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 | | Esau's Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews by Albert S. Lindemann ISBN-10: 9780521593694 ISBN-10: 0-521-59369-7 ISBN-13: 9780521593694 ISBN-13: 978-0-521-59369-4 Hardcover 1997-08-28 Cambridge University Press Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Esau's Tears explores the rise of modern racial-political anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States. Previous histories have been more concerned with description than analysis and most have lacked 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. Hatred of Jews was not as mysterious or incomprehensible as often presented, but may be related to the differing perceptions of the rise of the Jews in modern times. | ||
Book Description Esau's Tears explores the rise of modern racial-political anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States. Previous histories have been more concerned with description than analysis and most have lacked 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. Hatred of Jews was not as mysterious or incomprehensible as often presented, but may be related to the differing perceptions of the rise of the Jews in modern times. | ||
Reviews | ||
To accuse him of being a "self-hating Jew"--IS SICK!!! For his scholarly writings on Jewish group behavior, and the outrageous ordeal of British historian David Irving for having expressed non-conformist views about World War II history, along with other issues, are tackled in this author's writings. BRAVO! | ||
A nuanced account of antisemitism Teaching, as a Jew, the History of the Jews, I have often come across discomfort in my largely Jewish audience when I explain that hostility to Jews has understandable causes - which of course is not to say that tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner. Some of these causes - religious intolerance, envy, scapegoating - are wholly unworthy. Others relate to variety of dislikeable or threatening characteristics displayed by enough Jews to give rise to indefensible stereotyping. So a frank discussion of the variety of causes of antisemitism is commendable, and the Preface of this book made me expect a fair-minded and dispassionate treatment of the subject. And yet within a very few pages I found assertions that struck me as distinctly skewed. Jews are said (p.14) to have found Marxism alluring because it emphasized the `tainted and sick qualities of modern Gentile existence' - ignoring Marx's hatred for Jews as particular exemplars of capitalism. On page 17 we are told that Jews were poor in Eastern Europe `primarily because the overwhelming majority of the population in that region was poor'. While this is true, there is no mention of the surely significant `secondary' reason - that obstacles, specifically directed at them, were placed in their way to raising themselves out of poverty. On page 20 we have the odd statement that Jewish religious rituals `threatened' other religions - how, is not explained. A substantial part of his long account of the Kishinev massacre of 1903, in which 45 Jews were killed, is devoted to showing how Jews exaggerated the scale of the disaster. And when Jews inside and outside Russia used what influence they had to fight back, it is `understandable' that Tsarist governments felt that the Jews set out to be subversive - a point Lindemann also makes about foreign attempts to relieve pressure on the Jews of Romania. It is salutary to be reminded that doctrines of race and purity of blood - and of racial superiority - were held in the 19th century by Jews as well as by Gentiles, though again Lindemann seems to be to go over the top when he writes that Disraeli may (note the weasel word) have been the most influential propagator of the concept of race in the 19th century: simply because Disraeli was quoted by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, he is said to have `exercised a major influence' on him. And the way Lindemann downplays the Jewish aspect in his account of the Dreyfus case strikes me as excessive, even if it is true that the Dreyfus case was about much more than antisemitism. Lindemann consistently emphasises that, whilst on the one hand the opponents of modernism had good reasons for seeing Jews disproportionately represented among its exponents and practitioners, on the other hand violently antisemitic organizations in 19th century Germany, Austria and France had a very small following, that most conservatives distanced themselves from vulgar extremism, that antisemitism had no impact in terms of legislation, that Jewish prosperity continued to grow apace, and that Jews had objective reason for not taking antisemitism too seriously. On the other hand, when they came across antisemitism, many Jews at the time tended to display a sensitivity that they did not always practice when commenting about matters that other people were sensitive about; and of course post-Holocaust Jews tend to read history backwards and see every cloud in the past, even if it was perhaps no bigger than a man's hand, as a hugely sinister portent of things to come. Lindemann frequently stresses the `moderation' of even the most famous antisemites of the 19th century when compared with the Nazis. True: none of them suggested a `Final Solution' - but does that really need to be repeatedly stressed and qualified by the word `moderate'? His facts are usually undeniable, but his unfortunate choice of word here is symptomatic of the questionable tone that from time to time mars this work. He devotes his last chapter to the Third Reich. A relatively small part of it explains, quite rightly, that antisemitism was not the reason why the Nazi vote leapt from 2.6% in May 1928 to 38% in July 1932: most of those who voted for the Nazis supported them for quite different reasons; and Lindemann rightly takes issue with the Goldhagen thesis that most Germans were Hitler's willing executioners. But most of that chapter is provocatively (and quite unnecessarily) devoted to showing how uncertain Hitler was in the early years of the Third Reich about what to do about the Jews. `Almost certainly' impressed by how Henry Ford in America had had to climb down when the Jews fought back, Hitler was afraid of their power. The three days' boycott (Lindemann says `it lasted a day or two') of Jewish shops at the beginning of April was merely a gesture, which fizzled out. The wholesale dismissal of Jews from state employment later that month is not mentioned. He implies that the abandonment of the boycott aggravated Hitler's problems with the Brownshirts and was one of the reasons for the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. The Nuremberg Laws in 1935 are described as drafted in a hurry and as a last minute idea: some Jewish leaders were relieved that they were not worse, and that the loss of the right to vote `no longer meant much to anyone in Germany in 1935'. In one sentence he says that Goebbels planned the Kristallnach, but, lower down on the same page, that `to describe the pogrom as planned may (that weasel word again) overstate things.' The flaws in this book are a great pity, because there is much interesting information in it, much which is insightful - the 14 page conclusion is wise and magisterial - and much which is a corrective to the view that criticism of the Jewish role in history is never anything except pathological and that it does not have understandable historical roots. | ||
called 'deeply pernicious' by most respected authority The title, as one other reader said, is a giveaway that this author has a strange attitude about antisemitism. Esau cried when Jacob, one of the founders of Judaism, 'stole' his birthright. As the title implies, so the theme of the book: Jewish success and competition causes others to hate them. While this is undoubtedly one factor in antisemitism, no respected authority in the field gives it dominance over the teaching of hate by the Church, the need of dictators for scapegoats, or how societies mistreat helpless subgroups. For of course, there are many elite groups in society whose success invites both emulation and envy (the rich, celebreties, sports heros, old money etc) without leading to conspiracy theories and murderous movements towards those successful people. Robert Wistrich ("Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred") is one of the most respected authorities today on antisemitism. His review of this books says, "... in this deeply pernicious book. Although some chapters are more balanced than others, Lindemann's presentation throughout is marked not only by sympathy for the arguments of anti-Semites but by an undisguised antipathy toward Judaism and Jews. It is appalling that Cambridge University Press has put its distinguished imprint on so profoundly biased and ignominious a work. | ||
lucid, frank, serious, informative This is the second book by Albert Lindemann i read - again with pleasure. Being a professional historian, he's also a gifted, even talanted writer and philosopher. He has his own, very recognizable style, sometimes witty and aphoristic, sometimes deep and thoughtful. The book touches upon many "uncomfortable" issues, especially for a Jew, because any Jew, who attempts to come up with some more balanced approach to those issues, is immediately labeled "self-hating". Fortunately, Lindemann's credentials as a historian let his voice be heard, even if there are attempts to discredit his work. What is especially attractive, Lindemann never degrades himself (neither in his books nor in the exchanges on the Internet) by indulging in acrimony and accusations, so pervasive in writings of his opponents. To appreciate Lindemann's depth as a philosopher, one only needs to read the last chapter of this book, "Epilogue and Conclusions". It deserves, to my taste, to be published separately, as a very profound essay of Jewish history and their position in the modern world. I found chapters about Jews in Italy, about history of fascism in that country, especially interesting, but the chapters on Russian Revolution and Nazi Germany also contain many interesting facts about such supposedly well-known figures like Trotsky and Hitler. Here's a quote from the last chapter of Lindemann's book: "My inspiration ... is captured in the deceptively simple words of a famous Jew, Baruch Spinoza: "With regard to human affairs, not to laugh, not to cry, not to become indignant, but to understand." | ||
Honest effort This is a scholarly work on the origin and nature of anti-semitism and its history from the 1870's to the eve of the holocaust. It very efficiently refutes the failed interpretations of the Jewish apologists, whose claim that it is a causeless, inexplicable pathology of the non-Jews--independent of anything the Jews do, or even of their very presence, and is rooted in the Christian theology of deicide. It is, according to these morons, the province of a primitive impulse of the ignorant, something like the primitive's unreasoned abhorrence for ghosts and goblins. Lindemann painstakingly shows the real complexity of the phenomenon, varying in time and place. He effectively proves that it is just another manifestation of the interaction of distinct peoples, with its quite understandable jealousies and hatreds brought on by competition for the goods of capitalism and modernity. There is nothing transcendental or ineffable about it, and can be understood by anyone able to think dispassionately and are susceptible to the arguments of the historical science. Most of what is written about it today, colored as it is by the propaganda of the holocaust, he persuasively claims, is the hooey of hysterics and the balderdash of the self-deceived. Moving decisively away from the by now traditional, emotional recitation of the injustice found in their over-worked narrative, toward a reasoned view enlightened by facts and data, he rises above such unreasoned nonsense and so will surely be accused of anti-semitism himself. I especially appreciated his analysis of the phenomenon in Russia, and the background for the pogrom in Kishenev, is described in some detail. I was amazed to read how the Jews greatly exaggerated their claims, hoping for greater compensation from the West, which Lindemann is unafraid to relate. His tools and method of analysis unfortunately ignores the important insights afforded by evolutionary psychology, a la Kevin MacDonald in his three volume series. Read together, they usefully complement one another. His writing style, while rather that of an academic, is quite lucid and the material is well organized. This is a big book, perhaps a bit longer than it needs to be, but it is a serious antidote to all the baloney written on this topic, and the interested reader will be well rewarded by the exposure to an honest treatment of it. | ||