The Holocaust and Collective Memory

In this meticulously researched and vigorously argued book, Peter Novick performs a courageous and much needed task: he charts the fascinating history of the post-war response to the Holocaust, and asks how that event has come to occupy its seemingly central place in the American psyche. Written with candour and sensitivity, it is a work that, in its very skepticism, goes a long way to reclaim the authentic meanings of the Holocaust from the pieties and politics of memory, which serve only to obscure its tragic truths. An important, thought-provoking book.