This book review examines Lucy S. Dawidowicz's "The War Against the Jews, 1933-45," evaluating it as the most recent general history of the Holocaust by an American historian specializing in Holocaust studies. The review analyzes Dawidowicz's methodology, which divides the study into two sections: "The Final Solution" focusing on Nazi ideology and implementation, and "The Holocaust" examining Jewish responses and community life. The reviewer finds Dawidowicz's central thesis compelling—that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not merely ancillary to his other policies but constituted the fundamental driving force of Nazi foreign policy. The study successfully traces the historical development of German anti-Semitism and demonstrates how Hitler synthesized both right-wing and socialist streams of anti-Jewish sentiment into state ideology. However, the review identifies four significant limitations: the work's almost exclusive focus on Polish Jewry at the expense of other European Jewish communities, the absence of analysis regarding concentration camps, insufficient contextualization within the broader world war, and premature termination of the narrative in May 1943. Despite these shortcomings, the reviewer commends Dawidowicz for producing a readable, well-documented fusion of political, intellectual, and social history that examines both German perpetrators and Jewish victims. The work is praised as a sensitive introduction that provides valuable perspective for further research, though the reviewer argues it should not be considered definitive and expresses hope that future Holocaust historiography will focus on specialized rather than general studies.