RonRosenbaum.com

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After a while you get inured to the trivialization of mass murder, tired of trying to police or shame those who persist out of idiocy (Roberto Benigni) or opacity (Charlie Chaplain in The Great Dictator) in doing it. And so I found myself too weary to comment on the fact that the Madame Tussard’s new Berlin branch featured a life sized wax figure of Adolf Hitler.

After all “market research” had shown there was a demand for such an exhibit as long as it was done “with sensitivity” a spokesperson or Madame Tussard’s said. (I’m being ironic here just in case it wasn’t obvious).

But now that some bold and justly outraged soul has taken eminently appropriate action and ripped the head off the cultural monstrosity the wax figure represented, I don’t want to negelect offering my gratitude for the moral clarity of the act.

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1 Comment

charlie finch:

May I recommend Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture of Hitler praying? I think it is at the Tate. Google it

Jul 10, 2008 - 8:16 am

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Ron Rosenbaum

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Books

book cover BUY The Shakespeare Wars
Random House, September 2006


Electrifying. A spectacular book. —Cynthia Ozick


…a thrilling personal confrontation…The Shakespeare Wars comes to us in waves of new revelations —Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate


Acclaimed journalist Ron Rosenbaum wrestles with the weightiest issues of Shakespeare studies in a down-to-earth manner that readers will applaud. —Publisher’s Weekly


Cultural journalism of the highest order. —Kirkus Reviews


Timely not least for the economy and clarity with which he outlines the casus belli…with Rosenbaum’s dispatches we now have a better sense of what the fuss is about. —John Sutherland, The Financial Times

book cover BUY Explaining Hitler
A remarkable journey by one of the most original journalists and writers of our time. —David Remnick A work of importance and fascination. —George Steiner, the [U.K.] Observer A provacative work of cultural history that is as compelling as it is thoughtful, as readable as it is smart..Mr. Rosenbaum has made an important contribution to our understanding not just of Hitler, but of the cultural processes by which we try to come to terms with history as well… He has written an exciting, lucid book. —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Intriguing, thought provoking and intelligent. —Ian Kershaw in The Guardian [U.k.] Brilliant…restlessly probing and deeply intelligent. —Lance Morrow, Time In Explaining Hitler, profound historical questions spring urgently and hauntingly to life. —Sam Tanenhaus Cultural criticism served up as riveting narrative history —Marc Fisher The Washington Post
book cover BUY The Secret Parts of Fortune
Ron Rosenbaum is one of the great masters of the metaphysical detective story, a nonfiction writer in the spirit of Borges, Nabokov and Poe. —Errol Morris (director of The Fog of War) Few journalists inspire the kind of cult following that Rosenbaum has —Scott McLemee Newsday I plan on hanging Ron Rosenbaum’s ‘marriage proposal’ [column] in a prominent place. Should my husband begin to take me for granted, he will be reminded that I am not without options. —Rosanne Cash You made me look like a f_____g lunatic. —Oliver Stone ALSO AVAILABLE (an anthology of others’ work): Those Who Forget the Past: The Question of Anti-Semitism Bi-weekly Spectator columnist at Slate

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