The Cunning of History: The Holocaust as Slavery's Ultimate Embodiment and the Sleeping Virus in Civilization

I am using this book, interestingly enough, for a seminary course on God. I have read it multiple times since i read it first in 1983 as an undergraduate at Morehouse College doing the "final solution" for one semester of my honors course. I re-read the book while completing my PhD dissertation at the University of Chicago, on the Tragic in God and Human Experience. I give this book four stars instead of five only because of William Styron's belabored effort to "be missed by" or rather duck the point of Rubenstein's critique of the virus that remains at the heart of American culture. Once again the twists and turns to avoid the diabolical reality and ongoing horror of American racism proves we remain vulnerable to viral attack. Styron's tedious, tendentious and in the end ineffective attempt to "take the edge" off the implications of Rubenstein's diagnosis and preserve safe space for cherished racist presuppositions against African American's and for white supremacy is beneath the dignity of this book. It is proof of how truly insidious the virus remains.

This is only a small book (less than 100 pages), but it packs a lot of ideas into it's content.This is an "objective" view of the 20th century trend towards mass murder, and the forces described in this book, while based in a european context can be seen to hold true for virtually all "modern" societies, including Asia and Africa.The author explains the link between a well organised bureaucratic organisation with an objective view to "processing" people through their rules. The danger of having large groups of "displaced" and "no-nation" peoples combined with a tendancy to rationlise away those peoples "rights" in society - to make them effectivley "non-people" and outside the law. It also brings home the reality that power *does* corrupt - or at least finds excuses for all it does to other people.The author has presented us with a possible bleak future in many ways. This book is also a mirror to how we justify the choices of our modern life and the picture is not always pretty.In the past, where "jews" may have been the target, today discrimination is trending towards the poor, and once again with the displaced and dispossed. Read in conjunction with "no Logo", this book is very enlightening - though out of the 2 books this is the better written. Worth picking up, reading and keeping.

In this essay Richard Rubenstein contends that the Holocaust should be viewed within the context of a tradition of slavery that is deep rooted in western culture. Drawing on Max Weber, Rubenstein argues that the combination of unrestricted capitalism and protestantism helped to create the conditions necessary for the ultimate form of slavery as expressed in the Nazi death camps. Additional factors include a European trend toward viewing certain segments of a given population as expendable.The analysis is thought provoking and intelligently written. My reservation is that while I agree that viewing the holocaust in this way leads one to the conclusion that under the right circumstances genocide on this scale could happen again , I also believe that there was something uniquely evil in the Nazi leadership that contributed to the Holocaust. Rubenstein's analysis focused on historical/economic/social forces at the expense of the personal responsibilty of Hitler and his inner circle. Despite that this is an important book that should be mandatory reading in any study of the Holocaust.

A chilling accompaniment to Rubenstein's classic After Auschwitz. Studies the bureaucratic mechanism that incorporated the Jewish leaders in death machine designed to eliminate everyone of Jewish heritage in Germany.

This book was recommended to me by one of my instructors when I was working on my Master's Thesis. It is only 98 pages but it is one of the single most important books I have ever read. Rubenstein shows how the establishment of a modern bureaucracy produces and enables the monstrous horror of the Holocaust.I generally have my students read this book in tandem with Leon Uris' Armageddon. That novel creates three characters who illustrate so perfectly what Rubenstein writes about.I cannot recommend this book too highly.

This is a book everyone should read who opposes authoritarian developments in our own time. The hour is late.

Very well written and researched guide to understanding the evil potential within man. I have read many books on the Holocaust and this one is definitely in the top for me to recommend to anyone trying to understand how mankind can commit such atrocities. The pragmatic approach is very refreshing (all too often emotions about the evil within can compromise the argument, but Rubenstein transcends this).

This was intended as a course book, so it was a mandatory read. It was really kind of dry and dragged at times, but the information was good. You will learn from it, but you may also take a few naps.