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The History of Anti-Semitism 3: From Voltaire to Wagner
Poliakov, Leon
592 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 5, 2025
My research on the Nazis (and now Zionists, as I am starting to realize their symbiotic nature), continues, as the nature of Nazi anti-semitism didn't just appear overnight in Nazi Germany, as some revisionist Americans would have people believe.
I started with Volume 3 since the first is pre-capitalist anti-semitism and thus while somewhat relevant, the major points are captured by examining the later periods of the Dark Ages and the beginnings of capitalist Europe, while the second is just about Muslim take over of the Holy Lands and is much less relevant and propagandist in nature (as the author, while not explicitly Zionist, shows heavy Zionist sympathies).
What's interesting in the anti-semitism during the Industrial Revolution era is that as imperialism was spreading around the globe, race theories to justify western barbarism were developed to explain their so-called supremacy and natural role at the top of a racial hierarchy. On the philosophy side, as Europe entered the age of Enlightenment, a movement away from traditional Christian metaphysics, figures like Voltaire would amplify the idea that there was an inherent characteristic of a Jewish person, not only due to their religion, but due to their inherent genetic makeup as a Jew. German philosophers, as they started to negate Christianity as a religion, started to depict Jews as foreign in Europe introducing a foreign religion (Christianity) that was un-German in character.
While a very good resource and summary of anti-semitic attitudes, I dock it a star since Poliakov is clearly anti-Soviet and liberal in his thought, buying into Zionist narratives and accusing Marx of being the ultimate self-hating Jew, while praising Nietzsche, who merely defended the Jews in the later part of his career because he was an unpopular writer who didn't want to get cancelled like Wagner did when he came out with his anti-semitic treatise and was looking for support within Jewish intellectualism (which he ultimately obtained from Theodore Herzl).
I started with Volume 3 since the first is pre-capitalist anti-semitism and thus while somewhat relevant, the major points are captured by examining the later periods of the Dark Ages and the beginnings of capitalist Europe, while the second is just about Muslim take over of the Holy Lands and is much less relevant and propagandist in nature (as the author, while not explicitly Zionist, shows heavy Zionist sympathies).
What's interesting in the anti-semitism during the Industrial Revolution era is that as imperialism was spreading around the globe, race theories to justify western barbarism were developed to explain their so-called supremacy and natural role at the top of a racial hierarchy. On the philosophy side, as Europe entered the age of Enlightenment, a movement away from traditional Christian metaphysics, figures like Voltaire would amplify the idea that there was an inherent characteristic of a Jewish person, not only due to their religion, but due to their inherent genetic makeup as a Jew. German philosophers, as they started to negate Christianity as a religion, started to depict Jews as foreign in Europe introducing a foreign religion (Christianity) that was un-German in character.
While a very good resource and summary of anti-semitic attitudes, I dock it a star since Poliakov is clearly anti-Soviet and liberal in his thought, buying into Zionist narratives and accusing Marx of being the ultimate self-hating Jew, while praising Nietzsche, who merely defended the Jews in the later part of his career because he was an unpopular writer who didn't want to get cancelled like Wagner did when he came out with his anti-semitic treatise and was looking for support within Jewish intellectualism (which he ultimately obtained from Theodore Herzl).
October 6, 2018
A tremendous read on how antisemitism has morphed over the centuries from religious based and now to secular based!!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews