Overview

A magisterial history, ranging from antiquity to the present, that reveals anti-Judaism to be a mode of thought deeply embedded in the Western tradition. There is a widespread tendency to regard 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, as David Nirenberg argues in this ground-breaking study, to confine anit-Judaism to the margins of our culture is to be dangerously complacent. Anti-Judaism is not an irrational closet in the vast edifice of Western thought, but rather one of the basic tools with which that edifice was constructed.

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9781781852958

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Reviews

'Elegant and precise ... [His] superb scholarship has done a great service [...] not only to historians' Edward Peters. 'In this remarkable book, the development of a way of thinking is traced with scholarly rigour' The Times. 'A truly monumental book. Dark as its subject may be, it is full of delights ... This is a book that will - and should - stop you in your tracks' Sunday Times. 'Hugely impressive and brilliantly argued scholarly work ... Nirenberg asks tough questions about our intellectual roots' Irish Mail on Sunday. 'This richly fascinating history of a way of thinking takes us to some unexpected places. The Merchant of Venice is here of course, but such ingrained prejudice even crops up in a diet book of 1599. Sadly for modern enlightenment, Nirenberg ends by contemplating the future's dangers ' The Independent.

'Elegant and precise ... [His] superb scholarship has done a great service [...] not only to historians' Edward Peters. 'In this remarkable book, the development of a way of thinking is traced with scholarly rigour' The Times. 'A truly monumental book. Dark as its subject may be, it is full of delights ... This is a book that will - and should - stop you in your tracks' Sunday Times. 'Hugely impressive and brilliantly argued scholarly work ... Nirenberg asks tough questions about our intellectual roots' Irish Mail on Sunday.

'Elegant and precise ... [His] superb scholarship has done a great service [...] not only to historians' Edward Peters. 'In this remarkable book, the development of a way of thinking is traced with scholarly rigour' The Times. 'A truly monumental book. Dark as its subject may be, it is full of delights ... This is a book that will - and should - stop you in your tracks' The Sunday Times.

Author Information

David Nirenberg is Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Mediaeval History and Social Thought at Princeton University. His COMMUNITIES OF VIOLENCE won the prestigious Herbert Baxter Adams Award for 1998.

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