From Library Journal
In this book, Bronner (political science and comparative literature, Rutgers Univ.), who won the Michael A. Harrington Prize for Moments of Decision: Political History and the Crises of Radicalism, places The Protocols of the Elders of Zion within a broader framework, arguing effectively that acceptance of the notorious forgery had as much to do with reactions against liberalism and democracy as it did with anti-Semitism. According to the author, the popularity of the Protocols stemmed from political anti-Semitism, linking Jews to the "evils" of the Enlightenment (from the viewpoint of the reactionaries), rather than the usual religious and social reasons for anti-Semitism. Although it does not replace Norman Cohn's Warrant for Genocide (Serif, 1998), which remains the standard English-language source on the early history of the Protocols, this book makes an original and valuable contribution to the literature. (Readers might be interested to know that Russian historian Mikhail Lepekhine has determined that Mathieu Golovinski was the author of the infamous Protocols.) For some reason, the CIP for this book uses the subheading "juvenile literature," which it is not. Recommended for Judaica and intellectual history collections. --John A. Drobnicki, York Coll., CUNY Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Beliefnet
"Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," a pamphlet crafted by the secret police of Imperial Russia in the late 1890s, purports to be the minutes of meetings of Jewish leaders plotting to take over the world. Though first printed in a gold-leaf edition intended for the tsar, "Protocols" quickly found its way into the hands of more ordinary folk. Even after it was exposed as a fake, the pamphlet sparked pogroms, was lauded by Nazis, and is passed around like Scripture by right-wing militia members today.
Stephen Eric Bronner, a Rutgers University political scientist whose family escaped for Hitler's Germany, traces the history of "Protocols" in his slender new book. "A Rumor About the Jews" is cleanly written, and the charged emotions that have marred many assessments of "Protocols" are blessedly absent. But the book has little else to recommend it. Bronner's suggestion that "Protocols" married anti-Semitism with a larger attack on Enlightenment thinking can be found in most Western Civ textbooks. And his digressive assertion, in the concluding pages, that "anti-Semitism is no longer a threat in the terms of times past" is no more innovative. (Beliefnet, May 2000)
From Booklist
Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a work purporting to be the text of a secret plan by the Jews to enslave Christian civilization under a new world order, run by the leading elders of Zion. The tract was written by the Russian secret police in 1903 and was translated into a multitude of languages; international sales of the tract were astronomical during the 1920s and 1930s. Bronner begins with 24 selections from the Protocols that should provide a sense of what fascists considered important about the tract. The author examines premodern religious bigotry in which Christians believed that Jews were working together with the devil, and he recounts the story behind the fabrication of the Protocols. Bronner, a professor of political science and comparative literature at Rutgers University, discusses what he calls the "career" of the tract; how it inspired pogroms and other anti-Semitic acts by fanatics in the last century. The book's final chapter examines contemporary anti-Semitism. George Cohen
From Kirkus Reviews
A coherent treatment of a complex issue and its most significant secular document. Before discussing the influence of ``The Protocols'' and commenting on selections, Bronner (Political Science and Comparative Literature/Rutgers; Moments of Decision: Political History and the Crises of Radicalism, not reviewed) traces the history of ``Judeophobia'' from the time that Judaism, not Jews, was the enemy. To pagan rivals, the Jews faith was despised for the arrogance of such monotheism. Economic resentment both predated and postdated Christianity, but envy would not target poorer Jews. Bronner sees Christian anti-Semitism as the third and most dangerous wave of prejudice. In the Gospels all Jews, even the secular or poor, were demonized. Jews were inherently evil, eternally guilty Christ killers befitting the satanic snake stealthily squeezing the world, in the parlance of ``The Protocols''a forgery by the czarist police in which a cabal of powerful Jews conspire to economically, politically, and culturally supplant Christian civilization. Both this tract and later Nazi ideology are secular, yet Bronner demonstrates that their satanic metaphors are as blatant as the vitriol of Martin Luther, and that The Protocols'' infuse the realistic fears of losers in the march to democratic freedoms and modernity with the paranoid fantasies of religious myths. ``Hitler considered the logic of the `Protocols' his own . . . the Jews had declared war on him; he knew, Bronner contends, the Jews were the agents of progress. From Henry Ford to Ezra Pound, from many Arab newspapers to skinhead Web sites, Bronner sees the letter and spirit of ``The Protocols'' living on. Perhaps out of fairness, he levels some blame at the victims, for the chauvinism of fundamentalist Jews, forgetting they weren't the threatening cosmopolites of his thesis. Nonetheless, Bronner may have written the best short book on anti-Semitism. The 14 pages of chapter notes include useful bibliographic information. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"...helpful both in its linking the Protocols to previous anti-semitic diatribes and by interpreting why they became so popular." -The Historian
Book Description
"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is among the most infamous documents of antisemitism. A forgery created in Russia by the czarist secret police and quickly translated into a host of languages, it portrayed Judaism as a worldwide conspiracy dedicated to the destruction of Christian civilization. The appearance of the Protocols sparked a number of bloody pogroms and it helped shape the thinking of right-wing movements worldwide from Hitler's Nazis to contemporary antisemitic groups in Russia, the Middle East and the United States. A work of intellectual history, A Rumor About the Jews expresses the connection between antisemitism and the overarching political assault upon the enlightenment legacy taking the reader on a historical journey that provides a new and penetrating understanding of an insidious ideology and its broader implications.
From the Publisher
"Finally there is a comprehensive, contemporary look at the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion! Recently there has been a reprinting of studies of this odd but influential work from the distant past and a reediting of the English text, but no scholar until Stephen Eric Bronner has risked taking on the complex and convoluted history of the book, its creation, and its reception. This is a major addition to the study of anti-Semitism in the twentieth century. Given the extremely long life of the Protocols and its constant republication it will be valuable (sadly) into the next century too." -SANDER GILMAN, University of Chicago
About the Author
Stephen Eric Bronner is professor of political science and comparative literature at Rutgers University. He is the author of several books including Moments of Decision: Political History and the Crises of Radicalism (winner of the Michael A. Harrington Prize). He lives in New York City.
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