

Source: https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-treason-intellectuals-third-reich
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Niall-Ferguson-The-Treason-of-the-Intellectuals?index=0x65b68d24693397a801831c8b1180452a18e7685592eafed81ef627f7b6fc2eff8ca9a5fe
Submitted by tim on 2024-01-28 UTC, 1 upvote, 0 comments

## Summary

Niall Ferguson argues that anyone who naively believes higher education instills morality has not studied the history of German universities under the Third Reich. The piece draws on Julien Benda's 1927 book *La trahison des clercs*, which condemned European intellectuals' descent into extreme nationalism and racism. At that time Benito Mussolini had been in power in Italy for five years, and Adolf Hitler was still six years from power in Germany.

## Article

Niall Ferguson: The Treason of the Intellectuals

Students at a public speaking school in the lecture hall of Berlin’s Humboldt University, c. 1931. (Photo by bpk/Salomon/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Anyone who has a naive belief in the power of higher education to instill morality has not studied the history of German universities in the Third Reich.

This article is part of Today in America. Follow to get everything we publish on U.S. politics, policy, and the ideas worth fighting for.

In 1927 the French philosopher Julien Benda published La trahison des clercs—“The Treason of the Intellectuals”—which condemned the descent of European intellectuals into extreme nationalism and racism. By that point, although Benito Mussolini had been in power in Italy for five years, Adolf Hitler was still six years away from power in Germany and 13 y…

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