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Overview"The increasingly popular genre of ""alternative histories"" has captivated audiences by asking questions like ""what if the South had won the Civil War?"" Such speculation can be instructive, heighten our interest in a topic, and shed light on accepted history. In The Holocaust Averted, Jeffrey Gurock imagines what might have happened to the Jewish community in the United States if the Holocaust had never occurred and forces readers to contemplate how the road to acceptance and empowerment for today's American Jews could have been harder than it actually was. Based on reasonable alternatives grounded in what is known of the time, places, and participants, Gurock presents a concise narrative of his imagined war-time saga and the events that followed Hitler's military failures. While German Jews did suffer under Nazism, the millions of Jews in Eastern Europe survived and were able to maintain their communities. Since few people were concerned with the safety of European Jews, Zionism never became popular in the United States and social antisemitism kept Jews on the margins of society. By the late 1960s, American Jewish communities were far from vibrant. This alternate history-where, among many scenarios, Hitler is assassinated, Japan does not bomb Pearl Harbor, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt is succeeded after two terms by Robert A. Taft-does cause us to review and better appreciate history. As Gurock tells his tale, he concludes every chapter with a short section that describes what actually happened and, thus, further educates the reader." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Jeffrey S. GurockPublisher: Rutgers University Press Imprint: Rutgers University Press Edition: First Paperback Edition Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.399kg ISBN: 9780813572383ISBN 10: 081357238 Pages: 320 Publication Date: 27 April 2017 Recommended Age: From 18 to 99 years Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsPrologue Ghosts in the Restored Jewish Quarter in Krakow, Poland: An Entrance into Alternate Jewish HistoryChapter 1 A World at War, 1938Chapter 2 American Jewry in the Late 1930s: A Respite for an Insecure CommunityChapter 3 Conflicting Challenges for an America at Peace, 1938–1944Chapter 4 Without the “Boss”: American Jewry’s Concerns, 1940–1944Chapter 5 The Eastern European Threat and an End to U.S. Isolationism, 1944–1945Chapter 6 Divided Allegiances: American Jews and Israel, 1944–1950Chapter 7 Suburban Jewish Cul de Sacs, 1950–1960Chapter 8 The 1960s and the Trials of Acceptance for American JewsChapter 9 Unending Dilemmas: Israelis, Arabs, the World Powers, and American JewsConclusion Alternate History and the Realities of American Jewish LifeNotesReviewsThis is an exciting, provocative, path-breaking book. It is complex, textured in historical detail, and full of literally hundreds of various scenarios and possibilities of 'what if.' Gurock has done a masterful job. --Marc Dollinger co-editor of American Jewish History: A Primary Source Reader Gurock s book is a tour de force, on the cutting edge of an emerging genre. He has mastered American political history, European military and political history, and every aspect of American Jewry over a period of about three decades, and crafted an intelligent, entertaining, imaginative, and even suspenseful narrative. I cannot think of anyone who could have duplicated this superb book. --Marc Lee Raphael author of The Synagogue in America: A Short History With imagination and erudition, courage and wit including a suddenly stalwart Neville Chamberlain defying Hitler at Munich and a Joseph P. Kennedy (Jr.) becoming Israel's most important friend Jeffrey Gurock ponders how a fragile and skittishAmerican Jewry might have evolved without Pearl Harbor and Auschwitz. His surprisingly dystopian vision, filled with familiar characters in unfamiliar and intriguing roles, is sure to challenge and, quite possibly, to infuriate. --David Margolick author of Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink Gurock's book is a tour de force, on the cutting edge of an emerging genre. He has mastered American political history, European military and political history, and every aspect of American Jewry over a period of about three decades, and crafted an intelligent, entertaining, imaginative, and even suspenseful narrative. I cannot think of anyone who could have duplicated this superb book. --Marc Lee Raphael author of The Synagogue in America: A Short History With imagination and erudition, courage and wit--including a suddenly stalwart Neville Chamberlain defying Hitler at Munich and a Joseph P. Kennedy (Jr.) becoming Israel's most important friend--Jeffrey Gurock ponders how a fragile and skittish American Jewry might have evolved without Pearl Harbor and Auschwitz. His surprisingly dystopian vision, filled with familiar characters in unfamiliar and intriguing roles, is sure to challenge--and, quite possibly, to infuriate. --David Margolick author of Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink Hot on the trail of surprise turns and eerie parallels in this 'what if' romp through the most momentous years of 20th century history, the reader ultimately confronts the dilemmas of Jewish life today. --Jack Wertheimer Jewish Theological Seminary This is an exciting, provocative, path-breaking book. It is complex, textured in historical detail, and full of literally hundreds of various scenarios and possibilities of 'what if.' Gurock has done a masterful job. --Marc Dollinger co-editor of American Jewish History: A Primary Source Reader Gurock's book is a tour de force, on the cutting edge of an emerging genre. He has mastered American political history, European military and political history, and every aspect of American Jewry over a period of about three decades, and crafted an intelligent, entertaining, imaginative, and even suspenseful narrative. I cannot think of anyone who could have duplicated this superb book. --Marc Lee Raphael author of The Synagogue in America: A Short History With imagination and erudition, courage and wit--including a suddenly stalwart Neville Chamberlain defying Hitler at Munich and a Joseph P. Kennedy (Jr.) becoming Israel's most important friend--Jeffrey Gurock ponders how a fragile and skittish American Jewry might have evolved without Pearl Harbor and Auschwitz. His surprisingly dystopian vision, filled with familiar characters in unfamiliar and intriguing roles, is sure to challenge--and, quite possibly, to infuriate. --David Margolick author of Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink If [Philip] Roth and [Quentin] Tarantino could rewrite the past, why not allow the historian - in this case Yeshiva University scholar Jeffrey Gurock - to play with facts and offer, with many of the trappings of scholarship, an imagined history? --Times Higher Education Gurock's emphasis on the contrast between the postwar American Jewry of his alternative Jewry and what Jews actually experienced after 1945 perhaps offers a clue as to why he wrote this engrossing volume. The book implicitly challenges those naysayers who have emphasized the deficiencies of post-war American Jewry. When placed alongside his somber alternate history of American Jews, what is noteworthy from his perspective is their actual accomplishments. For Gurock the glass of postwar American Jewry and of American Judaism is half full, not half empty. --American Jewish History As magical, restorative, and nearly unconceivable it is for us, his audience, to read European Jewry back into existence, Gurock directs the readers attention elsewhere in this ambitious reimagining of twentieth-century history ... This book delivers frisson upon frisson as the world we know brushes up past its fraternal twin. --The American Jewish Archives Journal The Holocaust Averted shows how stimulating a counterfactual drawn from social history can be ... Gurock's book takes a seemingly felicitous event as a divergence point, and draws dark conclusions. --Aeon Hot on the trail of surprise turns and eerie parallels in this 'what if' romp through the most momentous years of 20th century history, the reader ultimately confronts the dilemmas of Jewish life today. --Jack Wertheimer Jewish Theological Seminary Hot on the trail of surprise turns and eerie parallels in this 'what if' romp through the most momentous years of 20th century history, the reader ultimately confronts the dilemmas of Jewish life today. --Jack Wertheimer Jewish Theological Seminary Author InformationJEFFREY S. GUROCK is the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University. His most recent work, Jews in Gotham: New York Jews in a Changing City, won the 2012 Jewish Book of the Year award from the Jewish Book Council. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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