Peter Novick (July 26, 1934, Jersey City – February 17, 2012,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

who was Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He was best known for writing ''That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession'' and '' The Holocaust in American Life''. The latter title has also been published as ''The Holocaust and Collective Memory'', especially for non-US anglophonic markets. Though deemed a precursor, Novick was a sharp critic of

Norman Finkelstein Norman Gary Finkelstein (; born December 8, 1953) is an American political scientist, activist, former professor, and author. His primary fields of research are the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust. He is a g ...

, but also of Finkelstein's opponent

Alan Dershowitz Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appoin ...

. He died in 2012 in Chicago of lung cancer. Novick earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, in 1957 and 1965 respectively.

Major works

''That Noble Dream''

''That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession'' questions the origins and prevalence of the notion of objectivity in current and 20th century history. It focuses on developments in university history departments within the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, though it traces the concept of objectivity in history's origins back to 19th century

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Leopold von Ranke Leopold von Ranke (; 21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of ...

''The Holocaust in American Life''

Jeffrey C. Alexander Jeffrey Charles Alexander (born 1947) is an American sociologist, and a prominent social theorist. He is the founding figure in the school of cultural sociology he refers to as the "strong program". Career He was born May 30, 1947, in Milwauke ...

has examined Novick's "particularization of the Holocaust" in '' The Holocaust in American Life'', he has contrasted his universalizing view of the Holocaust (that it can be a lesson for all peoples), versus what he perceives as Novick's inextricable connection of the genocide with nationalism and

Jewish identity Jewish identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jewish. Under a broader definition, Jewish identity does not depend on whether a person is regarded as a Jew by others, or by an exter ...

politics. Novick's thesis, that the Holocaust was largely ignored in the years after World War II due to Cold War concerns that encouraged a rapprochement with West Germany and a distaste among American Jews for the claiming of victim status, has been strongly challenged in the years since his book was published, as for example by Hasia Diner in her book ''We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence After the Holocaust, 1945-1962,'' and in the anthology ''After the Holocaust: Challenging the Myth of Silence''.

Bibliography

* * * * **

References

External links

* 2012 deaths Historians of the Holocaust Historiographers 1934 births Place of birth missing American historians Columbia University alumni University of Chicago faculty Jewish American historians {{US-historian-stub