Hans Kohn

Hans Kohn (Template:Lang-he, September 15, 1891 – March 16, 1971) was a Jewish American philosopher and historian. Born in Prague during the Austrian Empire, he was captured as a prisoner of war during World War I and held in Russia for five years. In the following years he lived in Paris and London working for Zionist organizations and writing.

He moved to Palestine in 1925, but visited the United States frequently, eventually immigrating in 1934 to teach modern history at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. From 1948 to 1961 he taught at City College of New York. He also taught at the New School for Social Research, Harvard Summer School.

He wrote numerous books and publications, primarily on the topics of nationalism, Pan-Slavism, German thought, and Judaism, and was an early contributor to the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, where he died. His autobiography, published in 1964, includes reflections on the times he lived through as well as the facts of his personal life.

Kohn was a prominent leader of Brit Shalom, which promoted a bi-national state in Palestine.

Position on Zionism

In 1929 Kohn wrote:

"The means determine the goal. If lies and violence are the means, the results cannot be good. . . . We have been in Palestine for twelve years [i.e. since the 1917 Balfour Declaration] without having even once made a serious attempt at seeking through negotiations the consent of the indigenous people. . . . I believe that it will be possible for us to hold Palestine and continue to grow for a long time. This will be done first with British aid and then later with the help of our own bayonets -- shamefully called Haganah [defense] -- clearly because we have no faith in our own policy. But by that time we will not be able to do without the bayonets. The means will have determined the goal. Jewish Palestine will no longer have anything of that Zion for which I once put myself on the line."

From a 1929 letter by Hans Kohn, biographer of Martin Buber, Kohn's letter is quoted in “Israeli Pacifist, The Life of Joseph Abileah,” by Anthony G. Bing, foreword by Yehudi Menuhin, p.69. Bing calls the letter "Kohn’s letter of farewell to Zionism."

Historical works

• Western Civilization in the Near East, 1936
• The Idea of Nationalism: A Study in Its Origins and Background, 1944
• The Twentieth Century: A Midway Account of the Western World, 1950
• Pan-Slavism: Its History and Ideology, 1953
• Nationalism: Its Meaning & History, 1955
• Nationalism and Liberty: The Swiss Example, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1956
• American Nationalism: An Interpretative Essay, Macmillan, New York, 1957
• Heinrich Heine: The Man and the Myth, Leo Baeck Institute, New York, 1959
• The Habsburg Empire, 1804–1918, 1961
• Living in a World Revolution: My Encounters with History, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1964
• Absolutism and Democracy 1814-1852, D. Van Nostrand, Princeton, New Jersey, 1965
• The Mind of Germany, Harper Torchbooks, 1965
• Prelude to Nation-States: The French and German Experiences, 1789-1815 D. Van Nostrand, 1967.

External links

• Guide to the Hans Kohn Collection (Leo Baeck Institute Center for Jewish History) (about Immanuel Kohn and Vera Kohn)
  • http://www.cjh.org/collections/findingaids.php?action=searchPartners&partner=3 (biography)
• http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/manuscript/guides/buber.htm (biography)