Esau's Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews

Esau's Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews

by Albert Lindemann (Author)

Synopsis

Esau's Tears explores the remarkable and revealing variety of modern anti-Semitism, from its emergence in the 1870s in a racial-political form to the eve of the Nazi takeover, in the major countries of Europe and in the United States. Previous histories have generally been more concerned with description than analysis, and most of the interpretations in those histories have been lacking in balance. The evidence presented in this volume suggests that anti-Semitism in these years was more ambiguous than usually presented, less pervasive and central to the lives of both Jews and non-Jews, and by no means clearly pointed to a rising hatred of Jews everywhere, even less to the likelihood of mass murder. Similarly, Jew-hatred was not as mysterious or incomprehensible as often presented; its strength in some countries and weakness in others may be related to the fluctuating, and sometimes quite different, perceptions in those countries of the meaning of the rise of the Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 568
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 04 Dec 2000

ISBN 10: 0521795389
ISBN 13: 9780521795388
Book Overview: Esau's Tears analyzes the rise of modern racial-political anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States.

Media Reviews
'... an original and perceptive observation on virtually every page, a consistent challenge to the orthodox interpretation of modern antisemitism which may be seen as a landmark in its study ... Esau's Tears merits an important place in any historical assessment of modern antisemitism, while the author deserves a medal for bravery in writing the book'. History
Albert S. Lindemann has touched raw nerves with Esau's Tears....[This] is the real context of the controversy stirred by Esau's Tears: Lindemann's unwillingness to allow the victimology racket to proceed unchallenged. Paul Gottfried, Chronicles
Lindemann has amassed a large amount of useful information, and his call for a more complex and dispassionate historical understanding of antisemitism is welcome. Choice
Lindemann's richness and subtlety are difficult to overstate....Esau's Tears is a superior sourcebook for students of anti-Semitism and a brilliant analytical work, chock-full of original ideas, concepts and well-balanced interpretations. Susan Zuccotti, The Nation
...a work of immense sweep and ambition....merely to call the book 'provocative' would be to understate the intensity of the criticism it is likely to attract....readers and reviewers should bear in mind the author's record as an able, serious scholar whose sincere intention it is to contribute to our understanding of antisemitism. H-Antisemitism, H-NET
...profoundly biased and ignominious... Robert S. Wistrich, Commentary
...a work which tries to be as open-minded as possible about a subject which does not lend itself to such treatment, and to a very high degree it succeeds in this task. Any fair-minded reader will be impressed by the way in which Lindemann tackles taboo after taboo in the litany of anti-Semitic historiography and, basing himself scrupulously on scholarly research, reveals a much more complex picture...without ever trying to excuse the anti-Semitism or the anti-Semite. Steven Beller, Times Literary Supplement
This survey of anti-Semitism in the 50 years preceding the rise of the Nazis is sure to generate controversy.... Lindemann displays a wide breadth of history and of the historical literature. Publishers Weekly
A richly informative...overview of anti-Jewish bigotry and violence between the 1870s, when the term 'anti-Semitism' was coined, and the Holocaust....There's much provocative, compelling material here. Kirkus Reviews
Esau's Tears is lucidly written and the drama of the subject easily holds the reader's attention. The book raises troubling issues that have sometimes been downplayed or ignored, and in this it performs a service. The Washington Times
elegantly written Holocaust & Genocide