History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving

Now a major motion picture starring Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall and Tom Wilkinson.

“A compelling book: memoir and courtroom drama, a work of historical and legal import. ” -- Jewish Week

Deborah Lipstadt, author of the groundbreaking Denying the Holocaust, chronicles her six-year legal battle with controversial British World War II historian David Irving that culminated in a sensational 2000 trial in London

In her acclaimed 1993 book Denying the Holocaust, Deborah Lipstadt called putative World War II historian David Irving “one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial”, a conclusion that she reached by examining his cunning manipulations of evidence, partisanship to Hitler, persistent exoneration of the Third Reich, and his confirmed celebrity among swelling ranks of anti-Semitic organizations internationally. In 1994, Irving filed a libel lawsuit, not in the U.S. courtroom—where the onus of proof lies on the plaintiff, but in the UK—where the onus of proof lies on the defendant. At stake were not only the reputations of two historians, but the record of history itself.

The four-month trial took place in London in 2000 and drew international attention. With the help of a first-rate team of solicitors and historians and the support of her UK publisher, Penguin, Lipstadt won, her victory proclaimed on the front page of major newspapers around the world. Part history, part real life courtroom drama, Denial is Lipstadt’s riveting, blow-by-blow account of the trial that tested the standards of historical and judicial truths and resulted in a formal denunciation of the infamous Holocaust denier.

Originally published as History on Trial.

In 1993, Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Jewish Studies at Emory University, published the first comprehensive history of the Holocaust denial movement. In this critically acclaimed account, Lipstadt called David Irving –– a prolific, respected, and well–known writer on World War II who had, over the years, made controversial statements about Hitler and the Jews –– one of the most dangerous spokespersons of the denial movement. A year later, when Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin UK, for libel in a London courtroom, the media spotlight fell on Deborah Lipstadt and, by extension, on the historiography of the Holocaust. Five years later, when David Irving lost his case after an intense ten–week trial, Lipstadt's resounding victory was proclaimed on front pages of newspapers worldwide. The implications of the trial, however, were far from over.

History on Trial is Deborah Lipstadt's personal, riveting chronicle of the legal battle with Irving, in which she went from a relatively quiet existence as a professor at an American university to being a defendant in a sensational libel case. This blow–by–blow account reveals how Lipstadt raised $1.5 million for her defense, which included a first–rate team of solicitors, historians, and experts, among them Anthony Julius, a literary scholar who is better known as the late Princess Diana's divorce lawyer. Lipstadt describes how in forced silence she endured Irving's relentless provocations, including his claims that more people died in Senator Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, that survivors tattooed numbers on their arms to make money, and that nonwhite people are a different "species." She also reveals how her lawyers gained access to Irving's personal papers, which exposed his association with neo–Nazi extremists in Germany, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, and the National Alliance, which wants to transform America into an "Aryan society." In the course of the trial, Lipstadt's legal team stripped away Irving's mask of respectability through exposing the prejudice, extremism, and distortion of history that defined his work, even his once highly regarded account of the Dresden bombing.

Part history, part edge–of–your–seat courtroom drama, History on Trial goes beyond the historiography of World War II and the Holocaust to reveal the intricate way in which extremism and deliberate historical distortions gain widespread legitimacy and help generate hatred. An inspiring personal story of perseverance and unexpected limelight, here is the definitive account of the trial that tested the standards for historical and judicial truths, a trial that the Daily Telegraph of London proclaimed did "for the new century what the Nuremberg tribunals or the Eichmann trial did for earlier generations."

“A dose of strong medicine that is intended to restore some sanity to the study of what did and did not happen. . . . Lipstadt establishes herself as a leading historian of “second generation” Holocaust studies.” - Los Angeles Times

“Resonant.” - Baltimore Sun

“A compelling book, History on Trial is memoir and courtroom drama, a work of historical and legal import. ” - Jewish Week

“Immensely readable…. History on Trial restores one’s faith in the power of good scholarship.” - Washington Times

“Compelling…. Lipstadt’s vigorous account is a window into a Jewish community still grappling with the loss of 6 million souls.” - Newsweek International

“Deborah Lipstadt’s absorbing narrative . . . will be read with interest and gratitude by future generations of students and teachers.” - Elie Wiesel

“Chilling. . . . Lipstadt provides persuasive evidence that for all the concern over neo-Nazis, Hitler’s most effective last battalion may turn out to be the pseudo-historians who devote their energies to arguing the Holocaust was a lie.” - New York Newsday

“History on Trial is not the first book about the case....But Lipstadt’s story is more personal, compelling and intriguing.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“A well-paced, expertly detailed and fascinating account of the trial process.” - Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Washington Post Book World

“Powerful…. No one who cares about historical truth, freedom of speech or the Holocaust will avoid a sense of triumph.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Lipstadt gives a detailed account of the trial that never loses its suspense, readability or momentum. Or humor.” - Salon.com

“Fascinating.... [Lipstadt] takes us into the moment and produces a courtroom drama as enthralling as any fictional one.” - San Jose Mercury News

“Deborah Lipstadt is writing for us. And for the ages.” - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A fascinating and meritorious work of legal—and moral—history.” - Kirkus Reviews (Starred)