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17 - Modern Antisemitism in Western Europe

Romantic Nationalism, Racism and Racial Fantasies

from Part III - The Modern Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

By
Shulamit Volkov
Edited by
Steven Katz
Steven Katz
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

In this chapter, changing attitudes toward Jews in the countries of Western and Central Europe are discussed, beginning with the early fight for equal rights in the latter part of the 18th century, and continuing up to the First World War. The rise of new forms of anti-Jewish sentiment and ideology during this era is described, including the Romantic-Conservative rejection of Jewish participation in the life of bourgeois society, Jews’ definition as foreigners within the emerging nations, and, finally, their designation as a separate, inferior race – all constituting aspects of a modern form of antisemitism that grew parallel to the process of Jewish integration in contemporary society and culture.

Keywords

antisemitismracismemancipationGermany
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism , pp. 307 - 324
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Arendt, H., The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York, 1951). The first part of this book treats antisemitism since the rise of the modern state, especially in Germany and France. It stresses the Jews’ special function in the age of modernity and the effects of what the author sees as their resistance to full assimilation.Google Scholar
Birnbaum, P., The Anti-Semitic Moment: A Tour of France in 1898 (Chicago, IL, 1998). Analyzes the antisemitic mood in France during a year of rising tension around the Dreyfus Affair.Google Scholar
Frankel, J., The Damascus Affair: Ritual Murder and the Jews in 1840 (New York, 1997). This is a detailed description of this event in 1840, far away in the Middle East, and the various reactions to it throughout Europe, at a time when Jews were in the midst of fighting for emancipation.Google Scholar
Hyman, P. E., The Jews in Modern France (Berkeley, CA, 1998). A full overview of Jewish history in France with extensive sections on antisemitism as well as on the fight against it from before the French Revolution until the later part of the 20th century.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Julius, A., Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England (Oxford, 2010). A book reviewing antisemitism in England from the Middle Ages and into the second half of the 20th century, describing its presence in that country in modern times as mild, often hidden and implicit.Google Scholar
Katz, J., From Prejudice to Destruction: Anti-Semitism 1700–1933 (Cambridge, MA, 1980). By now a classic book on this topic with emphasis on the 19th century, mixing the history of ideas and social history, stressing continuities with earlier periods and pointing out the road to the Holocaust.Google Scholar
Mosse, G. L., Towards the Final Solution: A History of European Racism (New York, 1978). An illuminating and as yet unsurpassed exposition of the development of racial thinking from the Enlightenment to National Socialism.Google Scholar
Pulzer, P., The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria, 1879–1933 (New York, 1964). A short but nevertheless detailed and precise description of antisemitism in Germany and Austria, with emphasis on the new political parties that led the fight against Jews and Jewish emancipation in central Europe, from the 1870s to the rise of Nazism.Google Scholar
Schechter, R., Obstinate Hebrews: Representations of Jews in France, 1715–1815 (Berkeley, CA, 2003). A well-balanced analysis of attitudes toward Jews and the Jewish religion, positive and negative, during the age of enlightenment in France.Google Scholar
Smith, H. W., The Butcher’s Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town (New York, 2002). A micro-history, using a blood-libel case in a small East Prussian town in 1900, showing the depth of Jew-hatred but also the strength of the forces acting against such prejudices at the time.Google Scholar
Volkov, S., Germans, Jews, and Antisemites: Trials in Emancipation (Cambridge, 2006). A book summarizing the research results of various smaller projects, with focus on the process of Jewish emancipation and the hurdles it has had to overcome in modern Germany from the late 18th century onward.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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