A Lethal Obsession (Wistrich)
Recently finished this thousand page history on antisemitism & I desperately recommend this read.
The book is a lot. It’s nuanced, detailed, hairsplitting and some 1,000 pages long, but it has helped me tremendously in understanding much of the popular wave of antisemitism we are experiencing today. Wistrich largely focuses on the 20th century but there is plenty on antisemitism in the ancient & medieval worlds.
He gives nuanced histories of right wing hatred and focuses a lot on left wing hatred. Something that I think has taken the lead today. I didn’t realize that many of the talking points we hear are not new.
He breaks down the history of how the UN had treated Israel, the apocalyptic/religious missions of Hamas/Hezbollah. (The claim that these groups are merely motivated by Palestinian hardship is provably false).
One of the most practically useful dimensions of the book were the discussions on how Zionism’s perception started from an 18th century movement inside Judaism in the wake up emancipation’s failures, antisemitism, pogroms & the religious challenges the enlightenment presented to it becoming a mindless buzzword meant to describe some mystical, all powerful, all rich, elite class of people (Jews) who control the world and are responsible for all bad things. Wistrich walks the reader through 20th century Nazi & Soviet propaganda campaigns used to bring about this modern image of Zionism.
Highly recommended read. It’s helped ground me amidst the surge in antisemitism we see today.