The Nazi Holocaust is an important breakthrough in the struggle to understand this shattering event. By shunning simplistic explanations, Landau seeks to mediate between the vast, often unapproachable subject and the reader who wrestles with its meaning. Locating the Holocaust within a number of different contexts-Jewish history, German history, genocide in the modern age, and the larger story of human bigotry and the triumph of ideology over conscience-his book is a model text, brief but surprisingly comprehensive.