Eric David Weitz (June 15, 1953 – July 1, 2021) was a professor of history at City University of New York, and the author of several books.

Education

Of Jewish origin, he studied at Boston University for his MA, and received his PhD supervised by Norman Naimark. His dissertation was "Conflict in the Ruhr: Workers and Socialist Politics in Essen, 1910–1925".

Themes of research and writing

Weitz specialized in German history, Soviet history, and genocide studies.

According to historian Sarah K. Danielsson, Weitz's historical "work on genocide had always grappled with the root causes of mass violence and extermination, and it led him to look at the history of human rights."

He edited "Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity” at Princeton University Press.

Political views

Eric Weitz joined a number of scholars in condemning Donald Trump in 2016. He compared Donald Trump's right-wing populism to the political atmosphere in the Weimar Republic. Weitz criticized what he saw as increasing political polarization.

Works

  • Weitz, Eric D. (1997). Creating German Communism, 1890-1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02682-4.
  • Weitz, Eric D. (2002). . Slavic Review. 61 (1): 1–29. doi:. ISSN . JSTOR . S2CID .
  • Weitz, Eric D. (2008-12-01). "From the Vienna to the Paris System: International Politics and the Entangled Histories of Human Rights, Forced Deportations, and Civilizing Missions". The American Historical Review. 113 (5): 1313–1343. doi:. eISSN .
  • Weitz, Eric D. (2015) [2003]. A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-16587-5.
  • Weitz, Eric D. (2018) [2007]. Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-18305-3.
  • Weitz, Eric D. (2019). A World Divided: The Global Struggle for Human Rights in the Age of Nation-States. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-18555-2.