Gerald E. Markle is Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University.

"Markle selects and defines three basic issues of Holocaust studies and demonstrates how sociological and social-psychological scholarship illuminates these issues. The reader grasps the connection between these issues because of Markle's skillful transitions. His intermixing of his own personal experiences in approaching the Holocaust with the academic issues being debated makes the book unintimidating to the general reader who might otherwise shy from the topic (Holocaust) as well as the discipline (sociology)." — Christopher R. Browning, Pacific Lutheran University"In a field dominated by positivist historians, Markle's constructivist approach is a breath of fresh air. His dialogue with Arendt, Bauman, Rubenstein, Milgram, et al. probes and clarifies the value, in its own right, of struggling with and against history as a scholar and a Jew in the post-Holocaust era. This is a courageous and honest work." — R. Ruth Linden, Stanford University

• stone soup 1. thinkingsnapshotsgrayapproachesmeditation 2. banalityeichmannordinary killersordinary peopleare we all nazis?abraham's choice 3. bureaucracyroutine slaughtertwo visionsblood and honorfunctionalismforgettingkrema 4. modernitytotal dominationgardeningmedical experimentsthe american connectionenlightment?a dialogue 5. afterin memoriamcollective memoryhistoriographytodayanamnesisan ending?another ending references author index subject index