The New Antisemitism - by Shalom Lappin (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Generations raised after the Second World War took for granted a world of stability and prosperity, and with it the waning of ancient hatreds. Recent decades have been more sobering. Instability and extremism have returned in force. As Shalom Lappin explains in this worrying book, an upsurge of antisemitism across the political spectrum has accompanied them. Recent events in the Middle East have transformed it into a tidal wave.

Lappin explores in particular the disturbing correlation between the expansion of economic globalization and the return of the anti-Jewish ideas that we thought had been consigned to the past. He examines this relationship within the context of the assault on democracy and social cohesion that anti-globalist reactions have launched in different parts of the world. To understand contemporary antisemitism, Lappin argues, it is essential to recognize the way in which its antecedents have become deeply embedded in Western and Middle Eastern cultures over millennia. This allows hostility to Jews to cross political boundaries easily, left and right, in a way that other forms of racism do not. Combatting antisemitism effectively requires a new progressive politics that addresses its root causes.

The New Antisemitism is crucial reading for anyone concerned with the social pathologies unleashed by our current economic and political discontents.

Review Quotes

"This fine book has found its terrible moment. Shalom Lappin helps us to recognize, understand and fight against the menace of antisemitism."
Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

"A deep and thoughtful analysis of a pernicious phenomenon that has made a tragic reappearance in intellectual life."
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and author of Rationality

"The New Antisemitism is beautifully written and theoretically brilliant. Lappin addresses the toxic, intimate relationship between antisemitism and global inequality, and analyses the pernicious, parallel role of the left and the right in fostering antisemitism worldwide. Unfortunately, I can't think of a more timely book."
Susie Linfield, Professor of Journalism at New York University and author of The Lions' Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky

"Much writing on contemporary antisemitism is limited by treating it as a free-floating discourse, by engaging only one expression of it - left, right or religious - and by despairing about the prospect of defeating it. Lappin's book offers us a critical and global political economy of contemporary antisemitism, a historically grounded account of its spread across the left and right, and a course set on hope: a new progressive politics that, by leaning into class, focusing on socializing globalization, and stimulating new social solidarities, can tear antisemitism up by the roots."
Alan Johnson, editor of Mapping Left Antisemitism: The Fathom Essays

"An evenhanded examination of how the 'massive instability unleashed by decades of intensifying economic inequality' has exacerbated forces of age-old antisemitism. ... A well-reasoned, coolheaded argument that could be used fruitfully in current roiling debates."
Kirkus Reviews

"Offers a superb primer of antisemitism's past and a sharp analysis of its present state... It is a remarkable book... A marvelously clear and cogent analysis of contemporary antisemitism."
The Forward

"enlightening and clearly argued [...] This book will be highly informative for anyone seeking to understand this most persistent of ancient hatreds."
Church Times

"[An] ambitious book ... [T]his book can be seen as a kind of 'Guide for the Perplexed' for liberal Jews in the West, especially the younger generation, who are bewildered by the difficult times they find themselves in and are seeking guidance on how to understand and cope with the situation. ... Lappin warns against an overly mystical interpretation of the conflict, advises against cooperation with both the far right and the far left, and ... outlines in the final chapter what can be done."
Yossi Kugler, Jewish Culture and History

"excellent"
Jewish Chronicle

About the Author

Shalom Lappin is Professor of Natural Language Processing at Queen Mary University of London, Emeritus Professor of Computational Linguistics at King's College London, and Research Scientist at the Centre for Linguistic Theory and Studies in Probability at the University of Gothenburg. His main research interests are the application of machine learning to natural language, and cognitive modelling of linguistic knowledge. He has written about political issues in publications such as Dissent and The Guardian.