Lying About Hitler Reprint Edition

by Richard J. Evans (Author)

117 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0465021536

ISBN-10: 0465021530

Why is ISBN important?

Other Sellers

from

Other Sellers

See all 6 versions

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by ZBK Books

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

FREE delivery: July 26 - 30

Fastest delivery: July 20 - 23

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Friday, July 23 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: Wednesday, July 21
Order within 13 hrs and 44 mins Details

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

In ruling against the controversial historian David Irving in his libel suit against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt, last April 2000, the High Court in London labeled him a falsifier of history. No objective historian, declared the judge, would manipulate the documentary record in the way that Irving did. Richard J. Evans, a Cambridge historian and the chief advisor for the defense, uses this pivotal trial as a lens for exploring a range of difficult questions about the nature of the historian's enterprise. For instance, don't all historians in the end bring a subjective agenda to bear on their reading of the evidence? Is it possible that Irving lost his case not because of his biased history but because his agenda was unacceptable? The central issue in the trial -- as for Evans in this book -- was not the past itself, but the way in which historians study the past. In a series of short, sharp chapters, Richard Evans sets David Irving's methods alongside the historical record in order to illuminate the difference between responsible and irresponsible history. The result is a cogent and deeply informed study in the nature of historical interpretation.

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Richard J. Evans
41
Hardcover
33 offers from $3.38
Richard J. Evans
586
Paperback
84 offers from $3.12
Richard J. Evans
347
Paperback
92 offers from $3.29
David John Cawdell Irving
90
Hardcover
10 offers from $224.35
David Irving
73
Hardcover
12 offers from $142.29
Kenneth D. Durr
3
Paperback
26 offers from $2.35

Get everything you need

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Adam Tooze
374
Paperback
36 offers from $12.00
Svetlana Alexievich
843
Paperback
42 offers from $8.25
John Keegan
353
Paperback
191 offers from $0.35
Art Spiegelman
4,402
Hardcover
115 offers from $15.24
Jonathan D. Spence
80
Paperback
138 offers from $1.55
James West Davidson
84
Paperback
73 offers from $23.94

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login now

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Superb...Evans's book, based on a 700-page report for the defense, is never less than absorbing." -- National Review

About the Author

Richard J. Evans is Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University and a noted specialist on modern German history. He is the author of In Defense of History and Death in Hamburg.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Reprint edition (April 18, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465021530
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465021536
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1520L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.9 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #229,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #286 in European History (Books)
- #532 in England History
- #534 in Jewish Holocaust History

Customer Reviews:
117 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		59%
4 star		25%
3 star		10%
2 star		1%
1 star		5%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Richard Jones

I'm very disappointed in this book and the author

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2019

I grew up in the shadow of the aftermath of WWII and became more and more curious about how it came about. As I gained more insight, I discovered the truth in the old saying that the victors write history and the vanquished live with it. I was very excited to be able to read a balanced discussion of facts and then conclusions regarding this horrible episode. As I read this account, I became more and more disappointed, and then realized it was just another anti-Hitler diatribe using David Irving's book as the most current vehicle. I won't bother you with examples of Evans' bias. I'm just saying that if you expect an honest comparison and discussion of the history of the Holocaust, you won't find it here. Evans was hired to discredit Irving's case of liable against Lipstadt, and this is how he did it, even though he claims to have reviewed both sides with the dispassion of a professionally trained historian.

40 people found this helpful

Helpful

Museum Man

Holocaust denial deconstructed.

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

Hundreds of books have been written about controversial events throughout history.The American Civil War,the atomic bombings of Japan,Pearl Harbor,9/11-all leave a legacy of conflicting,yet mostly honest conclusions.This book should serve as a warning to those who twist the truth in support of their own biases,in this instance,Holocaust denial.The book at the heart of the storm was not the product of honest scholarship,but truly a reprehensible agenda.Lying about Hitler sheds light on the dishonesty.As the old saying goes "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Tony Hardy

Good History and enjoyable reading...

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

Needed it for a college class but ended up enjoying it even more than I thought.!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Allan Brain

Captivating story of History and Truth on trial

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2001

Verified Purchase

Professor Evans was one of the expert witnesses in one of the most important trials in history--the libel case brought by David Irving against Penguin Books. Irving claimed that Penguin, by publishing a book critical of Irving's methods and motives in books about WWII and Nazi Germany, had damaged his reputation.
This book is a compelling account of Evans' role in showing that so-called "historian" David Irving had been manipulating, mischaracterizing, and misusing historical evidence for virtually his entire career of writing about the Second World War and Nazi Germany. And Evans is devasatingly convincing in showing just what really went on in the trial, as well as how widely the trial itself and Irving's work were misunderstood by even intelligent and sophisticated commentators in the world press (some of whom thought that Irving was being somehow prosecuted for his creativity or unpopular views).
Evans' book is eminently readable, well organized, and powerful without being polemical. At the very beginning, he warns the reader that the Irving case was about more than Irving's contention that he had been libeled by being labeled a "Holocaust denier" among other things by Penguin's author Deborah Lipstadt. That is really important and seems to be Evans' larger purpose: to show that there really are some historical "truths" and that the tendency in social sciences to dismiss objective truth and to excuse wild theories by citing the preconceptions or political beliefs of the historian in question is dangerous.
Among the book's strengths are the evident sincerity of the author and his ability to describe how Irving's deception worked and fooled so many people, from professionals to laymen.
Evans is excellent in portraying how historical research is done, what standards are expected of serious historians, and how Irving's work did not meet those standards. He is also convincing in demonstrating Irving's apparent racism and anti-semitism, and he is also subtle in explaining partly the motivations of "Holocaust deniers", though doing so fully would be outside the scope of this book.
I found few weaknesses, one being the inconsistency sometimes in explanations of detail. (For example, a brief explanation in Chapter 2 of what the Nazi party tribunals that reviewed events of November 1938, so-called "Kristallnacht", were doing would be more important than identifying the proper pronunciation of one proper name in a later chapter). Another weakness is the all-too-common failure to include illustrations. It is frustrating to read descriptions of documents, or in the case of Irving, physical appearance, and not be able to see a few photographs that are surely readily available from press accounts.
But those are minor complaints (and the book publishers are apparently cutting costs like everyone else). The most important theme of the book is how this case shows that there really are truths in historical analysis, and that historians should not shrink from taking on those who would question such truths as the overwhelming evidence of the mass and systematic destruction of Jews and other minorities in Nazi Germany. Historians themselves can be dangerous actors in human history if people like Evans and Penguin do not take courageous stands as they did here.
All in all, wonderfully concise and a great read.

54 people found this helpful

Helpful

KGar

A very worthwhile read

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent book. I am only giving it 4 stars because Evans writing style can be slow at times. However, the information contained within the pages of this account is worth the reading for anyone interested in history, Hitler and the holocaust.

Evans does an excellent job of showing that history is an active mental evaluation of what took place, why it took place and how the historian’s interpretation of the evidence demonstrates the mindset of the historian. Evans unabashedly shows that David Irvin is not a historian but rather a holocaust denier and liar. Mr. Irving loses all credibility of a historian by falsely attributing conclusions to reliable sources by bending them to fit his arguments. Evans shows that David Irving willfully distorts original (source material) authors meanings and purposes for his own purposes that directly contradicts the originals documents or that Irvin will pick up on insignificant and implausible pieces of evidence while dismissing more substantive evidence that does not fit his thesis. According to Evans, “if we mean by historian someone who is concerned to discover the truth about the past, and to give as accurate a representation of it as possible, then Irving is not a historian”.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Appellate Advocate

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2016

Verified Purchase

Evans rocks!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Jim

Evans leaves Irving with nowhere to hide

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2021

Verified Purchase

Like all really great books - novels or otherwise - this one is about more than the ostensible subject in hand: the libel trial brought by the propagandist David Irving against Penguin Books/Deborah Lipstadt. Evans was one of the expert witnesses and whilst he spends the final part looking at the trial he mostly covers the evidence he submitted which concludes that Irving deserved to lose the case. That he is, in short, a Holocaust denier and antisemite. But on the way to the verdict, Evans shows what historians do and how they do it - what history is and what it is not. In this, he also shows us how to tackle the debate around free-speech and so-called cancel culture, political correctness and the truth. He does it forensically and if you enjoy the satisfaction of seeing one of those time-lapse videos of complex buildings being constructed from the ground up then you'll enjoy this, except of course this is a slow-motion demolition. Particularly enjoyable were the bon mots from Richard Rampton (defence barrister) and the judge who was unsparing in his verdict. Evans also gets in a few crackers and although there's a whiff of self-serving in his summation of the trial who can deny Evans a lap of honour for an important mission accomplished. Outstanding.

2 people found this helpful

Richard Ellis

The discipline of history - an object lesson

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book is an object lesson in the study and discipline of history, as well as being about the research which informed the defence’s case in the “David Irving trial”. I’d already seen the film “Denial”, about Irving v. Lipstadt and Penguin Books, and read Deborah Lipstadt’s book about the case. In the trial, of course, the defence strategy was to not put Lipstadt herself into the witness box, but to make the case one about David Irving the historian. Professor Richard J Evans, as the defence’s lead expert witness, is something of a cameo role in the film, but of course it was the work of him and his team, in the two years before the trial, which made victory in court possible. This is the story of that work.
Their method was to examine Irving’s use of sources in his writings about Hitler and the Holocaust, and to take another topic not related to the Holocaust – the bombing of Dresden – to see if Irving’s misuse of sources applied there too. What follows is a cool-headed and utterly absorbing forensic dissection of Irving’s work. Much of this is work which Lipstadt herself was not equipped academically to do, either as a historian or because not a few points hinged on minutiae of German translation. As Evans says, “She had never written about German history, and had never been in a German archive. Indeed, as far as I could tell, she did not even read German”.
There are some excellent reviews already here, which I won’t add to beyond saying it is an enthralling and eminently satisfying read. Ironies abound. If Irving had not sued Lipstadt and Penguin (and it was that way round, a point which escaped some of the commentators at the time), his work and reputation would not have been subjected to the scrutiny that resulted. The impact of her original book “Denying the Holocaust”, at which Irving took such offence, was probably considerably less than that of the trial, and this book.

6 people found this helpful

Robert T. Boyter

David Irving gets his comeuppance.

Reviewed in Canada on May 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

After writing history which began so well ("The Mares Nest") Irving for reasons apparent only to him, began to distort history and become a quasi-Nazi revisionist. Someone finally challenged him in the courts (as his publisher should have years before) and won the case, shutting him down. What is not reavealed in sufficient clarity however is the very wealthy cadre of crypto-Nazi sympathizers in the United States who have supported him since he was forced to pay a huge settlement. Who are they, and why are they so enamoured of Hitler that they will pay for this man's expensive and luxurious lifestyle?

One person found this helpful

sjm53

Evans puts the boot in so hard - albeit justifiably ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

Evans puts the boot in so hard - albeit justifiably so - that I even had a fleeting moment when I felt sorry for Irving. Rest assured, the moment soon passed.

6 people found this helpful

Claire Harrington

Very interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is not my usual type of book as I’m not a fan of this sort of non-fiction (I tend to get bored about halfway through), but this was both highly readable and interesting.

One person found this helpful

See all reviews

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Lying About Hitler Reprint Edition

Buy used: $7.86

Buy new: $17.50

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Get everything you need

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Customers who bought this item also bought

Buy used:

$7.86

Buy new:

$17.50