Texas Tech U. Press

Contesting histories; German and Jewish Americans and the legacy of the Holocaust.

Schuldiner (English, U. of Akron), who was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany after World War II, examines the debate on collective German guilt for the Holocaust represented by Daniel Goldhagen (Hitler's Willing Executioners) and Christopher Browning (Ordinary Men) in the context of Jewish American and German American views. He also discusses American Jewish responses to Jews' wartime persecution; Hollywood's relativizing of Nazi actions under political pressure; and German American opposition to the building of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Photos include the Seagoville, Texas Camp where German-Americans were interred in 1942, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the controversial presence of President Reagan at the Bitburg Cemetery in Germany in 1985. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Lone star law; a legal history of Texas.

In this history of law in Texas from 1718 to the present, Ariens (law, St. Mary's U. of San Antonio) explores the relationship between law and culture in the Lone Star state. Key themes include the influence of Texas exceptionalism on the law, the concept of Americans as "hustlers" as developed by historian Walter McDougall in his history of the United States and as it applies to the development of Texas law, and the roles of myth and memory in approaches to the law. He begins with a chronological narrative that traces developments to 1920 and then presents thematic chapters on the railroad and other corporations; family law and cultural change; the legal profession, legal education, and the courts; criminal law and civil rights; and civil procedure, civil remedies, and civil law. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)