Published on October 8th (Episode 427)
Introduction
In online debates, it’s almost inevitable that sooner or later someone invokes Hitler or the Nazis. That tendency, known as Godwin’s Law, has proven itself on social media thousands of times a day. But the persistence of this comparison points to something deeper than just the cheapening of argument. It reflects how much Hitler and the struggle against Nazism have become the ultimate reference point in our culture’s moral imagination.
In this conversation, historian Alec Ryrie explains why we live in what he calls “the Age of Hitler.” For nearly eighty years, he argues, our moral consensus has been defined not by traditional religious frameworks but by the lessons drawn from World War II and the Holocaust. In our stories and our politics, from Star Wars to Harry Potter, the fight against Hitler continues to serve as the archetype of good versus evil. Yet Ryrie warns that this consensus is beginning to erode: both Left and Right are showing signs of moving on. What happens when Hitler no longer defines our common moral language? And what might replace it?
About the Guest
Alec Ryrie is Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University. He specializes in the history of the Reformation and Protestantism more broadly, with works covering England, Scotland, and international contexts. His scholarship also explores religious unorthodoxy, including magic, radical dissent, and atheism. His new book, The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It (Harvard University Press, 2025), is based on the Bampton Lectures delivered at Oxford in 2022.
For Further Investigation
Alec Ryrie, The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It (Harvard University Press, 2025)
—, Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World (Viking, 2017)
Ian Kershaw, Hitler: A Biography (W. W. Norton, 2010)
Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich Trilogy (Penguin, 2003–2008)
Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (Basic Books, 2010)
Related Episodes
“Third Reich Village”—Hitler’s Germany, as see from an Alpine village
“Saving Freud”—how a group of friends and acolytes removed Sigmund Freud from Nazi-occupied Austria
Reflection Questions
Why has Hitler become the cultural endpoint of argument and disputation in our time?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of an anti-Nazi moral consensus as the foundation of modern values?
What might a new moral vision look like once this consensus begins to fray?
Share the podcast with a friend who thinks about the Second World War at least once a day, but doesn’t know why.
Tags
Alec Ryrie; Hitler; Nazis; Godwin’s Law; Harry Potter; Star Wars; Moral Consensus; Protestantism; Historically Thinking
