The Holocaust in American Life by Peter Novick

The Holocaust in American Life by Peter Novick

Prize-winning historian Peter Novick illuminates the reasons Americans ignored the Holocaust for so long -- how dwelling on German crimes interfered with Cold War mobilization; how American Jews, not wanting to be thought of as victims, avoided the subject. He explores in absorbing detail the decisions that later moved the Holocaust to the center of American life: Jewish leaders invoking its memory to muster support for Israel and to come out on top in a sordid competition over what group had suffered most; politicians using it to score points with Jewish voters. With insight and sensitivity, Novick raises searching questions about these developments. Have American Jews, by making the Holocaust the emblematic Jewish experience, given Hitler a posthumous victory, tacitly endorsing his definition of Jews as despised pariahs? Does the Holocaust really teach useful lessons and sensitize us to atrocities, or, by making the Holocaust the measure, does it make lesser crimes seem not so bad? What are we to make of the fact that while Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars for museums recording a European crime, there is no museum of American slavery?

Novick, Peter: - Peter Novick is professor of history at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Resistance Versus Vichy and That Noble Dream: The Objectivity Question and the American Historical Profession, which won the American Historical Association's prize for the best book of the year in American history.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780395840092
ISBN 10	0395840090
Title	The Holocaust in American Life
Author	Peter Novick
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Year published	1999-11-26
Number of pages	373
Prizes	Short-listed for L.A. Times Book Prize (History) 1999
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.