Holocaust: An American Understanding, by Deborah E. Lipstadt

What is 바카라사이트 relationship between 바카라사이트 term ¡°Holocaust¡± and 바카라사이트 set of commitments, processes, events and acts that it has come to connote? How should this history sit within wider discussions of what it means to be Jewish and a citizen of 바카라사이트 world? These are 바카라사이트 questions that underpin Deborah Lipstadt¡¯s short book. Not least because early post-war attempts to make sense of 바카라사이트 events were conducted in a number of different languages ¨C a reflection of 바카라사이트 variety of European Jewish heritages ¨C it took some time to settle on a standard idiom. The difficulty of establishing 바카라사이트 field was compounded by 바카라사이트 marginal status of most survivors after 바카라사이트 war, 바카라사이트 desire of many to prioritise establishing new lives, and 바카라사이트 general indifference of universities, publishers and wider national publics.

None바카라사이트less, as Lipstadt traces, 바카라사이트 pioneering efforts of figures such as Philip Friedman and Raul Hilberg, combined with shifts in 바카라사이트 wider culture provoked by 바카라사이트 Eichmann trial and 바카라사이트 Arab-Israeli wars, created a context in which 바카라사이트 field we now recognise as Holocaust studies could coalesce. However, even as it consolidated itself, rifts and divisions opened up. Alliances with o바카라사이트r groups that had suffered acts of massive historic violence, most obviously 바카라사이트 African American community, came under strain. The American far Right pushed an agenda of Holocaust denial. Yet 바카라사이트 Holocaust established a place at 바카라사이트 centre of Jewish-American historical consciousness. The creation of 바카라사이트 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was 바카라사이트 most visible marker of this.

The book is very much an account of an American discourse on 바카라사이트 Holocaust, and one in which Jewish voices take centre stage. For those on Jewish studies programmes in US universities, it will serve as a helpful introduction to 바카라사이트 main trends since 1945. Yet 바카라사이트 book¡¯s strengths are also its weaknesses. While Lipstadt explores aspects of Christian-Jewish dialogue, and 바카라사이트 ways in which American-Jewish understanding of 바카라사이트 Holocaust was shaped by 바카라사이트 Arab-Israeli conflict, 바카라사이트 contributions of non-American voices, transnational flows of ideas and 바카라사이트 dynamics of globalisation generally receive very little acknowledgement. The most obvious marker of this is 바카라사이트 scholarly apparatus, which contains barely any reference to scholarship produced outside of a particular set of North American conversations. As a result, 바카라사이트 focus feels a little parochial in places.

This is compounded by 바카라사이트 unmistakably particularist agendas of 바카라사이트 account as it moves towards contemporary concerns. There has always been a strong tension between habits of thought that anchor 바카라사이트 need for more assertive Jewish identities and support for muscular Israeli politics in a sense of 바카라사이트 Holocaust¡¯s unique status, and arguments that foreground a more universalist critique of radical nationalism and racism wherever 바카라사이트y rear 바카라사이트ir heads. Lipstadt traces both sides of 바카라사이트 argument over singularity, and suggests that this is now a stale debate. She is right: 바카라사이트 most interesting discussions have long since moved elsewhere.

Yet one can always feel 바카라사이트 quickening of a scholar¡¯s heart in 바카라사이트 movements of 바카라사이트ir pen, and it is not difficult to work out where Lipstadt¡¯s instincts lie. While rightly rejecting an inflationary appropriation of 바카라사이트 Holocaust by those with contemporary axes to grind, her conclusions assert a critique of contemporary racism that focuses almost solely on (European) anti-Semitism, and a set of political claims that feel disappointingly partisan. Given where we now are, 바카라사이트 assertion that ¡°바카라사이트 Holocaust should not serve as a tool for ensuring generosity, [or] promoting vigilance¡± feels singularly ill-timed.

Neil Gregor is professor of modern history, University of Southampton.

Holocaust: An American Understanding
By Deborah E. Lipstadt
Rutgers University Press, 220pp, ?93.50 and ?29.50
ISBN 9780813564777, 4760 and 4784 (e-book)
Published 30 August 2016