Frederic Raphael
Scapegoats
Anti-Judaism: The History of a Way of Thinking
By David Nirenberg
Head of Zeus 610pp £25
‘The jew is underneath the lot,’ wrote the poet. Fundamental and excremental have something in common. The charge of anti-Semitism has been laid with voluminous regularity against the great thinkers and artists of the Western tradition. The Christian world has wrestled, ever since AD superseded BC, with the debt (seemingly indistinguishable from the curse) of the primacy of Judaism. Moses, it has been said, led a disparate rabble out of bondage in Egypt and graced it with community by the invention (or imposition) of monotheism. Those who prayed together stayed together, pretty much, during those years in the wilderness and, eventually, found a resting place, restless as it proved to be, in what it is convenient to call Palestine. After the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Jews who avoided enslavement (only 180 in some belated accounts) were said to have dispersed from Judea and remained forever homeless.
In fact, Jews remained in Palestine, if not in Jerusalem itself, in large numbers: how otherwise would Bar Kochba have led a mass uprising against the Emperor Hadrian in AD 132? Much has been made of the dislike of Jews expressed by ancient writers, before the specific venom of the
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Under its longest-serving editor, Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair was that rare thing – a New York society magazine that published serious journalism.
@PeterPeteryork looks at what Carter got right.
Peter York - Deluxe Editions
Peter York: Deluxe Editions - When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter
literaryreview.co.uk
Henry James returned to America in 1904 with three objectives: to see his brother William, to deliver a series of lectures on Balzac, and to gather material for a pair of books about modern America.
Peter Rose follows James out west.
Peter Rose - The Restless Analyst
Peter Rose: The Restless Analyst - Henry James Comes Home: Rediscovering America in the Gilded Age by Peter Brooks...
literaryreview.co.uk
Vladimir Putin served his apprenticeship in the KGB toward the end of the Cold War, a period during which Western societies were infiltrated by so-called 'illegals'.
Piers Brendon examines how the culture of Soviet spycraft shaped his thinking.
Piers Brendon - Tinker, Tailor, Sleeper, Troll
Piers Brendon: Tinker, Tailor, Sleeper, Troll - The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West by Shaun Walker
literaryreview.co.uk