Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry Into Conflict and Prejudice

Bernard Lewis

W W Norton & Company Incorporated, 1999 - History - 295 pages

The Arab-Israeli conflict has unsettled the Middle East for over half a century. This conflict is primarily political, a clash between states and peoples over territory and history. But it is also a conflict that has affected and been affected by prejudice. For a long time this was simply the "normal" prejudice between neighboring people of different religions and ethnic origins. In the present age, however, hostility toward Israel and its people has taken the form of anti-Semitism-a pernicious world view that goes beyond prejudice and ascribes to Jews a quality of cosmic evil. First published in the 1980s to universal acclaim, Semites and Anti-Semites traces the development of anti-Semitism from its beginnings as a poison in the bloodstream of Christianity to its modern entrance into mainstream Islam. Bernard Lewis, one of the world's foremost scholars of the Middle East, takes us through the history of the Semitic peoples to the emergence of the Jews and their virulent enemies, and dissects the region's recent tragic developments in a moving new afterword. "A powerful and important work, beautifully written and edited, and based on a range of erudition (in the best sense) that few others, if any, could command."—George Kennan

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Review: Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice

User Review  - Eugene - Goodreads

This was a fascinating look into the history of Anti-Semitism. Although I very much enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it, I would advise those that read it to not read it too quickly. I read it ...

About the author

Bernard Lewis is Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus at Princeton University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry Into Conflict and Prejudice
• Author: Bernard Lewis
• Edition: reprint, reissue
• Publisher: W W Norton & Company Incorporated, 1999
• ISBN: 0393318397, 9780393318395
• Length: 295 pages
• Subjects: History / Jewish; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural