- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Plume; Reprint edition (Jun 21 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0452272742
- ISBN-13: 978-0452272743
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #230,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Kirkus Reviews
A forceful analysis of attempts to deny the Nazi Holocaust. Lipstadt (Religion/Emory University; Beyond Belief, 1985--not reviewed) traces the history of Holocaust revisionism and contends that it can no longer be ignored, showing how Holocaust-deniers, once dismissed as a lunatic fringe, have been growing in numbers and influence during the past 20 years. Citing groups like the Institute for Historical Review, publications like The Spotlight, politicians like David Duke, and academicians like Leonard Jeffries, Lipstadt presents numerous examples of attempts to prove that the extermination of six million Jews is a hoax; that only a few thousand Jews died in the camps from disease; that the Allied bombings of German cities were worse than any Nazi offense; and that the ``true victims'' of WW II were the German people. These distortions of recorded history, argues the author, threaten to undermine our Western rationalist tradition and to legitimize the politicization of history. To Lipstadt, the common thread among Holocaust deniers is a ``purely anti-Semitic diatribe'' portraying Jews as victimizers. Self-declared scholars like Arthur R. Butz (whose credentials are in electronics) claim that Jews used the world's sympathy after the war to ``displace'' another people, establish the nation of Israel, and ``steal'' billions in reparations from their German and Western ``cash cows.'' Lipstadt argues vehemently against giving revisionists a forum in the name of free speech or freedom of the press, and she details the efforts of California revisionist Bradley Smith, who pushed a ``Holocaust was a hoax'' campaign in college newspapers throughout the US. Lipstadt contends that ``the responses to Holocaust denial by both students and faculty graphically demonstrate the susceptibility of an educated and privileged segment to the kind of reasoning that creates a hospitable climate for the rewriting of history.'' An important, well-documented study that deserves attention. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Book Description
The denial of the Holocaust has no more credibility than the assertion that the earth is flat. Yet there are those who insist that the death of six million Jews in Nazi concentration camps is nothing but a hoax perpetrated by a powerful Zionist conspiracy. Forty years ago, such notions were the province of pseudohistorians who argued that Hitler never meant to kill the Jews, and that only a few hundred thousand died in the camps from disease; they also argued that the Allied bombings of Dresden and other cities were worse than any Nazi offense, and that the Germans were the "true victims" of World War II. For years, those who made such claims were dismissed as harmless cranks operating on the lunatic fringe. But over the past decade they have begun to gain a hearing in respectable arenas, and now, in the first full-scale history of Holocaust denial, Deborah Lipstadt shows how - despite tens of thousands of living witnesses and vast amounts of documentary evidence - this irrational idea not only has continued to gain adherents but has become an international movement, with organized chapters, "independent" research centers, and official publications that promote a "revisionist" view of recent history. One sign of the movement's disturbing resonance is the rise of such figures as the Holocaust denier David Duke to national prominence. Holocaust deniers have also begun to make common cause with radical Afrocentrists such as Leonard Jeffries of New York's City University, who retails racist myths about the Jews; and a recent campaign of ads in college newspapers calling for "open debate" on "so-called facts" about the Holocaust suggests a bold new bid for mainstream intellectual legitimacy. Lipstadt shows how Holocaust denial thrives in the current atmosphere of value relativism, and argues that this chilling attack on the factual record not only threatens Jews but undermines the very tenets of objective scholarship that support our faith in historical knowledge.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed, but important,
By A Customer
This review is from: Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (Paperback)
Deborah Lipstadt clearly has a high opinion of her own cleverness and the "I'm right and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong" attitude she adopts, particularly at the start of the book, is irritating. To compound this, the editing is woefully sloppy, resulting in, among other things, far more misprints than should be the case in works at this level. These are serious flaws, but once the reader gets past them, the naivety, wilful blindness and downright cruelty of those who would rehabilitate the Nazis are shown in frightening relief and detail. Books like this should keep us all on our guard. Thank goodness she won that British libel case. Recommended, but with reservations.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but read another book.,
By
This review is from: Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (Paperback)
This book is good, but one should really read another boook titled 'Denying History'. That book is a more thorough refutation on the Holocaust deniers.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Important book, not to be ignored,
By Trial Critic "Reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Denying the Holocaust (Hardcover)
I found this book to be an important one. Most people who read about history assume it to be true. It behooves us to question the veracity of facts. There are some who is genuinely interested in the truth and others who wish to change it to suit their philosophy and ends. Richard Evans and Deborah Lipstadt have put forth the topic backed by facts. Of course, if one is not rational, one can always question any views and not accept anything view except what one chooses to believe. It is a fine difference between the rational and the fanatic. One notices that in a number of the reviews of this book and of the trial of David Irving. I feel that while Holocaust should not be treated like religion, one should not ignore it. No one uses it to justify the existence of Israel, however one must use to to justify non-duplication of the errors of the past. A lot of people need to get this. It is surprising that after so many years this topic stirs up so much fervor among people, most of whom are not connected to the holocaust in anyway. I can understand if they are Germans or Jews whose parents/relatives where involved in the Shoah, but so much reaction from the others. It does not seem logical. Mangling history lead to a lot of wrongs in the world and should never be repeated.
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