MixedTimes Literary Supplement (UK)I am struggling to view a book that purports to be a word history of antisemitism, but studiously ignores its religious dimensions, as anything other than disingenuous. Yet I can see that Mark Mazower has written On Antisemitism: A word in history from the heart ... To begin with, there is the problem of geography. Antisemitism may have been born in Europe, but it has become a global phenomenon. This book, however, has a more limited geography: it deals primarily with Europe, the US and Israel ... These are phenomena to which Mazower pays scant attention, though they provide a crucial context for events such as the recent synagogue attack in Manchester ... He has nothing to say about the Brotherhood’s growing influence in Europe and the US ... One of the many problems with this book is that Mazower does not attempt to identify or define the other keywords that help us to capture the changing meaning of antisemitism ... Among other things, a consideration of Islamophobia might have prompted Mazower to think more deeply about religion ... The narrative provided here does centre Jewish voices, but it consistently privileges European, American and (in Israel) Ashkenazi players and perspectives over those of others.
Christopher Clark
RaveTimes Literary Supplement (UK)The society brought to life in Revolutionary Spring thrills with unexpected energy. Clark speaks the language of liberal moderation, of political radicalism, of religion and of patriotism in ways that capture something of the glamour that infused them at the time ... This is narrative history in the grand style, and Clark does not neglect the great set pieces. If you want the February revolution, the fall of Metternich, the Five Days of Milan, you will find them vividly rendered here in a prose that interlaces deep learning with deliberate anachronism.
Natalie Livingstone
RaveTimes Literary Supplement (UK)Within a couple of chapters, I was hooked ... Having read so many accounts of the history, it was revelatory to see it from this unexpected angle ... I must admit that I often found details of these women’s domestic lives rather tedious, but Livingstone brings their travails to life with sensitive intimacy ... Time and again I was impressed by the subtlety with which Livingstone wove her subject into the wider fabric of the past, gesturing towards broad scholarly vistas. That ability is the key to writing intelligently for the general reader ... Specialists may wish that the book dealt more effectively with twentieth-century antisemitism. They may also identify the odd error of detail; it annoyed me to see the Montefiores described as better marital prospects than Nathan Rothschild in 1805, long before they made their fortune. Yet specialists will also discover a great deal they ought to have known ... Brilliantly conceived and beautifully written, The Women of Rothschild is more than just a glossy book about rich people. It represents a significant contribution to our understanding of the Jewish past.
