Telling Lies About Hitler

The David Irving libel trial in 1996 raised a whole series of crucial issues, not only as to the ways in which the memory of the Holocaust is preserved, but also, and more generally, as to the nature of historical truth and how it relates to legal proof, and the limits of historical interpretation. Richard Evans, who spent two years preparing a 740-page report on the historiography of the Holocaust for the court, here unpacks the issues raised by the trial, from the career of Irving and the exposing of his methods, to the wider cultural memory of the Holocaust and the social and cultural functions of the historian in society. The book contributes to our understanding of the Holocaust, of the nature of historical writing and evidence, and of the social role of the historian.