On Antisemitism

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“An immense contribution. . . . In tracing the evolving meaning of ‘antisemitism,’ [Mazower] demonstrates persuasively how we might turn it from a weapon back into a word. . . . Rigorous and lucid.” — The New Republic From one of our most eminent historians, a penetrating and timely examination of how the meaning of antisemitism has mutated, with unexpected and troubling consequences What are we talking about when we talk about antisemitism? For most of its history it was understood to be a menace from the political Right, the province of ethno-nativists who built on Christendom’s long-standing suspicion of its tiny Jewish population and infused it with racist pseudoscience. When the twentieth century began, the vast majority of the world’s Jews lived in Europe. For them, there was no confusion about where the threat of antisemitic politics lay, a threat that culminated in the nightmare of Nazi Germany and the