Chesterton’s Jews: Stereotypes and Caricatures in the Literature and Journalism of G. K. ChestertonG. K. Chesterton was a journalist and prolific author of poems, novels, short stories, travel books and social criticism. Prior to the twentieth century, Chesterton expressed sympathy for Jews and hostility towards antisemitism. He was agitated by Russian pogroms and felt sympathy for Captain Dreyfus. However, early into the twentieth century, he developed an irrational fear about the presence of Jews in Christian society. He started to argue that it was the Jews who oppressed the Russians rather than the Russians who oppressed the Jews, and he suggested that Dreyfus was not as innocent as the English newspapers claimed. His caricatures of Jews were often that of grotesque creatures masquerading as English people. His fictional and his journalistic works repeated anti-Jewish stereotypes of Jewish greed and usury, bolshevism, cowardice, disloyalty and secrecy. This concise book (125 pages) provides a focused yet easily-accessible examination of these stereotypes and caricatures in Chesterton’s discourse. It also examines Chesterton’s discussion of the so-called “Jewish Problem”, his belief that “every Jew” should be made to wear distinctive clothing, the claim that Chesterton could not have been antisemitic because Israel Zangwill was his friend, and the claim that the Wiener Library defended him from the charge of antisemitism. |
Contents
Stereotypes and Caricatures of the Jew | 12 |
Solutions to the Jewish Problem | 65 |
Responses to Hitlerism | 78 |
The Wiener Library Defence | 96 |
Archival Sources | 110 |
Acknowledgements | 123 |
Common terms and phrases
According to Chesterton accusation admirers Aidan Mackey anti antisemitism argues that Chesterton August Autobiography believed Bolshevism Bryan Cheyette capitalists Cecil Chesterton chapter Chesterton London Chesterton Review Chesterton’s discourse Christian concluded cowardly Dale Ahlquist defended Chesterton Dreyfus Affair examined example Fascism fictional Five of Swords friends G. K. Chesterton G. K. Chesterton Papers G.K.’s Weekly George MacDonald Ghetto goblins greedy Jew grotesque Hilaire Belloc Ian Boyd idea Israel Zangwill Jewish Bolshevik Jewish Chronicle Jewish World Joseph Pearce Journalist Judaism of Hitler July Kushner letters Manalive Marconi Affair Marconi company Marconi Scandal Michael Coren Mussolini myth novels Oscar Levy particular Jews persecuting Jews Philosemitism Princess privileges race racial rightly Romance of Orthodoxy Rufus Isaacs Russian saint secretive Jew Semitism short stories Sign so-called Jewish Problem stereotypes and caricatures Straws suggested that Chesterton ugly unpatriotic Jew usury Whilst Wiener Library William Oddie Wind Wisdom and Innocence Witness World’s End Zangwill’s Zionism