The History of Anti-Semitism

by Poliakov, Leon; Kochan, Miriam

• ISBN13: 9780812218657
• ISBN10: 0812218655
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-15
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

Covering the story of prejudice against Jews from the time of Christ through the rise of Nazi Germany, The History of Anti-Semitism presents in elegant and thoughtful language a balanced, careful assessment of this egregious human failing that is nearly ubiquitous in the history of Europe. From Voltaire to Wagner reviews the period of the European Enlightenment in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when anti-Semitism gradually stopped being an official state policy in most countries. Highlighting the emancipation of Jews as it spread across Europe, Poliakov shows how philosophers, statesmen, and some theologians became concerned with civil rights, yet the anti-Semitic beliefs of many highly regarded and influential persons remained a major roadblock to true equality and justice. The volume ends with the development of racial anti-Semitic theories bound up in the emerging modern sciences.

Author Biography

Leon Poliakov (1910-97) wrote extensively on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. His many books include Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the Destruction of Jews in Europe and Aryan Myth: A History of Racist and Nationalist Ideas in Europe. He helped establish the Centre de Documentation Juive in 1943.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Prologue
The Jews of Europe in the Eighteenth Century	3	(38)
Germany
France
Great Britain
A glance at the other European countries
The United States of America	41	(6)
The Men of the Ghetto	47	(12)
PART ONE THE CENTURY OF ENLIGHTENMENT
The English Deists	59	(11)
France in the Enlightenment	70	(87)
The Protestant attitude
Montesquieu: the physiocrats
Voltaire
Rousseau
Diderot and the Encyclopedie
The ``Holbachic Synagogue''
The system builders
The regenerators
Germany	157	(56)
The good Germany
The good Jew
German philosophy and the Jews
The Berlin Jewish salons
PART TWO EMANCIPATION
The Emancipation	213	(42)
Emancipation in France
Emancipation in Germany
Emancipating tendencies in the Russian Empire
Effects of Emancipation	255	(68)
The Jews' point of view
The non-Jews' point of view
PART THREE THE RACIST REACTION
England	323	(15)
Jews in Walter Scott and Disraeli
France	338	(42)
The Jews' entry into society
Ghosts from the past: the wandering Jews
Future threats: the Socialist movements
Germany	380	(78)
Arndt, Jahn and the Germanomanes
The detour of economic anti-Semitism
Borne and Heine: young Germany or young Palestine?
The atheists' crusade
The case of Richard Wagner
Conclusion	458	(17)
Notes	475	(96)
Index	571