The Socialism of Fools? The Leftist Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism

• In Event: 594 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 20. Intolerance

Abstract

It is often assumed that anti-Semitism has historically been a phenomenon of the political right and that it has not meaningfully been associated with the political left. This paper questions that assumption. It sketches the contents of a book currently in progress, in which we trace the history of leftist anti-Semitism in France, Germany, and Britain from the French Revolution to the Second World War through a combination of primary and secondary sources. Three themes emerge. (1) The classic caricature of Judaism as an anti-progressive and backward religion emerged from the efforts of Enlightenment thinkers and early leftists who sought to assail traditional Christianity. (2) Nationalism was originally a liberal and radical rather than a conservative cause. Enlightenment thinkers and early liberal nationalists in Germany and to some extent in France were among the first to promote the argument that Jews were excessively exclusivist and to depict Jews as forming a “state within a state.” (3) It was 19th-century socialists who were responsible for the development and early promotion of the argument that Jews were to blame for the ills of a corrupt and capitalistic modernity. This idea would later be taken up by the radical right. In addition to exploring these three themes, we seek to explain variation in the intensity of left-wing anti-Semitism across the three countries, and to explain why at the end of the 19th century (or in Britain in the early 20th), the left chose to distance itself from anti-Semitism.

Authors

• Louisa Roberts, The Ohio State University

• William I. Brustein, The Ohio State University