Denying History – Who says the Holocaust never happened and why do they say it? (2009)

[color=#a00000]Denying History
[color=#ffffff]Who says the Holocaust never happened and why do they say it?
by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman, 2nd updated and expanded edition, 2009

Amazon.com Review
Denying History is a courageous and accessible study of "a looking-glass world where black is white, up is down, and the normal rules of reason no longer apply." Authors Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman have immersed themselves in the conferences, literature, and Web culture of Holocaust deniers; they have engaged the pseudo-historians in debate; and they have visited the concentration camps in Europe to investigate the truth of what happened there. Denying History presents Shermer and Grobman's findings. The book refutes, in detail, the Holocaust deniers' claims, and it demonstrates conclusively that the Holocaust did happen. It also explores the fundamental historical issue in all debates over the truth of the Holocaust: the question of "how we know that any past event happened." Thus, Denying History is a doubly useful book; it sets the record straight on one of history's most terrible events, and it instructs readers in the scientific, logical, and historiographical principles that can help us make wise judgments about history on our own.

From Publishers Weekly
Holocaust denial – back in the news since the British courts shot down David Irving's libel suit against Deborah Lipstadt (for her groundbreaking book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory) in April – gets an inventively thorough treatment in this important book. Keeping their focus on larger questions about historical rigor and public memory, Shermer (a professor of the history of science at Occidental College and publisher of Skeptic magazine) and Grobman (Rekindling the Flame) look closely at the methods employed by deniers and those used by legitimate historians. "Holocaust denial," they argue, "is not just a Jewish issue. It is an attack on all history and the way we transmit the past to the future." Drawing on a wide array of evidence – interviews they conducted with famous deniers (including Irving himself) and text from their Web sites and literature – the authors explore the difference between legitimate historical revisionism and pseudohistorical denial. They note that historians interested in revising accepted knowledge depend on a wide variety of sources to draw a picture of an event or period – if some of that evidence is contradictory, then respectful scholarly debate ensues; if new evidence surfaces, then the historical record gets revised. Deniers, on the contrary, use the barest of evidence – one contradiction, for example – to discount entire arguments; meanwhile, they bolster their own arguments with out-of-context phrases and mistranslations. Using the deniers' own words to tear down their arguments, Shermer and Grobman provide a clear method for determining the reality of past events and supply a powerful weapon for anyone who cares about learning from the credible historical record. 42 b&w photos.

„Convincing. . . . A patiently stunning case that denies the deniers.” – Los Angeles Times

„Deserves a prominent place . . . especially for its survey of the flaws, fallacies, and failings in the deniers' arguments.” – The Financial Times

„Shermer and Grobman have added considerably to psychological understanding of the strange and irritating phenomenon of Holocaust denial.” – The Times Literary Supplement

„You won't be able to stop reading this great, gripping story.” – Jared Diamond, author of Collapse

354 pages

Related torrents on ConCen:

Denying The Holocaust –
The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory
http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=26364

Lying about Hitler – History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial
http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=25603

Related links – confronting Holocaust denial:

Holocaust Educational Resource
http://www.nizkor.org/qar-complete.cgi
http://www.nizkor.org/

The Holocaust History Project Homepage
http://www.holocaust-history.org/questions/
http://www.holocaust-history.org/denial/revisionism-qa.shtml
http://www.holocaust-history.org/

Holocaust Denial on Trial: Using History to Confront Distortions
http://holocaust-denial-on-trial.com/en/learning/myth-fact
http://holocaust-denial-on-trial.com/
http://www.hdot.org/

Holocaust Controversies – What Part Of The Word Genocide Do You Not Understand?
http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.de

Rational Wiki: Holocaust denial
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Red_herrings_in_Holocaust_denial

Answers to the 66 Questions of Holocaust Deniers
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denial1.html

Holocaust Denial & The Big Lie
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/biglie.html

How to Understand And Confront Holocaust Denial
http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/pages/thema02.htm

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/denial/

Responses to common Holocaust-denial claims
http://www.adl.org/holocaust/response.asp