Reading the Holocaust. By Inga Clendinnen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 227 pp.

The Australian historian Inga Clendinnen is best known for her work on the Aztecs and the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The shift of focus in space and time evident in her newest book appears to signal a radical career shift. In fact, the appearance deceives; Reading the Holocaust is a book by a self-proclaimed general reader, who undertakes the task of working her way into the vast literature and historiography of the Holocaust.