The Devil That Never Dies

April 15, 2013

Author of Hitler's Willing Executioners, Goldhagen carries his concerns into the current century by highlighting a worldwide resurgence in anti-Semitism.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013

Goldhagen (formerly, political science, Harvard Univ.; Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust) seeks to focus attention on the danger posed by the tidal global spread of anti-Semitism and the increase in its volume and virulence in this century. Tracing the consequences of widespread European and Islamic strands of anti-Semitism through the Holocaust and Cold War periods, he outlines how different proponents of anti-Semitism have recently come together to propagate a worldwide prejudice against, and demonization of, Jews, especially the Jews of Israel. Offering a more detailed and wider-ranging assessment than Alvin H. Rosenfeld in his recent Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives, Goldhagen is no less pessimistic. By citing public opinion surveys regarding Jews in dozens of countries and documented incidents of violence against Jews wherever they live, Goldhagen substantiates his claim that anti-Semitism has taken over public discourse at a level exceeding that of the 1930s and 1940s. He dispels the notion that this animus is caused by the actions of Israel or Jews and details the means used by anti-Semites to spread their influence--up to and including the agencies of the United Nations. VERDICT This is a book that should be of interest to anyone who opposes anti-Semitism. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/13.]--Joel Neuberg, Santa Rosa Junior Coll. Lib., CA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013
Anti-Semitism is more pervasive, dangerous and deadly than ever before, writes the author of Hitler's Willing Executioners (1996). Former Harvard professor Goldhagen (Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity, 2009), who has also written about the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holocaust (A Moral Reckoning, 2002), comes out swinging in this frontal assault on anti-Semitism and its practitioners and does not pause for breath until the final page, where he offers a feeble defense against the formidable juggernaut he describes: "People of good conscience unite...." Although his arguments and evidence are at times repetitive, they are never redundant. The author begins with the origins of anti-Semitism, then examines its singularity (it is unlike any other prejudice at large today), its omnipresence in contemporary culture (Mel Gibson makes a cameo) and even lists a number of literary all-stars who have embraced and/or furthered its foul agenda (Chaucer, Voltaire and Eliot among them). Goldhagen then describes what he calls the "antisemitic paradigm," offering a list of defining characteristics. He traces the history of anti-Semitism in Christian history (from the Crusades to the enduring beliefs about "Christ-killing" and the blood libel), then argues that the sympathy accorded the Jews following the Holocaust has been abating in recent years. Other major topics include the relationship between anti-Israel positions and anti-Semitism (they are inextricably linked, he says), the political and religious motives of anti-Semitism in Arab and Muslim states, and the spread of anti-Semitism to the United Nations and to NGOs. Among his most alarming sections are those devoted to the viral spread of anti-Semitism via the Internet, social and news media. Most of the illustrations he reproduces (political cartoons, quotations from politicians) are horrifying to contemplate. Repeatedly he wonders: How can so few people generate such pervasive hostility? A frightening photograph of a mutable demon so many fail to recognize and continue to embrace.

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September 15, 2013
Anti-Semitism has often been compared to a deadly virus, characterized by long latent periods and then reemerging in new and even more virulent forms. Goldhagen, who has specialized in provocative, controversial works on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, examines the virus in its latest, terrifying form. Per this author, anti-Semitism has broken free of its centuries-old host in Europe and now infects institutions and individuals across the world. Facilitated by the global nature of modern communication, the old blood libels, distortions, and wild conspiracy theories about Jews are now widely believed and expressed in places as far flung as Malaysia, West Africa, and Pakistan, none of which have indigenous Jewish populations. Goldhagen maintains that international organizations, including the United Nations and some so-called human-rights groups, use the mask of anti-Zionism or opposition to Israel to nurture and reinforce hatred of Jews. At the same time, there has been a resurgence of anti-Semitism in traditional places in Europe, and it transcends the political barriers of the Left and the Right. As in his earlier works, Goldhagen tends to paint with too broad a brush, but this is still an important investigation of an undeniably dangerous phenomenon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)