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The first work to systematically investigate the potential for a dialogue between postcolonial studies and the history of Zionism.
 
There is an “unacknowledged kinship” between studies of Zionism and post-colonial studies, a kinship that deserves to be both discovered and acknowledged. Unacknowledged Kinships strives to facilitate a conversation between the historiography of Zionism and postcolonial studies by identifying and exploring possible linkages and affiliations between their subjects as well as the limits of such connections. The contributors to this volume discuss central theoretical concepts developed within the field of postcolonial studies, and they use these concepts to analyze crucial aspects of the history of Zionism while contextualizing Zionist thought, politics, and culture within colonial and postcolonial histories. This book also argues that postcolonial studies could gain from looking at the history of Zionism as an example of not only colonial domination but also the seemingly contradictory processes of national liberation and self-empowerment.
 
Unacknowledged Kinships is the first work to systematically investigate the potential for a dialogue between postcolonial studies and Zionist historiography. It is also unique in suggesting that postcolonial concepts can be applied to the history of European Zionism just as comprehensively as to the history of Zionism in Palestine and Israel or Arab countries. Most importantly, the book is an overture for a dialogue between postcolonial studies and the historiography of Zionism.
 

A comprehensive overview of the controversy surrounding Hitler’s Willing Executioners.

Few if any books of the past fifty years have moved a broad section of the German public to think about their country’s Nazi past as has Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners. The main argument of his book is that Germans committed the unthinkable acts of the Holocaust not because they were forced to but out of a deeply held conviction that killing Jews was morally just. Unwilling Germans? traces the intense and varied reception of a book that has created more heated debate than any other treatment of Germany’s genocidal past.

When Goldhagen’s book first appeared, it was almost universally dismissed by journalists and historians alike. However, following a book tour in Germany, Goldhagen started winning over many of his ardent detractors and finding a young, receptive audience. Although German scholars reacted to Goldhagen and his argument with outrage and dismissal, ironically the German public was mesmerized by both the book and Goldhagen himself.Unwilling Germans? reprints articles that originally appeared in German newspapers, the popular press, and journals, as well as offering original essays. Among the writers whose work is represented are historians, journalists, political scientists, and literary critics, including Jürgen Habermas and Klaus Theweleit. The book traces the initial reactions in Germany to the debate surrounding the U.S. publication of the book, the subsequent reviews and reactions upon the publication of the German translation, and recent commentary by Goldhagen and the American historian Christopher Browning. A unique and fascinating collection, Unwilling Germans? will help to sort out the confusing nature of the response to the “Goldhagen Debate,” and shed light on both Germany’s continuing process of coming to terms with its Nazi past and the resonances of that debate in the United States.ISBN 0-8166-3100-X Cloth $44.95xxISBN 0-8166-3101-8 Paper $17.95224 pages 5 7/8 x 9 JuneTranslation inquiries: University of Minnesota Press