Michael Schuldiner, professor of English and chair of the Department of English in The University of Akron’s Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences, provides an in-depth analysis of the Holocaust’s place in American history in his new book, "Contesting Histories: German and Jewish Americans and the Legacy of the Holocaust."
Beginning with popular objections to America's entry into World War I and ending with recent academic debates over the legacy and meaning of the Holocaust, Schuldiner examines how events from World War I, the 1920s and 1930s, and World War II came to color America's understanding of the Holocaust in the U.S. in both the German American and Jewish American communities.
Understanding is evolving over time
Through an analysis of debates such as the erection of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and "The Battle of Bitburg," Schuldiner's longitudinal approach contributes to the evolving American understanding about the sources and legacies of the Holocaust.
Born in 1948 in a displaced persons camp in Wetzlar, Germany, the son of Polish Jews, Schuldiner teaches Holocaust Literature and American Literature at UA, and is especially keen on the narrative concept of "metalepsis," the representation of the impossible in a work of literature.
Schuldiner is also the author of "Gifts and Works: Spiritual Controversy in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts," and has edited a collection of essays called "The Tayloring Shop: Essays on the Poetry of Edward Taylor" and an edition of "The Selected Writings of Mordecai Noah." Schuldiner is the recipient of many awards, including fellowships from the Folger Institute, Huntington Library, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a Fulbright Senior Lectureship in Israel.
"Contesting Histories" will be available from retailers, such as Amazon.com, beginning Sept. 15.
Media contacts: Kelly Daw, 330-972-7225 or kdaw@uakron.edu or Sarah Lane, 330-972-7429 or slane@uakron.edu.