The Holocaust and Historical Methodology

Fourteen chapters, presented by Stone (modern history, U. of London, England), grapple with issues of historical method and methodology in consideration of the Holocaust. That is, they consider the intertwined issues the of practicality issues of acquiring and evaluating sources in order to produce a synthetic narrative as well as theoretical issues on the nature of method and the various social, economic, intellectual, cultural, diplomatic, and other "schools" of history in relation to our understanding of the Holocaust. Major topics addressed by individual contributions include the politics of memory and postwar representation of the Holocaust; the relationships between Nazism, the Holocaust, and ecology; theological responses towards a secular morality; methodological problems in Holocaust testimony; Holocaust history as commemoration; and how to place the Holocaust in relation to European and world history. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dan Stone is Professor of Modern History at Royal Holloway, University of London. His recent publications include The Historiography of Genocide (ed., 2008), Histories of the Holocaust (2010), and The Oxford Handbook of Postwar European History (ed., 2012).