Search results for ""Author Peter Hayes""

As the Holocaust passes out of living memory, future generations will no longer come face-to-face with Holocaust survivors. But the lessons of that terrible period in history are too important to let slip past. How Was It Possible?, edited and introduced by Peter Hayes, provides teachers and students with a comprehensive resource about the Nazi persecution of Jews. Deliberately resisting the reflexive urge to dismiss the topic as too horrible to be understood intellectually or emotionally, the anthology sets out to provide answers to questions that may otherwise defy comprehension. This anthology is organized around key issues of the Holocaust, from the historical context for antisemitism to the impediments to escaping Nazi Germany, and from the logistics of the death camps and the carrying out of genocide to the subsequent struggles of the displaced survivors in the aftermath. Prepared in cooperation with the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, this anthology includes contributions from such luminaries as Jean Ancel, Saul Friedlander, Tony Judt, Alan Kraut, Primo Levi, Robert Proctor, Richard Rhodes, Timothy Snyder, and Susan Zuccotti. Taken together, the selections make the ineffable fathomable and demystify the barbarism underlying the tragedy, inviting readers to learn precisely how the Holocaust was, in fact, possible.

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Peter Hayes has been teaching Holocaust studies for decades and Why? grows out of the questions he’s encountered from his students. Despite the outpouring of books, films, memorials, museums and courses devoted to the subject, a coherent explanation of why such carnage erupted still eludes people. Numerous myths have sprouted, many to console us that things could have gone differently if only some person or entity had acted more bravely or wisely; others cast new blame on favourite or surprising villains or even on historians. Why? dispels many legends and debunks the most prevalent ones, including the claim that the Holocaust never happened. Hayes brings scholarly wisdom to bear on popular views of the history, challenging some of the most prominent interpretations and arguing that the convergence of multiple forces at a particular moment resulted in this catastrophe.

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This edited translation of Katutugu Yoshida's Jiyuno Nigaiaji analyses the gradual process of reform in Taiwan over the past 100 years. It pays particular attention to the dilemmas, compromises and pitfalls that have faced reformists as they have strived to bring democratic change under a series of brutal dictatorships. The author discusses the historical background to Taiwan's current constitutional issues and its difficult relationship with the People's Republic of China. It explores in detail the way in which local political activism has transformed national politics, providing original analysis of democratic political thought in East Asia and a rich explanation of the social, historical and political context of democratization in Taiwan. The book makes a significant theoretical contribution to the literature on political reform by using the Taiwanese context to explore debates between reformists and revolutionaries and to consider the development of the concept of the right to self-determination.This challenging and stimulating book will strongly appeal to scholars and students with an interest in Asian studies, politics, public policy and public choice.

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