Sources of Holocaust Insight: Learning and Teaching about the Genocide
Sources of Holocaust Insight maps the odyssey of an American Christian philosopher who has studied, written, and taught about the Holocaust for more than fifty years. What findings result from John Roth's journey; what moods pervade it? How have events and experiences, scholars and students, texts and testimonies--especially the questions they raise--affected Roth's Holocaust studies and guided his efforts to heed the biblical proverb: "Whatever else you get, get insight"? More sources than Roth can acknowledge have informed his encounters with the Holocaust. But particular persons--among them Elie Wiesel, Raul Hilberg, Primo Levi, and Albert Camus--loom especially large. Revisiting Roth's sources of Holocaust insight, this book does so not only to pay tribute to them but also to show how the ethical, philosophical, and religious reverberations of the Holocaust confer and encourage responsibility for human well-being in the twenty-first century. Seeing differently, seeing better--sound learning and teaching about the Holocaust aim for what may be the most important Holocaust insight of all: Take nothing good for granted.
“This book is an important guide to the masters of Holocaust
scholarship, a wonderful place for students to begin their
exploration of the Holocaust, for younger scholars to assess what
they have learned and how much they still have to learn, and for
senior scholars to reflect as Roth has profoundly reflected on
those who shaped him. Page by page the book glistens with
insight—his own and others.”
—Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies, American Jewish
University
“Sources of Holocaust Insight is anchored in John K. Roth’s
friendship with so many people—Holocaust survivors and scholars,
artists and poets, writers and teachers, women and men, Jews and
Christians. It is beautifully written, an elegant intellectual
memoir of ‘an American Christian philosopher who has studied,
written, and taught about the Holocaust for more than fifty
years.’”
—Carol Rittner, RSM, Distinguished Professor of Holocaust and
Genocide Studies Emerita, Stockton University
“John Roth has long been one of the most prolific and thoughtful of
Holocaust scholars and educators. In his powerful and moving new
book, Sources of Holocaust Insight, Roth takes readers on a
journey in which he reflects on the ideas, questions, and writers
that influenced his own personal development as a teacher and
philosopher. In tracing his own intellectual growth, he also
provides readers with a rich and insightful discussion of the
history and breadth of Holocaust scholarship and a potent reminder
and affirmation of the importance and relevance of Holocaust
education and scholarship for the contemporary world. I highly
recommend this book.”
—Alex Alvarez, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice,
Northern Arizona University
“This book is an important guide to the masters of Holocaust
scholarship, a wonderful place for students to begin their
exploration of the Holocaust, for younger scholars to assess what
they have learned and how much they still have to learn, and for
senior scholars to reflect as Roth has profoundly reflected on
those who shaped him. Page by page the book glistens with
insight—his own and others.”
—Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies, American Jewish
University
“Sources of Holocaust Insight is anchored in John K. Roth’s
friendship with so many people—Holocaust survivors and scholars,
artists and poets, writers and teachers, women and men, Jews and
Christians. It is beautifully written, an elegant intellectual
memoir of ‘an American Christian philosopher who has studied,
written, and taught about the Holocaust for more than fifty
years.’”
—Carol Rittner, RSM, Distinguished Professor of Holocaust and
Genocide Studies Emerita, Stockton University
“John Roth has long been one of the most prolific and thoughtful of
Holocaust scholars and educators. In his powerful and moving new
book, Sources of Holocaust Insight, Roth takes readers on a
journey in which he reflects on the ideas, questions, and writers
that influenced his own personal development as a teacher and
philosopher. In tracing his own intellectual growth, he also
provides readers with a rich and insightful discussion of the
history and breadth of Holocaust scholarship and a potent reminder
and affirmation of the importance and relevance of Holocaust
education and scholarship for the contemporary world. I highly
recommend this book.”
—Alex Alvarez, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice,
Northern Arizona University
Product Details
- Title : Sources of Holocaust Insight: Learning and Teaching about the Genocide
- Author: Roth, John K.
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Publication Date: 2020
- ISBN: 9781532674204
John K. Roth is the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of
Philosophy and the founding director of the Center for the Study of
the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights (now the Mgrublian Center
for Human Rights) at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author or
editor of more than fifty books, including The Oxford Handbook
of Holocaust Studies (coeditor, 2010) and The Failures of
Ethics (2015).