Sociology and the Holocaust

A Discipline Grapples with History.

Sociology and the Holocaust offers a comprehensive synthesis of the vast historical and social science literature on the before, during, and after of the Holocaust. As such, the aim of the book is not simply to describe the chronology of events, but to understand these events and the ongoing legacy of the Holocaust sociologically.

For some time the conventional wisdom in the interdisciplinary field of Holocaust studies is that sociologists have neglected this subject matter, but this is not really the case. In fact, there has been substantial sociological work on the Holocaust, although this scholarship has often been ignored or neglected including in the discipline of sociology itself. Sociology and the Holocaust brings this scholarly tradition to light, and in doing so offers a comprehensive synthesis of the vast historical and social science literature on the before, during, and after of the Holocaust—a tour d’horizon from an explicitly sociological perspective. As such, the aim of the book is not simply to describe the chronology of events that culminated in the deaths of 6 million Jews but to draw upon sociology’s “theoretical toolkit” to understand these events and the ongoing legacy of the Holocaust sociologically.