The Cunning of History

by Richard L. Rubenstein

Book Overview

With an Introduction by William Styron

Theologian Richard L. Rubenstein writes of the Holocaust, why it happened, why it happened when it did, and why it may happen again and again.

"Few books possess the power to leave the reader with the feeling of awareness that we call a sense of revelation. The Cunning of History seems to me to be one of these . . . Rubenstein is forcing us to reinterpret the meaning...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061320684
• ISBN13: 9780061320682
• Release Date: August 1987
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

The Most Important Book

The contribution of this book to understanding the Holocaust is secondary to the impact it has on our understanding of the future. This book explains where Capitalism will take us.The reduction of workers to just another cost of production that must be minimized... The obvious way to do that. It is happening in prisions in America and sweatshops in Asia right now... and don't think it isn't coming home.Rubenstein is a clarion call to a new generation. This book changed my life and I as sure it will do the same for you.

Ours is not to wonder why, ...

... ours is just to do or die.Rarely are profound thoughts and deep insight presented so clearly and succinctly. Richard Rubenstein writes of the holocaust, why it happened, why it happened when it did, and why it may happen again and again.Rubenstein writes, "We are more likely to understand the holocaust if we regard it as the expression of some of the most profound tendencies of Western civilization in the twentieth century." He locates the cause of the holocaust in modernity which he describes as a combination of secularization, disenchantment with the world and rationalization. Secularization is the loss of religious meaning. What is, is, and that's all it is. Disenchantment with the world is the labeling of heaven 'good' (followed by its abolition) and the world 'evil'. Our Bible- grounded secular society gave rise to this dicotomy in Exodus when Adam and Eve originally sinned by gaining knowledge of good and evil. Rationalism is the irrepressible need to master the world through calculation.'Ours is not to question why, ours is just to do ...'Modernity laid the foundation, and bureaucracy provided the means. Bureaucracy's roots are deep in military organization. Both require a hierarchical structure with decisions made only at the top. Both require layers of non-individuals who follow orders without thought or input, even if the end of the process is massive death. We were (are) just following orders. Just let me do my job. Don't bother me. Bombing cities, manufacturing cigarettes, dealing drugs, killing the earth become matters not of choice but of necessity. To make a moral judgment - any moral judgment - is to set oneself outside society.'Ours is not to question why ...'Perhaps this is why Rubenstein subtitled his book, "The Holocaust and the American Future."'Ours is not to question.'

Cunning of History goes beyond the Holocaust as "history"

The Holocaust, for obvious reasons, is one of the most written-about events of this century. Still, few and far between are the books which not only make the reader pause, but also demand a reevaluation of the history they have been fed. Those who consider the Holocaust "the work of a few dispicable men" or an isolated event in human history will not find The Cunning of History settling. Those who already have grave misgivings about the course of modern society will find words for their feelings. Those who know little about this century's history, and the corporate structure which is coming to dominate it, have a more urgent need of The Cunning of History than anyone. This is the single most important treatment of the Holocaust I have ever read.

A must for understanding The Holocaust ( & future holocausts)

Although published in 1975, Richard L. Rubenstein's The Cunning of History, seeking to derive a definitive "formula" for holocausts and The Holocaust, is still a modern analysis in 1997. Indeed, it probably will be modern 20 years from now; like the laws of physics and chemistry. All of this is accomplished in a deceptively thin, 112 page pocketbook. Like any unsentimental and effective analysis, The Cunning of History is bound to make many people uncomfortable and some even angry. People cannot take too much reality. Nevertheless, Rubenstein made a major contribution to history and understanding by painstakingly tracing the origins and evolution of hyperrational bureaucratic social systems that inexorably drive to total domination, and then extermination of its target victims. Accordingly, first we are instructed of exactly how the Nazi regime of Germany's Third Reich created the system of death camps and how they operated. The management styles of the death camps are likened to those of modern corporations. Thus the Auschwitz society implements a system of total domination: first to extract labor at lowest cost; and then efficiently destroying its surplus labor force. Along the way, Rubenstein gives mankind ample warnings about future holocausts derived from world overpopulation ... coupled with superfluous humans produced by economic "necessity" for burgeoning profits. To recognize the beginnings of the next holocaust as it forms, reading Rubenstein's The Cunning of History is prerequisite. For such a valuable book, the only appropriate rating is 10.