Chutzpah [Paperback]

Alan M. Dershowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1992

The acclaimed #1 New York Times bestseller, written by a brilliant legal mind, on what it means to be a Jew in America today. Dershowitz discusses the changes they've witnessed, changes they've created, and the changes that must still take place. He examines anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, assimilation, Zionism, civil rights, changes in eastern Europe, and turmoil in the Middle East. 8-page photo insert.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gadfly civil libertarian Dershowitz pens a perspicacious, anecdotal account of the responsibilities and difficulties associated with Jewishness today. In hardcover, this BOMC alternate spent 22 weeks on PW 's bestseller list and attained the number-one position. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Leo Rosten, in his The Joys of Yiddish ( LJ 10/1/68), defines chutzpah as "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts,' presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to." Dershowitz ( Reversal of Fortune , LJ 4/1/86 ) , perhaps the most famous lawyer in the United States today, argues here that U.S. Jewry should shed its second-class citizenship syndrome and show a little chutzpah in defining its relationship with gentile, Christian America. He pleads that U.S. Jews have nothing to be ashamed of, since they have made vital contributions to the nation and deserve the same rights and privileges as their gentile compatriots. His thesis ranges through a spectrum of fascinating essays about anti-Semitism on college campuses, the state of Israel, the Holocaust, Auschwitz, the Jewish religion, and church/state relations. Brilliant, provocative, controversial, and as "chutzpadik" as its author, this book should have a wide audience and is enthusiastically recommended for public library collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/91.
- Robert A. Silver, Shaker Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (May 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671760890
• ISBN-13: 978-0671760892
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,047,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ is a Brooklyn native who has been called 'the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer' and one of its 'most distinguished defenders of individual rights,' 'the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,' 'the top lawyer of last resort,' and 'America's most public Jewish defender.' He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Dershowitz, a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, joined the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 after clerking for Judge David Bazelon and Justice Arthur Goldberg. While he is known for defending clients such as Anatoly Sharansky, Claus von B'low, O.J. Simpson, Michael Milken and Mike Tyson, he continues to represent numerous indigent defendants and takes half of his cases pro bono. Dershowitz is the author of 20 works of fiction and non-fiction, including 6 bestsellers. His writing has been praised by Truman Capote, Saul Bellow, David Mamet, William Styron, Aharon Appelfeld, A.B. Yehoshua and Elie Wiesel. More than a million of his books have been sold worldwide, in numerous languages, and more than a million people have heard him lecture around the world. His most recent nonfiction titles are The Case For Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can be Resolved (August 2005, Wiley); Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights (November 2004, Basic Books), The Case for Israel (September 2003, Wiley), America Declares Independence, Why Terrorism Works, Shouting Fire, Letters to a Young Lawyer, Supreme Injustice, and The Genesis of Justice. His novels include The Advocate's Devil and Just Revenge. Dershowitz is also the author of The Vanishing American Jew, The Abuse Excuse, Reasonable Doubts, Chutzpah (a #1 bestseller), Reversal of Fortune (which was made into an Academy Award-winning film), Sexual McCarthyism and The Best Defense.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Unbridled Racism, February 9, 2012

By 

Crosslands (Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chutzpah (Paperback)

I must begin this review with the acknowledgement that Mr. Dershowitz has rendered praiseworthy service on behalf of Patricia Hearst and other unjustly accused individuals. He also has a great understanding of legal principles and can communicate these precepts very clearly.

Unfortunately however an honest and reasonable reader must conclude from his book Chutzpah that Mr. Dershowitz is a Henry Morgenthau style racist. Both Morgenthau and Dershowitz advocated severe limits on the industry and living standards in Germany after World War II. On pages 136 to 139 everything Mr. Dershowitz writes about Germany is erroneous and wrong. Mr. Dershowitz makes the tacit assumption that the Nazi holocaust was a unique event in world history. Hence he can argue that ethnic Germans are uniquely stigmatized. However this argument is wrong. Yes, the Nazi dictatorship killed six million, men, women, and children because of their Jewish ethnicity in an often horrible manner. But there have been similar holocausts. In the Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin in 1932 and 1933 conducted a man made planned famine that killed seven million Ukrainians as well as a large proportion of the Kazakh population among other victims. Of course men, women, and children were killed by the millions in this holocaust. Similarly Mao Zedong murdered millions in parts of China in his Great Leap forward famine. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge murdered three million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979. North Korea, the recent incarnation of the Nazi dictatorship, has killed four million people. And over history there have been numerous tribal massacres that did not kill as many people as the Nazis did mainly because the tribal leaders lacked the means at Hitler's disposal.

Mr. Dershowitz would benefit from examining R.J. Rummel website on democide (mass murder) and genocide. He would learn mass murder is not a uniquely German phenomenon.

Mr. Dershowitz states that Germans voted for and supported Hitler to reap material benefits from Hitler's conquests. Wrong. The Nazis never exceeded 37 per cent of the vote in a free election. In the last free election in 1933 the Nazis had 33 per cent of the vote. Hitler was worried his movement failed until Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor and, as became apparent, dictator. And German voters did not vote for Hitler to start another World War. They voted for Hitler mainly to end the severe and continuing Great Depression in the country. The desire to end the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty and unjust reparations was another reason. There was no free vote on the establishment of Auschwitz just like there was no vote on setting up Stalin's Gulag.

Mr. Dershowitz wants to believe that Germany's recovery after World War II and during the 1950s was due entirely to the Marshall Plan and U.S. aid. Again wrong. Germany received less aid per capita than some other European countries. Germany's recovery occurred because the country had and has a literate population, a work ethic, and a large number of skilled workers. Also the beneficial growth oriented economic policies of the Konrad Adenauer government helped rebuild the country.

Nor is it true Germans, Nazis or not, suffered no penalty after World War II. Germany lost roughly one third of its territory, namely East Prussia, Pomerania, and Silesia, after the war. Ethnic Germans in these areas and other countries in Eastern Europe were deported by the millions to the remaining German areas. Hundreds of thousands were taken to work as slave laborers in the Soviet Union for years. Over fifteen million ethnic Germans were uprooted, often placed in concentration camps, often starved and all remaining alive soon deported to the remaining Germany. Of these roughly two million, one third of the number of Jewish holocaust victims, died from deliberate murder, starvation, disease, and overwork. In the refugee overrun Germany itself the western allies imposed the JCS1067, a version of the Morgenthau plan, that prevented action toward German recovery for several years. Millions remained impoverished. In both east and west Germany factories were dismantled and sent to the victor countries. For years after the war the allies looted German patents for the benefit of Allied businesses and industrials concerns.

It should be shocking that racists attempt to limit the prosperity, job opportunities, and perhaps even the sustenance of Germans. Germans have contributed vastly to European and world civilization. Among other inventions Germans have invented the printing press, the automobile (Karl and Bertha Benz), and the Otto and Diesel engines. Germans have provided the world with numerous pioneering mathematicians such as Carl Friedrich Gauss and Gottfried Leibniz. Germans have contributed vastly to music and other fine arts. The socialist totalitarian Nazi period was only twelve years of over one thousand years of the often incredibly rich and productive existence of German culture.

Mr. Dershowitz may believe he is an angel of justice. Unfortunately the reality is he often resembles Selma Alabama Sheriff Jim Clark.

26 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much venting, too little substance, July 31, 2001

By 

"dsrosen19" (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chutzpah (Paperback)

Overall, I am a huge fan of Dershowitz's books. I thoroughly enjoyed the Best Defense, From Genesis to Justice, and even his novel, A Just Revenge. I felt, though, that Dershowitz went a little overboard with his views of Jews in America. In many ways, I am almost embarassed to be viewed in the same light as him (As a Jew) because of his extreme views. He made it seem as if the world was out to get Jews, even in America. He does make many good points about Jewish identity in America, but to me he comes across as whining more than discussing.

He does use some great arguments and has a pretty clear account of Jewish history in America. His description of his family and neighborhood is nice to read to understand where he grew up and what his background is. I especially liked his description of his own family as I was reminded in many ways of my own.

I gave the book 2 stars but that is compared with his other books. It is not a bad book or a bad read. In many ways, I found it very informative but I would choose one of his other books rather than this one.

18 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable, Clear, and full of Chutzpah, December 29, 2000

By 

K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chutzpah (Paperback)

Dershowitz's succinct analysis and flowing prose make for a powerful read. The author recounts his Brooklyn youth, law school, and his career at Harvard University. He also examines anti-Semitism, separation of church-and-state, assimilation, and other facets pertaining to Jewish and non-Jewish life in America. Dershowitz emphasizes that American Jews must stop maintaining low profiles or feeling anxious about our success (and non-success), as doing so is the essence of second-class citizenship. His point is well taken, but perhaps newly arrived immigrants from Russia and other anti-Semitic lands will doubt his premise. I didn't always agree with the man's pro-Israeli views, but on balance this is a very thoughtful and informative book.