SOURCE: Finkelstein, Norman. “How the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 Gave Birth to a Memorial Industry.” London Review of Books 22, no. 1 (6 January 2000): 33-6.

In the following review, Finkelstein describes The Holocaust in American Life as an “illuminating” book and discusses the implications of Novick's argument in regard to prevailing American attitudes about Israel.

The Holocaust is more central to American cultural life than the Civil War. Seventeen states either demand or recommend Holocaust programmes in their schools; many colleges and universities have endowed chairs in Holocaust Studies; hardly a day goes by without a Holocaust-related story appearing in the New York Times. Polls show that many more Americans can identify the Holocaust than Pearl Harbor or the atomic bombing of Japan. Consider the media attention given to Daniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners, published in 1996 and hailed as Time's ‘most talked about’ book of the year. It has become an...