The Image of the Jew in European Liberal Culture, 1789-1914 (Hardcover)

These essays explore the complex articulations and contexts of anti-Semitism in the literature of four cultures - Britain, France, Germany and Italy, in the long 19th century. Individuals explored in this context include: Cesare Lombroso, Max Nordau, Marcel Proust, and Sir Walter Scott. The text scrutinizes assumptions about the relative absence of anti-Semitism in Britain, the image of Germany as resistant to Jewish assimilation, and of Italy as particularly hospitable to Jews. The essays are placed in a comparative framework in order to examine the representation of Jews both within particular national cultures and in the context of Western European liberalism. The volume considers the ways in which anti-Semitism functioned within liberal culture in the 19th century as part of the broader history of oppression within Western modernity.