Product Description

This is the only book from the perspective of the defendant who emerged victorious. It features reviews on book pages of national newspapers, and in history magazines. Deborah Lipstadt chronicles her five-year legal battle with David Irving that culminated in a sensational trial in 2000. In her acclaimed 1993 book "Denying the Holocaust", Deborah Lipstadt called David Irving, a prolific writer of books on World War II, "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial", a conclusion she reached after closely examining his books, speeches, interviews, and other copious records. The following year, after Lipstadt's book was published in the UK, Irving filed a libel suit against Lipstadt and her UK publisher, Penguin. Lipstadt prepared her defence with the help of first-rate team of solicitors, historians, and experts. The dramatic trial, which unfolded over the course of 10 weeks, ultimately exposed the prejudice, extremism, and distortion of history that defined Irving's work. Lipstadt's victory was proclaimed on the front page of major newspapers around the world, with the "Daily Telegraph" proclaiming that the trial did "for the new century what the Nuremberg tribunals or the Eichmann trial did for earlier generations." Part history, part real life courtroom drama, "History On Trial" is Lipstadt's riveting, blow-by-blow account of the trial that tested the standards of historical and judicial truths and resulted in a formal denunciation of a Holocaust denier, crippling the movement for years to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #242703 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Daily Telegraph, April 2, 2005
"Lipstadt's narration is compelling..."

About the Author
Deborah Lipstadt is Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies and Director of the Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University

Customer Reviews

BATTLE FOR TRUTH
Very rarely does a book, and a non-fiction one at that, make you laugh and cry every other page, but Deborah Lipstadt's brilliant incisive account of her "day" in court with David Irving "History on Trial" does just that.
Deborah Lipstadt, professor of Jewish Studies at Emory University, takes us from Atlanta to Auschwitz and on to the Law Courts in London with a story that even though you know the end keeps you glued to the page.
Her gradual realisation that she faces real problems under Britain's strange libel laws, and the formation of a powerful defence team led by barrister Richard Rampton QC are covered in meticulous gripping detail. Her lead solicitor was Anthony Julius, Princess Diana's divorce lawyer, and her expert witnesses came from Cambridge, North Carolina and Germany.
They form a superb team that totally demolishes Irving's position on day by day, document by document basis.
This book should surely take a place in the study of antisemitism, the Holocaust and racism, and in my opinion should be compulsory reading in schools and universities in these worrying times.

Fascinating and highly readable
A very well written book, most enjoyable which reads more like a novel than an account of a trial, which is to Lipstadt's credit. For a more scholarly discussion of the events I thoroughly recommend RJ Evans book 'Telling lies about Hitler'.

When law and history collide
I confess I haven't quite finished reading this book, but I find it absolutely riveting, and not a book to rush. So far, the only factual error I have found is a reference to "High Heyburn" (instead of Holborn) when describing her visit to London to meet her legal team. If anyone was under the mistaken impression that this was an unequal fight between a maverick historian (Irving) and a wealthy "establishment", the book should dispel that notion. Ms Lipstadt faced the possibility of having to find 1.6 million dollars to fund her lawyers, or do the lawyerly thing and settle out of court by offering Irving a retraction and apology - this to a man who once said to a concentration camp survivor "how much money have you made out of that tattoo since 1945?" and who, though commended by the trial judge for his skills and attention to detail as a military historian, has consistently downplayed all the evidence about the existence of gas chambers and the death toll at Auschwitz, claiming that he is doing no more than exercising the judgment of a historian. Ms Lipstadt is emotional (pausing to speak some prayers at Auschwitz) where her counsel Richard Rampton is practical and hard headed ("this is not a sentimental journey. It's for forensics") and this excellent book should be read in conjunction with the full judgment of Mr Justice Gray from April 2000, available on the web at the Bailii website.

Does the law have a role in upholding historical truth, and should history be a free-for-all where every opinion, however ill-founded, should compete on equal terms for public support? All very topical, in a world where anger about Israel's savage military actions often translates into hostility towards all jews, even those who died long ago in gas chambers that have been demolished and whose existence is supposedly open to question.