But surely you'll give me that the number of Middle Easterners maintaining that the Jews "had it coming" or that Hitler "did the right thing" is in the millions, if not larger. Denying this atrocity is not the only moral failure possible here.

Yes, yes. Shocked. Perhaps I misunderstood, and I certainly had no background on Charles or his book. But if I misrepersented, that was an accident, and I apologize. I should have focused more on your third paragraph and less on the first – which actually still looks pretty harsh on a reread.

You civil war examples stake out two extreme and opposed positions. I was thinking of a broader middle ground. If someone without an ax to grind – say me for example – were to read Charles' book, there is a chance I would learn something, and perhaps be enlightened by the experience.

The first part of that paragraph — "combating anti-Semitic historical revision[ism]" — is also generally false: books and movies may work to stir public indignation when some wackos in the West (a population of a mere 0.0001% among us, as Mr Grayson astutely points out) feebly attempt to minimize or deny it. But these products are blatantly ineffective in the Muslim Middle East, for instance, where Holocaust deniers are in the millions, and where state propaganda and education outfits spout off the most abominable canards about Jews. The continued making of movies and books about the Holocaust will do very little to change these people's minds; in fact, some of them see it as clear evidence of the all-powerful reach of the "global Jewish cabal." What's required to stop these deluded lunatics and open their eyes is not more books and movies — but resolute, firm pressure by Western governments upon the local thugs running these countries to stop using Israel as the red herring of choice to deflect the anger of an oppressed, impoverished population. But who am I kidding. The temptation of sweet light crude and a misguided belief in "regional stability" will prevent most Western countries from slapping these motherfuckers over the head, as they deserve.

I didn't denigrate historical fiction at all, I'm a fan myself. My point was that if you had a friend who was a Civil War denier, would your first reaction be to hand him a Jeff Shaara book? That would be about #1,238 of the things I'd recommend to him/her to change their mind in my book, hence my "crappy medium" comment. If you wrote a book specifically for the goal of educating a Civil War denier, would you write a book of historical fiction like Shaara? Yes, the premise is absurd, but I think my point is alot clearer without the emotional baggage associated with the word Holocaust.

However, if you had a friend who was already interested in the Civil War, but wanted to see it from a fresh & interesting perspective, I'd say hell yeah pick up Shaara. But, that wasn't his goal. His own words:

"Holocaust books and films help to tell the true story of the Shoah, combating anti-Semitic historical revision. And, they protect future generations from making the same mistakes."

Did I misrepresent that? I don't think I did. If so, apologies.

And all that is just fine. But in claiming that he is trying to 'educate' and fight holocaust denial this author is either purposely misrepresenting himself and his work, or in a state of total self-delusion.

And as for the McNamara obit. – damn, I'd like to shake that hippie's hand…