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Palgrave Macmillan

Antisemitism Without Jews in Germany, France and the U.S.

Phantom Enemies

  • Book
  • Apr 2024

Overview

  • Examine the role that anti-Jewish propaganda and rhetoric played in three distinct electoral campaigns
  • Look at how Jews were imagined despite the fact that none of these communities had significant Jewish populations
  • Provides three in-depth case studies of Saxony in 1893, Southern France in 1898 and Kansas in 1938

Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism (PCSAR)

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Keywords

  • Reichstag
  • minorities
  • discrimination
  • Gers
  • intolerance
  • Gerald B. Winrod

About this book

Why does antisemitic messaging strike a chord in certain communities without Jews but fall flat in neighboring communities equally without Jews? This book focuses on antipathy towards Jews - expressed through successful electoral campaigns where a candidate or political party championed antisemitism - in communities located in three different nations where the Jewish population had virtually no history of interaction with the resident majority population of non-Jews. The cases are: the election of antisemitic deputies in the 1893 German Reichstag Elections from eastern Saxony; the election of a slate of antisemitic deputies to the French Chamber in 1898 from the southwestern French department of the Gers; and the significant proportion of votes for the antisemitic campaign of Gerald B. Winrod in the U.S. Senate Republican Party primary election in 1938 in Kansas. Each of these examples illustrates the existence of heightened levels of antisemitism in cases where few, if any, Jews had engagement with the majority population.


Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University, Pittsburgh and Morgantown, USA

    William I. Brustein

  • West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA

    Luke Gramith

About the authors

William I. Brustein is Professor Emeritus at West Virginia University, USA and Research Associate at the University of  Pittsburgh, USA.  Brustein is the author of highly-acclaimed books including: The Logic of Evil: the Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925 to 1933;  Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust; and The Socialism of Fools? Leftist Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism.


Luke W. Gramith recently completed his PhD at West Virginia University, USA.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Antisemitism Without Jews in Germany, France and the U.S.

  • Book Subtitle: Phantom Enemies

  • Authors: William I. Brustein, Luke Gramith

  • Series Title: Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-55755-2Due: 09 May 2024

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-55758-3Due: 09 May 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-55756-9Due: 09 May 2024

  • Series ISSN: 2946-4633

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-4641

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Illustrations: 33 illustrations in colour

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