The Holocaust 1933-1945
You should choose a book or a scholarly article that relates to the Holocaust and the issues we have been discussing in class. It is also acceptable to choose, for example, a book on antisemitism or the Holocaust in contemporary culture. The book does not have to be a history book. It could be a survivor’s account, a novel or even a play (although in these cases it will probably still be necessary to do wider reading and/or historical research e.g. about the author). It is not always advisable to choose a book that you like unreservedly as this may make your review very bland. You are expected to introduce an element of criticism into your discussion – which does not necessarily mean that you have to make negative comments about aspects of the work. Rather, you need to be able to substantiate you opinions. This usually means you will need to locate the work in the wider literature on the Holocaust and bring your wider knowledge of that literature to bear in judging its merits and/or weaknesses.
If in doubt about which book to choose, it may help to think in terms of the topics we have covered in the unit so that you can link the book to the wider historiography/historical debate about that topic. Or you could choose a book that is controversial in some way. For example, Lucy Dawidowicz’s The War Against the Jews represents an extreme intentionalist view of the origins of the Holocaust while Karl Schleunes’ The Twisted Road to Auschwitz is a functionalist account of Nazi Jewish policy in the 1930s. Daniel Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners presents a very extreme view of German antisemitism.and his discussion of the role of the police battalions in the mass shootings can be read alongside Christopher Browning’s work on them. It is best to avoid the topic you covered in your essay.
The critical review should not exceed 1500 words. The brevity of the exercise should not fool you into thinking that the exercise is easier than writing an essay! A good review is quite difficult to write and needs to be carefully planned. If you don’t usually read book reviews in the newspapers or in historical journals, start doing so. There is a technique to be learnt, and the more reviews you read, the more likely you will be to grasp what is required. There are plenty of book reviews in the historical journals on the first floor of the Learning Centre – pertinent reviews can be found in German History, the English Historical Review, American Historical Review, Journal of Contemporary History, etc. You can also look at those in weekly publications such as the Times Literary Supplement, Times Higher Education Supplement, London Review of Books, and newspapers such as the review section of Saturday’s Guardian.
You must remember to give the author, full title, publisher and date of the work.
You should use approximately 500-800 words to do the following:
1. try, as accurately as possible, to sketch the argument of the book or article
2. say what the author has stated is his/her intention in writing it
3. give a brief summary of its contents and conclusions
It may also be appropriate in this first part of the review to comment on the sources used, especially if the author has used or claims to have used new sources.
The remaining section of the review should constitute your assessment of the book or article’s strengths and weaknesses i.e. your critique.
Some of the issues you might consider in this section are:
1. Does the author succeed in his or her aims?
2. Does the book contribute something new to our understanding of the Holocaust?
3. Are you convinced by the author’s approach to the subject and by his/her arguments?
4. Does the evidence presented by the author adequately substantiate or justify his/her argument?
5. Has the author ignored anything you consider important or do you know of any evidence that might contradict his/her thesis?
6. Was there anything surprising in the work?
7. How effective, overall, is its treatment of the issues for its intended audience? [NB It is obviously silly to criticise a textbook intended for sixth-formers or first year undergraduates for not covering the issues in sufficient depth].
8. How historically accurate is the representation/treatment of the Holocaust in e.g. a work of fiction?
You will gain credit if you can link the book or article to the wider historiography on the subject and relevant issues we have discussed in class. Hence you are advised to read around the subject of your review and not just rely on a close reading of the book or article. Although short reviews do not usually carry references or a bibliography, we expect you to reference all quotations and to include a bibliography of works that helped you to write the review.
BOOK CHOSEN:
Adelson, A. and Lodz Ghetto. Inside a Community under Siege (1989)
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