Right Above Race

Book excerpt: 'Right Above Race' is an essay written by a German-American businessman and philanthropist, Otto Hermann Kahn. It was written during World War I and is meant to convey his perspective on why it's important for the U.S. to be engaged in said war. As Kahn puts it on his own words: "Speaking as one born of German parents, I do not hesitate to state it as my deep conviction that the greatest service which[Pg 6] men of German birth or antecedents can render to the country of their origin is this: To proclaim, and to stand up for those great ideals and national qualities and traditions which they inherited from their ancestors, and to set their faces like flint against the monstrous doctrines and acts of a rulership that has robbed them of the Germany they loved and in which they took just pride, the Germany which had the good-will, respect and admiration of the entire world."