113 results for "History"

The origins of totalitarianism

Arendt, Hannah
'How could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? The short answer is that we, too, live in dark times' Washington Post Hannah Arendt's chilling analysis of the conditions that led to the Nazi and Soviet totalitarian regimes is a warning from history about the fragility of freedom, exploring how propaganda, scapegoats, terror and political isolation all aided the slide towards total domination. 'A non-fiction bookend to Nineteen Eighty-Four ' The New York Times 'The political theorist who wrote about the Nazis and the 'banality of evil' has become a surprise bestseller' Guardian
Penguin Classics 2017 702 pages

People love dead Jews: reports from a haunted present

Horn, Dara
"A startling exploration of how Jewish history is exploited to comfort the living. Reflecting on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the blockbuster travelling exhibition called "Auschwitz," the Jewish history of the Chinese city of Harbin, and the little known "righteous-gentile" Varian Fry, Dara Horn challenges us to confront the reasons why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, as emblematic of the worst of evils the world has to offer, and so little respect for Jewish lives, as they continue to unfold in the present. Horn draws upon her own family life -- trying to explain Shakespeare's Shylock to a curious 10-year-old, her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks in her children's school in New Jersey, the profound and essential perspective offered by traditional religious practice, prayer, and study -- to assert the vitality, complexity and depth of this life against an anti-Semitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of "Never forget," is on the rise"--Provided by publisher.
W. W. Norton & Company 2021 237 pages

How to fight anti-Semitism

Weiss, Bari
"No longer the exclusive province of the far right and far left, anti-semitism finds a home in identity politics and the reaction against identity politics, in the renewal of "America first" isolationism and the rise of one-world socialism. An ancient hatred increasingly allowed into modern political discussion, anti-semitism has been migrating toward the mainstream in dangerous ways, amplified by social media and a culture of conspiracy that threatens us all. This timely book is Weiss's cri de couer: an unnerving reminder that Jews must never lose their hard-won instinct for danger, and a powerful case for renewing Jewish and liberal values to guide us through this uncertain moment. Not just for the sake of America's Jews, but for the sake of America"--
Crown 2019-09-10 210 pages

Antisemitism: here and now

Lipstadt, Deborah E.
The award-winning author of The Eichmann Trial and Denial: Holocaust History on Trial gives us a penetrating and provocative analysis of the hate that will not die, focusing on its current, virulent incarnations on both the political right and left, and on what can be done about it. When newsreels depicting the depredations of the Holocaust were shown in movie theaters to a horrified American public immediately after World War II, it was believed that the antisemitism that was part of the fabric of American culture in the 1920s and 1930s was finally going to be laid to rest. In the ensuing decades, Gregory Peck received an Academy Award for playing a journalist who passed as a Jew to blow the lid off genteel Jew hatred, clauses restricting where Jews could live were declared illegal, the KKK was pretty much litigated out of existence, and Joe Lieberman came within five electoral votes of becoming America's first Jewish vice president. And then the unthinkable began to happen. Over the last decade, there has been a noticeable uptick in antisemitic rhetoric and incidents by left-wing groups targeting Jewish students and Jewish organizations on American college campuses. Jews in countries throughout Europe have been attacked by terrorists. And the re-emergence of the white nationalist movement in America, complete with Nazi slogans and imagery, has brought to mind the fascist displays of the 1930s. Where is all this hatred coming from? Is there any significant difference between left-wing and right-wing antisemitism? What role has the anti-Zionist movement played? And what can be done to combat this latest manifestation of an ancient hatred? In a series of letters to an imagined college student and imagined colleague, both of whom are perplexed by this resurgence, Deborah Lipstadt gives us her own superbly reasoned, brilliantly argued, and sure-to-be-controversial responses to these troubling questions.
Scribe Publications 2019 288 pages

Denying the Holocaust: the growing assault on truth and memory

Lipstadt, Deborah E.
A detailed analysis of the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, which originated in the myth of the Jewish conspiracy and radical anti-Jewish propaganda. Examines the activities and writings of Holocaust deniers in France (P. Rassinier, R. Faurisson), in the USA (H.E. Barnes, D.L. Hoggan, A.J. App, A. Butz, W.A. Carto, F. Leuchter), and in Great Britain (R.E. Harwood, D. Irving). Focuses on the propagandistic use of Holocaust denial by radical right and neo-Nazi groups, the activities of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), and the penetration of Holocaust denial propaganda in American campuses. Describes the trials of Ernst Zundel in Canada, and the Mermelstein suit against the IHR. Mentions relativization of the Holocaust in the "historians' debate" in Germany. An appendix (pp. 223-235) deals with Holocaust deniers' allegations regarding the use of Zyklon B in Auschwitz, and the authenticity of the diary of Anne Frank.
Free Press 1993-06-19 278 pages

The cruelty is the point: why Trump's America endures / Adam Serwer

Serwer, Adam
"To many, our most shocking political crises appear unprecedented--un-American, even. But they are not, writes The Atlantic's Adam Serwer in this prescient essay collection, which dissects the most devastating moments in recent memory to reveal deeply entrenched dynamics, patterns as old as the country itself. The January 6 insurrection, anti-immigrant sentiment, and American authoritarianism all have historic roots that explain their continued power with or without President Donald Trump--a fact borne out by what has happened since his departure from the White House. Serwer argues that Trump is not the cause, he is a symptom. Serwer's phrase "the cruelty is the point" became among the most-used descriptions of Trump's era, but as this book demonstrates, it resonates across centuries. The essays here combine revelatory reporting, searing analysis, and a clarity that's bracing. In this new, expanded version of his bestselling debut, Serwer elegantly dissects white supremacy's profound influence on our political system, looking at the persistence of the Lost Cause, the past and present of police unions, the mythology of migration, and the many faces of anti-Semitism. In so doing, he offers abundant proof that our past is present and demonstrates the devastating costs of continuing to pretend it's not. The Cruelty Is the Point dares us, the reader, to not look away."--
One World 2022-09-20 404 pages

Jews don't count: how identity politics failed one particular identity

Baddiel, David
"How identity politics failed one particular identity. Jews Don't Count is a book for people who consider themselves on the right side of history. People fighting the good fight against homophobia, disablism, transphobia and, particularly, racism. People, possibly, like you. It is the comedian and writer David Baddiel's contention that one type of racism has been left out of this fight. In his unique combination of close reasoning, polemic, personal experience and jokes, Baddiel argues that those who think of themselves as on the right side of history have often ignored the history of anti-Semitism. He outlines why and how, in a time of intensely heightened awareness of minorities, Jews don't count as a real minority: and why they should"--Publisher's description
TLS Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 2021 135 pages

Anti-semitism in times of crisis

Sander L. Gilman,Steven T. Katz
A groundbreaking history of anti-Semitism, from the Roman Empire to the twentieth century The origins of anti-Semitism have been hotly contested. Some say that it is a transitory phenomenon, appearing randomly in Western history, while others argue that it reflects a deep-seated tradition inherent in Western culture. Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis argues that anti-semitism is not an anomaly in Western culture, but a defining feature. In this collection of essays, 16 celebrated contributors trace representations of Jewish people over the past two thousand years. Their analysis shows how Jewish people have been consistently cast as outsiders, allowing Westerners to define themselves in contrast to the Jewish community. Even as the popular image of Jewish people changed, anti-semitism persisted. With essays on the religious, social, political, and economic origins of European and American anti- Semitism, as well as some Jewish responses, this volume is the most wide-ranging history of anti-Semitism ever compiled.
New York University Press 1991 406 pages

Antisemitism in America

Dinnerstein, Leonard
Traces the history of antisemitism in the USA from the colonial period to the present, emphasizing the role of the conception that "America is a Christian nation." Discusses the Jewish stereotypes embedded in the American public consciousness, social discrimination in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, the advent of racial antisemitism in the early 20th century, and the scapegoating of Jews in the interwar period. Shows that antisemitism in the USA reached its climax in 1933-45, and that while it declined drastically after the war, it did not disappear. Special attention is devoted to the American South and to Black antisemitism.
Oxford University Press 1994-05-19 369 pages

Israel and civilization: the fate of the Jewish nation and the destiny of the West

Hammer, Josh
"In Israel and Civilization, acclaimed journalist, legal expert, and pundit Josh Hammer makes a righteous case that the key to the prosperity of the West is the flourishing of the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel. Hammer's uplifting offense is our best defense against the enemies of the Jewish people's right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. And as Hammer makes clear, manifesting the promise of Israel requires action by the United States and its allies. There can be no overstating the impact of the trauma of October 7, 2023, on the Jewish people. Yet the anti-Israel reactions the world over have been equally devastating. Rallies of hundreds of thousands explicitly or implicitly promoting Hamas violence; demonstrations of Ivy League professors celebrating the pogrom as awesome and exhilarating; so-called human rights organizations that refuse to unequivocally condemn the use of rape as a weapon of war; and a hydra of multiculturalism, postmodern relativism, and tolerance--it all threatens the physical and metaphysical survival of the West and our essential Jewish heritage. Preserving the best of what's been thought and said throughout history and ensuring that there will be centuries more requires a West that is proud of its Jewish heritage. In other words, the continued existence of the Jewish people is inextricably tied to the endurance of Western civilization. Israel is the center of the battle, and Israel and Civilization explains why and how the Jewish state must win."--
Radius Book Group 2025-03-18 293 pages

Why the Jews? the reason for antisemitism

Prager, Dennis,Telushkin, Joseph
Argues that the reason for antisemitism is not the popular need for a scapegoat, nor the economic successes of Jews, but a reaction to the fact that Jews are different from other peoples. Illustrates this thesis with examples from biblical times (including two attempts to annihilate the Jews), the Christian and Islamic Middle Ages, and the modern period. Argues that Nazi antisemitism was an expression of anti-Judaism coated with racist phraseology. In the modern period, anti-Jewish sentiments have been shared by the Left no less than by the Right, sometimes disguised as anti-Zionism. Believes that the only effective way for Jews to defeat antisemitism is to spread ethical monotheism worldwide.
Simon and Schuster 1983 238 pages

Fear: anti-semitism in Poland after Auschwitz ; an essay in historical interpretation

Gross, Jan Tomasz
Poland suffered an exceedingly brutal Nazi occupation during the Second World War. Close to five million Polish citizens lost their lives as a result. More than half the casualties were Polish Jews. Thus, the second largest Jewish community in the world - only American Jewry numbered more than the three and a half million Polish Jews at the time - was wiped out. Over 90 percent of its members were killed in the Holocaust. And yet, despite this unprecedented calamity that affected both Jews and non-Jews, Jewish Holocaust survivors returning to their hometowns in Poland after the war experienced widespread hostility, including murder, at the hands of their neighbors. The bloodiest peacetime pogrom in twentieth-century Europe took place in the Polish town of Kielce one year after the war ended, on July 4, 1946. Jan Gross's Fear attempts to answer a perplexing question: How was anti-Semitism possible in Poland after the war? At the center of his investigation is a detailed reconstruction of the Kielce pogrom and the reactions it evoked in various milieus of Polish society. How did the Polish Catholic Church, Communist party workers, and intellectuals respond to the spectacle of Jews being murdered by their fellow citizens in a country that had just been liberated from a five-year Nazi occupation? Gross argues that the anti-Semitism displayed in Poland in the war's aftermath cannot be understood simply as a continuation of prewar attitudes. Rather, it developed in the context of the Holocaust and the Communist takeover: Anti-Semitism eventually became a common currency between the Communist regime and a society in which many had joined in the Nazi campaign of plunder and murder - and for whom the Jewish survivors were a standing reproach. Jews did not bring communism to Poland as some believe; in fact, they were finally driven out of Poland under the Communist regime as a matter of political expediency. In the words of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz, Poland's Communist rulers fulfilled the dream of Polish nationalists by bringing into existence an ethnically pure state. For more than half a century, what happened to the Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland has been cloaked in guilt and shame. Writing with passion, brilliance, and fierce clarity, Jan T. Gross at last brings the truth to light.
Random House Trade Paperbacks 2007-08-14 303 pages

Israelophobia: the newest version of the oldest hatred and what to do about it

Simons, Jake Wallis
In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated for their religion. In the twentieth century, they were hated because of their race. Today, Jews are hated for something else entirely, their nation-state of Israel. Antisemitism has morphed into something both ancient and modern: Israelophobia. But how did this transformation occur? And why? Award-winning journalist Jake Wallis Simons answers these questions, clarifying the line between criticism and hatred, exploring game-changing facts and exposing dangerous discourse. Urgent, incisive and deeply necessary, Israelophobia reveals why the Middle East"s only democracy, which uniquely respects the rights of women and sexual and religious minorities, attracts such disproportionate levels of slander. Rather than defending Israel against all criticism, it argues for reasonable disagreement based on reality instead of bigotry. Through charting the history of Israelophobia - starting in Nazi Germany, travelling via the Kremlin to Tehran and along fibre optic cables to billions of screens - and using it to understand contemporary prejudice, this timely book will restore much-needed sanity to the debate, creating the space for mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.
Constable 2023 211 pages

The Jewish enemy: Nazi propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust

Herf, Jeffrey
The sheer magnitude of the Holocaust has commanded our attention for the past sixty years. The extent of atrocities, however, has overshadowed the calculus Nazis used to justify their deeds. According to German wartime media, it was German citizens who were targeted for extinction by a vast international conspiracy. Leading the assault was an insidious, belligerent Jewish clique, so crafty and powerful that it managed to manipulate the actions of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. Hitler portrayed the Holocaust as a defensive act, a necessary move to destroy the Jews before they destroyed Germany. Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, and Otto Dietrichâe(tm)s Press Office translated this fanatical vision into a coherent cautionary narrative, which the Nazi propaganda machine disseminated into the recesses of everyday life. Calling on impressive archival research, Jeffrey Herf recreates the wall posters that Germans saw while waiting for the streetcar, the radio speeches they heard at home or on the street, the headlines that blared from newsstands. The Jewish Enemy is the first extensive study of how anti-Semitism pervaded and shaped Nazi propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust, and how it pulled together the diverse elements of a delusionary Nazi worldview. Here we find an original and haunting exposition of the ways in which Hitler legitimized war and genocide to his own people, as necessary to destroy an allegedly omnipotent Jewish foe. In an era when both anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories continue to influence world politics, Herf offers a timely reminder of their dangers along with a fresh interpretation of the paranoia underlying the ideology of the Third Reich.
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2006-01 390 pages

Squirrel Hill: the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting and the soul of a neighborhood

Oppenheimer, Mark
"Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh is one of the oldest Jewish neighborhoods in the country, known for its tight-knit community and the profusion of multi-generational families. On October 27, 2018, a gunman killed eleven Jews who were worshipping at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill--the most deadly anti-Semitic attack in American history. Many neighborhoods would be understandably subsumed by despair and recrimination after such an event, but not this one. Mark Oppenheimer poignantly shifts the focus away from the criminal and his crime, and instead presents the historic, spirited community at the center of this heartbreak. He speaks with residents and nonresidents, Jews and gentiles, survivors and witnesses, teenagers and seniors, activists and historians. Together, these stories provide a kaleidoscopic and nuanced account of collective grief, love, support, and revival. But Oppenheimer also details the difficult dialogue and messy confrontations that Squirrel Hill had to face in the process of healing, and that are a necessary part of true growth and understanding in any community. He has reverently captured the vibrancy and caring that still characterize Squirrel Hill, and it is this phenomenal resilience that can provide inspiration to any place burdened with discrimination and hate"--
Alfred A. Knopf 2021-10-05 300 pages

Jews and money: the story of a stereotype

Foxman, Abraham H.
One of the most damaging and lasting anti-Semitic myths involves the relationship between Jews and money. In the advent of Wall Street's economic downturn and Bernie Madoff's ruinous schemes, these ideas have come back to rear their ugly heads. Stereotypes about Jews hoarding money, rich media moguls exerting undue influence, and a disproportionate amount of wealth and control in the hands of the Jewish community are not only false, but are also dangerous." "In his latest book, Jews and Money, Abraham Foxman, Director of the Anti-Defamation League, examines the origins, history, and politics of these ideas and how they contaminate dialogue and societies. With thorough research and powerful arguments, he shows the origins of the tendency to blame the Jews, the roots of misunderstanding "the chosen people," and the truth of Jewish philanthropy. Foxman shows how generalizations become part of common beliefs, and he lights the way to promoting fair treatment for people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Palgrave Macmillan 2010-11-09 256 pages

The Jewish writings

Arendt, Hannah
Although Hannah Arendt is not primarily known as a Jewish thinker, she probably wrote more on Jewish issues than on any other topic. As a young adult in Germany, she wrote about German Jewish history. After moving to France in 1933, she helped Jewish youth immigrate to Palestine. During her years in Paris, her principle concern was the transformation of antisemitism from prejudice to policy, which would culminate in the Nazi "final solution." After France fell, Arendt escaped from an internment camp and made her way to America. There she wrote articles calling for a Jewish army to fight the Nazis. After the war, she supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in a binational (Arab-Jewish) state of Israel .Arendt's original conception of political freedom cannot be fully grasped apart from her experience as a Jew. In 1961 she attended Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem. Her report, Eichmann in Jerusalem, provoked an immense controversy, which culminated in her virtual excommunication from the worldwide Jewish community. Today that controversy is the subject of serious re-evaluation, especially among younger people in the United States, Europe, and Israel. The publication of The Jewish Writings–much of which has never appeared before–traces Arendt’s life and thought as a Jew. It will put an end to any doubts about the centrality, from beginning to end, of Arendt’s Jewish experience.
Schocken Books 2007 559 pages