Reflects on the 20th century as the Jewish Century; modernization is about everyone becoming urban, mobile, literate, occupationally flexible, etc. In other words, modernization is about everyone becoming Jewish. Analyzes developments in Europe in particular, with a focus on Russia and the USSR. States that the Jews belong to a class of "Mercurian" peoples (i.e. nomadic, middlemen, intellectual, and landless) which had historically kept a distance from the "Apollonian" (i.e. agricultural and warrior) peoples. Because of their "Mercurian" training, the Jews excelled in the entrepreneurial and professional occupations but they were seen as tribal strangers who did not belong in the modern state. The Jewish Age was also the Age of Antisemitism. It was the processes of "Mercurianization" of the Europeans (rapid in the West, but slow in Russia and the USSR) and "Apollonization" of the Jews which brought about the rise of antisemitism. Stresses that, in Russia, the Jews were hated as agents of modernization. Discusses the myth of "Jewish Bolshevism", and Soviet Stalinist and post-Stalinist policies concerning the Jews, noting that Jews were far from being the main victims of Soviet "national" policy.

For many Jews in the 19th-20th centuries, socialism and communism were seen as paths to their social and political emancipation as human beings, a way to flee from social ostracism. Examines the lives and works of ten Jews who were socialist leaders, from Marx to Trotsky. Regarding antisemitism, it was generally seen as an evil aspect of capitalism, a special case of bourgeois racism. Assimilation of the Jews was a prerequisite of the socialist revolution. Jewish socialists adopted not only the universalism of their non-Jewish revolutionary contemporaries, but also their anti-Jewish stereotypes. Jewish self-hatred was common amongst them and affected their socialist views. In their antisemitism, Marx and Lassalle surpassed some of their non-Jewish fellow socialists. The rise of political antisemitism in the 20th century, the Dreyfus Affair, brutal pogroms, and Nazism made some of the Jewish socialists (e.g. Bernstein, Lazare) revise their views and speak out against antisemitism, but did not affect others (e.g. Luxemburg, Adler).

The story many have told can lead one to believe in the existence of a united Jewish people: rich, powerful, placed under centralized command and responsible for establishing a worldwide power strategy through money. Such a belief would merge with the fantasies that have spread across every century from Trajan to Constantine, from Matthew to Luther, from Marlow to Voltaire, from the Protocol of the Elders of Zion to Mein Kampf, to all that which is propagated today via the anonymity of the Internet. This is the story ripe to be challenged and retold. Herein lies the history of the relationship between the Jewish people, money and the world at large. The author is well aware of the subversive nature of this subject. It is a topic that has unleashed so many controversies and brought about so many massacres as to have become a veritable taboo, a topic that must not be evoked under any circumstance for fear of provoking some age-old catastrophe. Today, no one dares write on this topic, as if centuries of study have served no purpose other than to fuel book burning. It remains nevertheless in the best interest of modern mankind to understand how those who discovered monotheism also founded the ethics of capitalism, how some became its primary brokers and leading bankers, while others its most unrelenting enemy. In this book the author tackles the facts and the lies of the history of the relationship between the Jewish people, money and the world at large. "It seems essential that our world, and Jewish people themselves, face a part of their history that they may not care for but of which they have every reason to be proud." REVIEWS "The Economic History of the Jewish People by Jacques Attali is set to be as controversial as it is well documented and thoroughly researched by one of the foremost financial authorities of Europe, the Head of the Commission to Promote Economic Growth in France. Attali has written numerous books and knows this subject thoroughly. He has tackled it from the standpoint of history, myth, and dirty stories, proving some and dispelling others with facts. He has traced the economic experiences, leadership, and fall of the Jewish people from 2,000 years BC until present upheavals of economy worldwide. The book is fascinating for anyone interested in history, finance, or the Jewish people. It is an eye-opener in some instances and shows the influence, admitted or behind-the-scenes, which the Jewish people have had on the entire history of our world through the ages and how they have been rewarded or persecuted along the way for their use of any kind of tender (legal or illegal) around the world for 4,000 years. Really interesting and so very well written." Bonnie Neely, Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer, 2010/05/24

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was rife with ethnic tensions that undermined the possibilities for Jewish assimilation in Central Europe. The Jews were trapped between rising German nationalism and other nationalisms. Discusses various Jewish and non-Jewish attitudes toward the "Jewish problem", whereby Jews were often stereotyped (e.g. by Rosa Luxemburg) or were considered to need a solution separate from that of European majority peoples (e.g. Nathan Birnbaum and Max Nordau). Views Nietzsche as belonging more to the philosemites than the antisemites, for whom he had great scorn; however, his complexity and obscurity provided ammunition for antisemites, including the Nazis. Herzl believed that a Jewish state was needed to provide a home for Jews suffering from antisemitism. Freud's experience of antisemitism, combined with his negative view of human nature, left no room for illusions about Austrian and German acceptance of Jews. Karl Kraus exhibited elements of Jewish self-hatred when he identified the worst elements of contemporary journalism and capitalism with Jews. Karl Lueger used political antisemitism to become mayor of Vienna. He provided a model for Hitler, who imbibed antisemitic attitudes and stereotypes from the cauldron of nationalisms that was Austria-Hungary.

During the opening years of the 21st century, anti-­Semitic venom and incidents of violent assault on Jews have begun spreading. They are not a historical aberration. They are fueled by today's capitalist crises and fracturing of the post-World War II imperialist "order," described in recent decades as "globalization." At every turning point in history-from antiquity through feudalism, to capitalism's rise and the imperialist death throes of the past century-Jews have been targets of persecution. Including the genocide cold-bloodedly touted by Hitler as the "Final Solution." Why is Jew-hatred still raising its ugly head? What are its class roots? Why is there "no solution to the Jewish question under capitalism, just as there is no solution to other problems before humanity," without revolutionary struggles that transform us as we fight to transform our world? Abram Leon was killed in October 1944, at age 26, in the Nazi gas chambers at Auschwitz. He left us this book to help answer those questions.