Antisemitism in Context: Three Recent Volumes

Abstract This chapter reviews three collections of essays on the history of antisemitism. The 19 essays in Antisemitism: Historical Concept, Public Discourse (2020) were written as responses to David Engel’s article of 2009, “Away from a Definition of Antisemitism: An Essay in the Semantics of Historical Description.” In it, Engel recapitulates his lingering frustration with the unclear nature of the term “antisemitism.” Meanwhile, the 17 essays in Jews, Liberalism, Antisemitism: A Global History (2021) deal with the complex links among Jews, antisemites, and liberals, not only in Italy, Spain, and Vienna, but also in the United States, Turkey, the Middle East, and even the Caribbean. In Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism (2021)—an alphabetical compendium beginning with anti-Judaism and ending with Zionism—the essays discuss emancipation, the Catholic church, nationalism, gender, orientalism, and postcolonialism.