ANTI-JUDAISM: The History of a Way of Thinking

There has been a widespread tendency to disregard anti-Judaism, whether expressed in a casual remark or implemented through pogrom or extermination campaign, as somehow exceptional, an unfortunate indicator of personal prejudice, or the shocking outcome of an extremist ideology married to power. But in his magisterial history, David Nirenberg explores anti-Judaism from antiquity to the present, from the Ancient Egyptians who resented their Jewish neighbours, to the ideas of Voltaire and Marx, thereby revealing it to be a mode of thought deeply embedded in the Western tradition. With intolerance and racism on the rise against the West, Nirenberg's central argument is as urgent and as timely as it has ever been. Dark as its subject may be, the book is full of delights. Chapters cover The Road to Emmaus, The Road to Damascus, Making Sense of the World in Jewish Terms, Jewish Enmity in Islam, Jews and Power in Medieval Europe, The Spanish Inquisition, Acting Jewish in Shakespeare's England, 'Israel' at the Foundations of Christian Politics 1545-1677, and Philosophical Struggles from Kant to Heine. Special import. 610pp in sturdy paperback.