HEHN, Paul N. 1927-

PERSONAL:

Born April 8, 1927, in New York, NY; married, 1956; children: three children. Education: University of Oregon, A.B., 1950; Columbia University, M.A., 1954; New York University, Ph.D., 1961.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, SUNY Brockport, 350 New Campus Dr., Brockport, NY 14420.

CAREER:

Wilkes College, Wilkes-Barre, PA, instructor in history and political science, 1959-61; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, instructor in history, 1961-63; Ohio University, Athens, assistant professor, 1963-66; University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, assistant professor, 1966-68; State University of New York, Brockport, assistant professor, 1968-80, associate professor, beginning 1980, became professor emeritus. Military service: Served in World War II.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, American Association for Advanced Slavic Studies.

WRITINGS:

The German Struggle against Yugoslav Guerrillas in World War II: German Counter-Insurgency in Yugoslavia, 1941-1943, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1979.

A Low Dishonest Decade: The Great Powers, Eastern Europe, and the Economic Origins of World War II, 1930-1941, Continuum Books (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Paul N. Hehn specializes in the history of central Europe, the Balkans, and Russia. In A Low Dishonest Decade: The Great Powers, Eastern Europe, and the Economic Origins of World War II, 1930-1941, he makes a case for the importance of economic considerations in planting the seeds of this conflict. Companies in Western Europe and the United States were willing to do business with Nazi Germany; they were driven not only by the profit motive but also by the belief that Adolf Hitler's aggression could be limited, or perhaps turned only against the Soviet Union. But when the Nazi regime sent its armies west as well as east, it was a regime that had been strengthened, according to Hehn, by the Western powers. He supports his argument with numerous quotes from political and economic leaders of the period.

In playing up the role of economics, the book does not take into account the importance of other factors, such as Hitler's racist worldview, observed a Publishers Weekly critic, who nevertheless found Hehn's thesis "compelling." Hehn, the reviewer added, takes into account not only the accepted reasons, but also "the failures, hypocrisies, greed, and venality of England, France, and the United States, and powerfully argues for their role in bringing on WWII."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Publishers Weekly, October 21, 2002, review of A Low Dishonest Decade: The Great Powers, Eastern Europe, and the Economic Origins of World War II, 1930-1941, p. 62.*