Indiana University Press blog

Enter our Goodreads book giveaways!

We're currently hosting two giveaways on Goodreads! If you're a member, enter today for a chance to win advance reading copies of these books:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Pere Marie-Benoit and Jewish Rescue

by Susan Zuccotti

Giveaway ends May 22, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

  Enter to win

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The House at Ujazdowskie 16

by Karen Auerbach

Giveaway ends May 22, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

  Enter to win

Three IUP books win 2013 IPPY Awards

We are pleased to announce that three of our books have won Gold, Silver, and Bronze in the 2013 Independent Publisher Awards (IPPY)! In the Religion category, Claiming Society for God by Nancy J. Davis and Robert V. Robinson, tied for Gold. In the Biography category, Howard Fast by Gerald Sorin tied for Silver. And in the Great Lakes—Best Regional Non-Fiction category, Indiana Covered Bridges by Marsha Williamson Mohr tied for Bronze.

These awards will be presented on May 29 at the 17th Annual IPPY Awards at Providence NYC, kicking off the annual BookExpo America convention.

All IPPY Award medalists will receive a medal, a certificate, and 20 awards seals. For more information, visit the IPPY's website.

May events for Today I Am a Woman editors

Today I Am a Woman editors Barbara Vinick and Shulamit Reinharz have the following events scheduled for this month:

May 17
The Jewish Federation of the Berkshires will present a book discussion with the editors at 10:45 a.m. at the Hevreh of Southern Berkshire in Great Barrington, MA. Admission is $3. More information is available on the federation's website.

May 18

The editors will give a noontime presentation about their book at the Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn, NY.

See a complete list of upcoming events on the editors' Today I Am a Woman website.

 

 

Book review: Anne Frank Unbound

"Anne Frank Unbound ... tell[s] us a great deal about the myriad uses to which one individual story has been and can be put. ... In addition to these ethical and political questions, the essays engage productively with the aesthetic choices made by writers, visual artists, filmmakers, performance artists, and comedians, who recast Anne Frank in a variety of media and situations. ... If Anne Frank Unbound is any indication, the diary will certainly continue ... to raise a set of persistent ethical, political, and aesthetic questions that have been with us since its first publication." —Women's Review of Books

Book review: The Shoah in Ukraine

"Thanks to its rich documentation and clearly written, nuanced contributions, The Shoah in Ukraine is an innovative and interdisciplinary contribution that serves as an essential step in that direction by drawing on history, memory studies, and political science." —German Studies Review

Book reviews: Demonizing the Jews

"Probst provides us with a detailed exegesis of each of his sources, which taken together thoughtfully challenge the supposed discontinuity between premodern anti-Judaism and modern antisemitism." —H-Judaic

"Christopher Probst has written an insightful analysis of the ways in which Protestant reformer Martin Luther’s anti-Jewish writings were used by German Protestants during the Third Reich." —Contemporary Church History Quarterly

New book on Elie Wiesel reviewed in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly reviewed our new Elie Wiesel book, calling it "[an] illuminating collection of 24 academic essays...[and a] valuable look back on Wiesel’s heroic authorial career."

For more information on Elie Wiesel: Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives visit our website or read this excerpt. 

Three IUP books reviewed in The Jewish Eye

The following IUP books were reviewed in The Jewish Eye:

Shatterzone of Empires

"Shatterzone of Empires is essential reading for students of European history and Imperial Studies, of Jewish and minority history, as well as those interested in war studies. Each essay is self-contained, giving you the option of reading the essays in order, or you can skip around reading any topic that strike your interest."

Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp

"Filled with relevant illustrations and detailed notes, Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp is an indispensable guide to Auschwitz and all that is has come to represent. It is an important contribution to the body of work on the Holocaust, and a copy of this book should be added to every public and private library. The text can be used as the foundation for classes on the Holocaust, or as a supplemental text in any class, high school level and beyond, dealing with World War II, genocide studies, or Jewish studies."

Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary

"New and up-to-date, the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary, edited by Solon Beinfeld and Harry Bochner, is a must-have book for both students of Yiddish and fluent Yiddish speakers and writers ... This essential reference book begins with an invaluable user's guide that not only introduces readers to the Yiddish alphabet, but also provides a detailed guide on how to use this dictionary and the information it provides within the entries."

Holocaust encyclopedias in the news during Days of Remembrance

Our Holocaust encyclopedias have received a great deal of coverage during this week's Days of Remembrance, the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust. Encyclopedia editors Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean were interviewed by the following media outlets:

National Geographic

The article discusses the criteria for a site being included in the encylcopedia and why it was important to document even the smaller places. "This is giving recognition to all of the thousands of places where people suffered and died," says Martin, "that would otherwise fade from people's consciousness."

The New York Jewish Week

In this Q&A, Megargee and Dean talk about their research documenting the 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, which is a far greater number than previously thought. "There is a certain amount of pushback going on, with people saying there were not really that many camps," said Megargee.

International Business Times

The article discusses how the encyclopedias redraw the entire map of atrocities committed by the Third Reich. Dean tells the IBT, "To document this on a map and see how the Holocaust affected every single community throughout Europe makes quite clear the scope of the Nazi regime's murder campaign."

Learn more about volumes 1 and 2 of The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945 on our website. 

Reading selections for Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. To commemorate this occasion, we offer the following reading selections to further your understanding of the history of the Holocaust:

Anne Frank Unbound
Media, Imagination, Memory
Edited by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Jeffrey Shandler

"Principally the work of senior international scholars in history, literature, Hebraic and Judaic studies, and performance and film studies, and of museum curators, this volume is a major contribution to scholarship regarding Anne Frank's diary and its cultural influence. ... Highly recommended." —Choice

 Read excerpt

 IU Press podcast

Available May 2013
Elie Wiesel
Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives
Edited by Steven T. Katz and Alan Rosen

"[An] illuminating collection of 24 academic essays ... [and a] valuable look back on Wiesel’s heroic authorial career." —Publishers Weekly

 Read excerpt

Available June 2013
Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue
How a French Priest Together with Jewish Friends Saved Thousands during the Holocaust
Susan Zuccotti

"Who better to rescue from obscurity an Oskar Schindler–like hero than historian Zuccotti? ... This account of the life of Capuchin priest Père Marie-Benoît and his successful efforts to save thousands of Jews offers the perfect amount of detail and context. Relying on archival sources and her own interviews with Marie-Benoît and those he helped to save, Zuccotti’s portrait of the 'Father of the Jews' is as historically important as it is entertaining." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 Read excerpt 

Available June 2013
Resurgent Antisemitism
Global Perspectives
Edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld

Dating back millennia, antisemitism has been called "the longest hatred." By exploring the sources, goals, and consequences of today's antisemitism and its relationship to the past, this original research contributes to an understanding that could help diminish its appeal and mitigate its harmful effects.

 Read excerpt 

Available in paperback June 2013
The End of the Holocaust
Alvin H. Rosenfeld

"The End of the Holocaust is a model of critical intelligence, restrained in its judgments, never shrill or accusatory in its disagreements, always illuminating in its insights into the motives and achievements of the major Holocaust writers Rosenfeld discusses." —Forward

 Read excerpt

 IU Press podcast

Available July 2013
The House at Ujazdowskie 16
Jewish Families in Warsaw after the Holocaust
Karen Auerbach

In a turn-of-the-century, once elegant building in the center of Warsaw, ten Jewish families atypically began reconstructing their lives after the Holocaust, creating new communities as they sought to distance themselves from the memory of a painful past.

 Read excerpt