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Richard L. Rubenstein

The Cunning of History Paperback – August 3, 1987

by Richard L. Rubenstein (Author), William Styron (Introduction)

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Richard Rubenstein writes of the Holocaust, why it happened, why it happened when it did, and why it may happen again and again.

"Few books possess the power to leave the reader with the feeling of awareness that we call a sense of revelation. The Cunning of History seems to me to be one of these . . . Rubenstein is forcing us to reinterpret the meaning of Auschwitz--especially, though not exclusively, from the standpoint of its existence as part of a continuum of slavery that has been engrafted for centuries onto the very body of Western civilization. Therefore, in the process of destroying the myth and the preconception, he is making us see that that encampment of death and suffering may have been more horrible than we had ever imagined. It was slavery in its ultimate embodiment. He is making us understand that the etiology of Auschwitz-to some, a diabolical, perhaps freakish excrescence, which vanished from the face of the earth with the destruction of the crematoria in 1945-is actually embedded deeply in a cultural tradition that stretches back to the Middle Passage from the coast of Africa, and beyond, to the enforced servitude in ancient Greece and Rome. Rubenstein is saying that we ignore this linkage, and the existence of the sleeping virus in the bloodstream of civilization, at risk of our future." — William Styron, from the Introduction.

Print length

128 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

August 3, 1987
Dimensions

5.31 x 0.29 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0061320684
ISBN-13

978-0061320682
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Richard Rubenstein writes of the holocaust, why it happened, why it happened when it did, and why it may happen again and again.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial (August 3, 1987)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061320684
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061320682
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.68 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.29 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #838,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #363 in Philosophy of Good & Evil
- #522 in Slavery & Emancipation History
- #1,771 in Jewish Holocaust History

Customer Reviews:
59 ratings

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3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		4%

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Kari Ann Owen

Brilliant and all-encompassing as an historical road map.

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2020

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This is a book everyone should read who opposes authoritarian developments in our own time. The hour is late.

3 people found this helpful

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K. Maxwell

A little book on history that will really make you think.

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2002

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This is only a small book (less than 100 pages), but it packs a lot of ideas into it's content.
This is an "objective" view of the 20th century trend towards mass murder, and the forces described in this book, while based in a european context can be seen to hold true for virtually all "modern" societies, including Asia and Africa.
The author explains the link between a well organised bureaucratic organisation with an objective view to "processing" people through their rules. The danger of having large groups of "displaced" and "no-nation" peoples combined with a tendancy to rationlise away those peoples "rights" in society - to make them effectivley "non-people" and outside the law. It also brings home the reality that power *does* corrupt - or at least finds excuses for all it does to other people.
The author has presented us with a possible bleak future in many ways. This book is also a mirror to how we justify the choices of our modern life and the picture is not always pretty.
In the past, where "jews" may have been the target, today discrimination is trending towards the poor, and once again with the displaced and dispossed. Read in conjunction with "no Logo", this book is very enlightening - though out of the 2 books this is the better written. Worth picking up, reading and keeping.

11 people found this helpful

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Wm. W. Wells

bureaucracy in the service of evil

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2021

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A chilling accompaniment to Rubenstein's classic After Auschwitz. Studies the bureaucratic mechanism that incorporated the Jewish leaders in death machine designed to eliminate everyone of Jewish heritage in Germany.

One person found this helpful

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lara

Should be required

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2014

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This book was recommended to me by one of my instructors when I was working on my Master's Thesis. It is only 98 pages but it is one of the single most important books I have ever read. Rubenstein shows how the establishment of a modern bureaucracy produces and enables the monstrous horror of the Holocaust.

I generally have my students read this book in tandem with Leon Uris' Armageddon. That novel creates three characters who illustrate so perfectly what Rubenstein writes about.

I cannot recommend this book too highly.

5 people found this helpful

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R. J. Marsella

Well argued and intelligent

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2004

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In this essay Richard Rubenstein contends that the Holocaust should be viewed within the context of a tradition of slavery that is deep rooted in western culture. Drawing on Max Weber, Rubenstein argues that the combination of unrestricted capitalism and protestantism helped to create the conditions necessary for the ultimate form of slavery as expressed in the Nazi death camps. Additional factors include a European trend toward viewing certain segments of a given population as expendable.
The analysis is thought provoking and intelligently written. My reservation is that while I agree that viewing the holocaust in this way leads one to the conclusion that under the right circumstances genocide on this scale could happen again , I also believe that there was something uniquely evil in the Nazi leadership that contributed to the Holocaust. Rubenstein's analysis focused on historical/economic/social forces at the expense of the personal responsibilty of Hitler and his inner circle. Despite that this is an important book that should be mandatory reading in any study of the Holocaust.

20 people found this helpful

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Greg

Insightful, well-researched guide to history

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2009

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Very well written and researched guide to understanding the evil potential within man. I have read many books on the Holocaust and this one is definitely in the top for me to recommend to anyone trying to understand how mankind can commit such atrocities. The pragmatic approach is very refreshing (all too often emotions about the evil within can compromise the argument, but Rubenstein transcends this).

2 people found this helpful

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KWK

Old but valuable.

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2017

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Replacing a lost copy. Explores the Holocaust. Excellent

One person found this helpful

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Glamprof

Highly Recommend!

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2017

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Incredibly insightful book. Had my entire class read it.

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Top reviews from other countries

tcpip

A classic

Reviewed in India on October 1, 2014

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This is a classic, a seminal work. It changed my worldview about so many things in recent and medieval history. And it's a slim 122-page book.

There are two key points this book makes. ONE: the Holocaust of Nazi Germany was not something perpetrated by Hitler and a band of bigoted thugs alone -- they were silently accepted and condoned, sometimes even facilitated, by the Allies at various levels. Hitler did something which was 'convenient' to the Allies. Later, after the war, the Allies feigned horror. That's how great games in history are played out in realpolitik, I guess.

TWO: the Holocaust was not an aberration, not the outcome of some crazed minds. There are enough seeds in Judeo-Christian culture (of which Islam too is a derivative) to indicate that this sort of atrocity on a race can be accepted. This too was a shocking insight.

Very hard to summarise this slim book. It must be read. It is prescribed text in various courses of history in various universities. One's education is incomplete without this book.