War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

Doris L Bergen

Book cover for War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust
Book cover for War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust
Book cover for War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust
Book cover for War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

Doris L Bergen

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Description

In examining one of the defining events of the twentieth century, Doris L. Bergen situates the Holocaust in its historical, political, social, cultural, and military contexts. Unlike many other treatments of the Holocaust, this revised, fourth edition discusses not only the persecution of Jews, but also other groups targeted by the Nazis: people with disabilities, Roma, queer people, Poles in leadership positions, Soviet POWs, and others deemed unwanted. In clear and eloquent prose, Bergen explores the two interconnected goals that drove the Nazi German program of conquest and genocide--purification of the so-called Aryan race and expansion of its living space--and invites readers to reflect on how the Holocaust connects to histories of violence around the world. Replete with firsthand accounts from victims, survivors, and eyewitnesses, this book is immediate, human, and eminently readable.

About the Author

Doris L. Bergen is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. She has been researching and teaching about the Holocaust for thirty-five years.

Critical Reviews

Doris Bergen's War and Genocide has long served as an excellent introduction to the history of the Holocaust. Clearly and engagingly written, the book combines sweeping historical analysis with insightful stories of how ordinary people experienced these terrible events. This new edition integrates up-to-date research in the field and includes expanded consideration of the Holocaust in comparison with other genocides.

--Alan E. Steinweis, University of Vermont

Written by one of the field's leading scholars in a beautiful and easy to read style, this book is remarkably comprehensive, and impressively up-to-date on evolving scholarship. It covers all the important themes and trends in Holocaust history over the last forty years, as well as all of the geographic areas. The book also brings in personal stories of victims and survivors. It makes my class much richer and easier to teach; War and Genocide is beyond compare.

--Laurie Marhoefer, University of Washington

Bergen's outstanding volume on the Holocaust has been made even better in this new edition. The emphasis on genocide as a process that must center on the complexity of humanity itself forms the core critical contribution of the book. To this, Bergen has added rich new materials and sources, including important visual material from Jewish victims and survivors. Her subtle but accessible text remains the model for approaching this difficult history.

--Paul B. Jaskot, Duke University

In this fourth edition of War and Genocide, Doris Bergen integrates new insights from scholarly research into the Holocaust, making it accessible to a wider readership, and showing how our understanding of this enormous event keeps evolving. In doing so, Bergen broadens the book's geographical scope to include the Middle East; draws revealing links between the Holocaust, colonialism, eugenics, racism, and modern forms of warfare; and gives voice to a spectrum of individual people. A brilliant educator, Bergen thoughtfully and clearly, guides readers to consider how events and individual fates are "similar to, distinct from, and connected to" each other as well as the place of the Holocaust within a broader global human history of genocide.

--Tatjana Lichtenstein, The University of Texas at Austin

Publishing Information

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pub date: 2024-08-23
Length: 440 pages

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