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today’s AR-online Chicago professor’s new book on Americans and the Holocaust heaps criticism on Deborah Lipstadt: He makes the “shoah-business” argument, Novick cites her work as an example of the santification of the Holocaust.
[ See Jeff Sharlet’s Review ] The Holocaust in American Life by Peter Novick , Eric Chinski (Editor) List Price: $27.00 • Our Price: $18.90 at a glance You Save: $8.10 (30%) Hardcover – 320 pages (June 1999) Houghton Mifflin Co (Trd); ISBN: 0395840090 Amazon.com Sales Rank: 1,297 From Booklist , May 1, 1999 Why has the Holocaust , five decades after its conclusion, remained such a burning issue in the consciousness of Americans, both Jews and Gentiles?After all, most historical events fade
from memory with the passage of time and the deaths of those who directly experienced the events. Yet, despite the occurrence of more recent and certainly quite horrific mass atrocities, from Cambodia to Ruanda, the Holocaust continues to play a central role in American public discourse.
In this unsettling and fascinating work, Novick , a Jew and a professor of history at the University of Chicago, examines how a variety of domestic and foreign events have moved Holocaust consciousness to the center of American life and kept it there.
The author unhesitatingly probes the subjects, including the role of Holocaust consciousness in cold war politics, the “uniqueness” of the Holocaust, and even the supposed “obsession” of American Jews (few of whom are Holocaust survivors) with the Holocaust. This is an important work that is bound to irritate, even outrage, many readers. Jay Freeman —