Is the Holocaust Unique?
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| Author | Alan S. Rosenbaum |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Westview Press |
Publication date | 1995, 2000 (reprinted) |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 0-8133-3686-4 |
| OCLC | 45024496 |
| 940.53/18/072 21 | |
| LC Class | D804.348 .I8 2001 |
Is the Holocaust Unique?: Perspectives on Comparative Genocide is a 1995 book edited by Alan S Rosenbaum. In the book, scholars compare the Holocaust to other well-known instances of genocide and mass death. The book asks, are there any historical parallels to the Jewish Holocaust? Have Armenians, Gypsies, American Indians, or others undergone a comparable genocide?
As Alan Rosenbaum stated in regards to the book, "Any attempt by any group to keep a monopoly on language is doomed to failure...Because anybody can use any language they want. And the term Holocaust has such power -- as the paradigm case of genocide -- that any group wanting to make a superlative case for its own experience would naturally want to borrow it."[1]
A second edition was printed in 2000 and a third edition was released in 2009.[2]
Politics of Editing the Book
Ward Churchill writes:[3]
- An excellent topical example of what is at issue is described in a recent article by Christopher Shea in the Chronicle of Higher Education[4] concerning the controversy attending preparation of a Westview Press collection, Is the Holocaust Unique? Perspectives in Comparative Genocide, a book which was supposed to be a free and open exchange between those holding to exclusivist principles and scholars expressing comparativist views. As Shea observes, the problem devolves upon the fact that volume editor Alan S. Rosenbaum provided advance copies of all submissions to one contributor -- and only one -- Cornell University professor Steven T. Katz, author of the massive three-volume Holocaust in Historical Context and a leading advocate of exclusivism in its pure form.
Upon reviewing what some comparativists had to say with respect to his work, Katz whipped off a laundry list of changes and deletions he wanted to see made to their critiques. Rosenbaum in turn fronted these "suggestions" as if they were his own. Only when the editor accidentally faxed a memo intended for Katz to one of the more trenchant critics, historian David Stannard, was the subterfuge revealed (the missive outlined various contributors' compliance with Katz's secret manipulations). After a series of meetings with the publisher and its lawyers, most of the essays were returned to their original form -- a matter Katz, apparently waxing indignant at having been caught calls "a disgraceful business" -- and the book was sent to the press.
Reception
Jewish Book World called the book "a thought-provoking inquiry into the Holocaust."
Authors
From the 2009, 3rd edition:[2]
- Foreword, Israel W. Charny
- 1. The Ethics of Uniqueness, John K. Roth
- 2. Religion and the Uniqueness of the Holocaust, Richard L. Rubenstein
- 3. From the Holocaust: Some Legal and Moral Implications, Richard J. Goldstone
- 4. The Uniqueness of the Holocaust: The Historical Dimension, Steven T. Katz
- 5. Responses to the Porrajmos: The Romani Holocaust, Ian Hancock
- 6. The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Holocaust: A Comparative Analysis, Seymour Drescher
- 7. The Armenian Genocide as Precursor and Prototype of Twentieth-Century Genocide, Robert F. Melson
- 8. The Comparative Aspects of the Armenian and Jewish Cases of Genocide: A Sociohistorical Perspective, Vahakn N. Dadrian
- 9. Stalinist Terror and the Question of Genocide: The Great Famine, Barbara B. Green
- 10. The Holocaust and the Japanese Atrocities, Kinue Tokudome
- 11. The Holocaust, Rwanda and the Category of Genocide, Jerry Fowler
- 12. Hitler, Pol Pot, and Hutu Power: Common Themes in Genocidal Ideologies, Ben Kiernan
- 13. Global Vision: Iran's Holocaust Denial, Matthias Kuntzel
- 14. The Promise and Limits of Comparison: The Holocaust and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda, Scott Straus
- 15. Applying the Lessons of the Holocaust, Shimon Samuels
- 16. The Rise and Fall of Metaphor: German Historians and the Uniqueness of the Holocaust, Wulf Kansteiner
- 17. Uniqueness as Denial: The Politics of Genocide Scholarship, David Stannard
See also
Notes
- ^ Freedman, Samuel G. (December 13, 2008). "Laying Claim to Sorrow Beyond Words". The New York Times.
- ^ a b "Is the Holocaust Unique?: Perspectives on Comparative Genocide". tesco.com. Retrieved 2008-05-05. Official sponsor of Westview Press book sales.
- ^ Ward Churchill, 'A Little Matter of Genocide', CityLights Books, 1997, p. 65.
- ^ Christopher Shea, "The Debate Over the Uniqueness of the Holocaust," Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 September 1996.
External links
- Full text of the book at Scribd.com
- Karayan, Sarkis (July 14, 2001). "From the Bookshelf: Is the Holocaust Unique?". The Armenian Reporter.
- Jacobs, Steven L. "Holocaust and Genocide Studies: The Future Is Now". University of Nevada, Reno. Archived from the original on 2007-09-13.
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