The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the [Library Binding]

Michael Berenbaum (Author), Abraham J. Peck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998

This monumental volume of extraordinary scope, depth, and power presents the results of nearly 50 years of Holocaust scholarship by the world's most eminent researchers. Fifty-four chapters probe such topics as Nazi politics, racial ideology, leadership, and bureaucracy; the phases of the Holocaust from definition to expropriation, ghettoization, deportation, and the death camps; Jewish leadership and resistance; the deeds of the rescuers; and the impact of the Holocaust on survivors. This comprehensive presentation is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the state of Holocaust studies today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A handful of pseudoscholars deny that the Holocaust took place; some of them occupy seats of higher learning in the United States and elsewhere. True scholars who specialize in Holocaust studies--the undeniable facts of the extermination of Jews, Gypsies, and political opponents of Hitler's regime--were once just as scarce, note the editors of this academic volume; today, however, they enjoy the unusual position of standing in the limelight, for, as the noted scholar Raul Hilberg remarks, "never before has so much public attention been lavished on our subject, be it in North America or Western Europe." The editors and contributors to this anthology discuss the state of contemporary Holocaust studies, noting that the generation of survivors is rapidly passing while primary and secondary sources multiply, especially as archives in Eastern Europe are opened and analyzed. If these sources are not properly considered, Hilberg warns, "we will have only a flow of amateurish publications and political messages from all quarters." --Gregory McNamee

From Booklist

The 55 prominent contributors to this copious and important work, which grew out of a conference of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Research Institute, are historians, theologians, literary scholars, political scientists, sociologists, and psychologists. They include Raul Hilberg, author of the three-volume Destruction of the European Jews and other books; Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust; Christopher R. Browning, author of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland; Eva Fogelman, author of Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust; and Susan S. Zuccotti, author of The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews. The more than 50 chapters explore such themes as the death camps; Jewish resistance; Nazi politics and racial ideology; ghettoization; deportation; the role of the Allies, the Axis, the neutral countries, and the Catholic Church; efforts of the rescuers; and the impact of the Holocaust on survivors. Destined to become an essential resource. George Cohen

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 856 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253333741
• ISBN-13: 978-0253333742
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,145,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The current state of holocaust studies (1998), July 31, 2000

By 

John Barry Kenyon - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the (Library Binding)

This weighty tome of 836 pages was designed as a summary of where the study and historiography of holocaust research stood a few years ago (1998). There are coherently arranged sections such as race and anti-semitism in nazi ideology, Jewish leadership and resistance, the rescuers and the survivor experience. The essays, written by a large number of contributors, are mostly in-depth and richly sourced studies. This reviewer found particularly insightful Louise London's account of the British government's response to German treatment of the Jews and Randolph Braham's summary of the holocaust in Hungary. Inevitably, the anthology has become a little outdated. Sources from former Soviet satellite countries are shedding new light on some issues and, in my opinion, holocaust denial arguments (however spurious) need more treatment in a book claiming to be a summary of "where we are and where we need to go."