This is a solid book about the now famous Irving-Penguin Books/Lipstadt libel trial. The well known writer and free lance historian David Irving sued Penguin Books and the historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel. In a book published by Penguin, Lipstadt claimed that Irving was a Holocaust denier using deliberate distortions of the past to advance an anti-semitic agenda. Irving sued for libel in the English courts, a venue where the defense has the burden of proof. Evening out the contest was the fact that Irving acted as his own counsel, while Penguin and Lipstadt hired skilled professionals. Penguin and Lipstadt (the latter supported by a variety of generous donors) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending themselves. In addition to retaining first rate legal talent, the defense team also obtained the services of a number of first rate academic consultants and paid for extensive research into Irving's work and methods.

Guttenplan provides a nice description of the trial itself and the structure of this type of proceeding in England, which is quite different than the US. He is good at describing the major protagonists and provides useful background on many of the important background issues. He touches usefully on Holocaust historiography and the phenomenon of Holocaust denial. I am not sure that Guttenplan is entirely fair, however, to at least one of the major figures in the trial, the historian Richard Evans. Evans, a prominent specialist on modern Germany, though not on the Holocaust, was retained by the defense to analyze Irving's work and claims. Evans and his students uncovered Irving's systematic deceptions and misuse of primary documents. Guttenplan's description of Evans' testimony presents him as an unattactive and somewhat truculent figure. I suspect that Evans was actually enraged by Irving's conduct and stuggled mightily to control himself during Irving's cross-examination.

I think the book is misnamed. The title should be Irving on Trial. Through Guttenplan's account, Irving emerges clearly as the major figure of the whole story, and the trial becomes essentially centered on his integrity, methods, and motivations. It is technically correct that the defense had to 'prove' the existence of the Holocaust to attack Irving's outrageous claims but this has less to do with the nature of the Holocaust and its historiography than with the peculiar character of English libel law. In any case, the defense team were able to substantiate all of Lipstadt's claims. Irving is shown to be a devious anti-semite misusing the historical record. Defense witnesses were able to show that Irving's disregard for the truth extended well beyond issues related directly to the Holocaust. Irving's first and best known book, The Destruction of Dresden, generally regarded as a minor classic in the WWII literature, is shown to contain substantial misrepresentations.

The major defect of this book is that Guttenplan attempts to use the trial as a point of departure for refecting on a series of important issues including the perception and political use of the Holocaust, the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, and even the epistemological nature of historical investigation. None of these relatively brief discussions are particularly satisfactory. They are fairly superficial and seem to be additions to, as opposed to components of, the trial story. Guttenplan wanted to produce something more than a journalistic account of the trial but the structure of a trial based book is not very suitable for these kind of digressions. Another problem is that for Guttenplan's reflections on many of ambiguities inherent in treatments of the Holocaust to be effective, the issues in front of the court would have to be ambiguous and they were not.

David Irving self styled historian and author of numerous books on Nazi Germany is best known for HITLER'S WAR which at the time it came out in 1977, was hailed as a great scholarly work by historians such as Hugh Trevor Roper and John Keegan. This and two earlier books: THE DESTRUCTION OF DRESDEN and THE DESTRUCTION OF CONVOY PQ17, best summarize Irving's career. Rich with source documents his work is invariably called "detailed"; it is also always controversial. Indeed Irving was sued because of his assertion in CONVOY PQ17 that there was cowardice on the part of a British officer. It is therefore ironic that this book by D.D. Guttenplan - THE HOLOCAUST ON TRIAL should be about a suit brought by Mr Irving against Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin books for libelous remarks in Ms Lipstadt's book DENYING THE HOLOCAUST. As shown by Mr Guttenplan though, the greater irony is that as a result of the outcome of the trial - in favor of Lipstadt and Penguin - and with the Judges condemnatory words about Mr Irving, this book could justifiably have been titled 'The Destruction of David Irving'. For that is exactly, and deservedly, the impact the following words by Judge Charles Gray at last year April's ruling, will have on Mr Irving's career: "Irving has for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence [he is] an active Holocaust denier [who] associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism."

THE HOLOCAUST ON TRIAL is about more than Mr Irving; the principal characters involved in the suit are profiled, especially Anthony Julius, lawyer for the defense and Richard J Evans, a historian and expert witness. Mr Guttenplan goes into the background of the libel law in Britain, which is fundamentally different to ours. The onus is on the defense. A consequence of this, only tangentially touched on here, is that other books on the same subject have been affected. John Lukac's book THE HITLER OF HISTORY, friends in the UK tell me, is only recently out and they understand that it is not as complete as my US edition.

Mr Guttenplan also mentions some of the reactions to the courts decision. John Keegan it seems is still a defender; he writes that Irving has "many of the qualities of the most creative historians. He is certainly never dull." Ms Lipstadt on the other hand is "as dull as only the self-righteously politically correct can be." True, perhaps, but she is not "an active Holocaust denier" and she at least has a history career to continue with.

D.D. Guttenplan's "The Holocaust On Trial" is an insightful and well-written account of the David Irving--Deborah Lipstadt libel case. The story of the trial would be reason enough to buy the book--this is one of the best descriptions of a real-life legal proceeding that I have ever read. Guttenplan has a good reporter's ability to bring the setting and personalities to life so that the inherent drama of the trial holds the reader's interest throughout.

But of course, this was no ordinary trial. Irving is the author of several books about World War II that some reputable historians have praised. He has long argued that while some "atrocities" were inflicted on Europe's Jews (as they were also visited upon Germans), Hitler did not order any genocide of Jews and Jews were not systematically gassed at Auschwitz. When American scholar Deboral Lipstadt called Irving "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial," Irving sued Lipstadt for libel in England, where libel plaintiffs enjoy many advantages. Lipstadt and her publisher were forced to spend millions of dollars in a high-risk effort to prove that Irving was a liar and not just a historian with controversial views.

It is here that "The Holocaust On Trial" becomes much more than another good book about an interesting lawsuit with intriguing characters. As Guttenplan explains so well, the trial raised profound questions about the meaning of history and the ways in which the Holocaust has been remembered and understood as well as the ways in which it has been misrepresented and exploited.

It is a remarkable accomplishment that Guttenplan has compelling and thoughtful insights into the Holocaust-- a subject that on the one the one hand is so enormous and profound as to defy representation, and on the other hand has been so written about, depicted and analyzed that one picks up another book wondering if anything new can be said.

"The Holocaust On Trial" meets that exacting test on many levels--as a chronicle of a compelling courtroom drama, but more importantly as a meditation on the enduring impact the Holocaust has had on our culture. I was particularly impressed by Guttenplan's sense of the humanity of the Jewish victims of the genocide and his ability to make the reader appreciate them as human beings rather than abstractions.

We honor the victims of the Holocaust above all by remembering what happened with unsparing honesty. "The Holocaust On Trial" eloquently demonstrates that this difficult goal is a moral imperative. It is a valuable contribution to the literature of the Holocaust and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in historical truth and the sacrifices that are sometimes required in the service of that truth.