Antisemitism and the Left - by Robert Fine & Philip Spencer (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Universalism shows two faces to the world: an emancipatory face that looks to the inclusion of the other, and a repressive face that sees in the other a failure to pass some fundamental test of humanity. Universalism can be used to demand that we treat all persons as human beings regardless of their differences, but it can also be used to represent whole categories of people as inhuman, not yet human or even enemies of humanity.

The Jewish experience offers an equivocal test case. Universalism has stimulated the struggle for Jewish emancipation, but it has also helped to develop the idea that there is something peculiarly harmful to humanity about Jews - that there is a 'Jewish question' that needs to be 'solved'. This original and stimulating book traces struggles within the Enlightenment, Marxism, critical theory and the contemporary left, seeking to rescue universalism from its repressive, antisemitic undertones.

An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

From the Back Cover

Universalism has always shown two faces to the world: one emancipatory and inclusionary, the other repressive and exclusionary. Jewish experience of universalism has been correspondingly equivocal. Antisemitism and the left provides an original and stimulating study of modern antisemitism, tracing the intellectual and political struggles between these two opposed perspectives.

At times, universalism has acted as a stimulus for Jewish emancipation, for civil, political and social inclusion. But it has also been used to justify hatred of Jews, depicting them as hostile to the entire human race, in ways even more sinister than those found in pre-modern and largely Christian traditions of anti-Judaism. A key feature of this repressive and exclusionary universalism and the distinctly modern form of antisemitism it has generated has been the construction of a putative 'Jewish question', which somehow needs to be 'solved'. This book provides conceptual analysis of the struggles waged within the Enlightenment, Marxism, critical Jewish thought and the contemporary left, engaging with such key authors as Mendelssohn, Marx, Adorno and Horkheimer, Arendt and Habermas, to critique the very notion of the 'Jewish question' and rescue universalism from the antisemitic morass into which it has too often fallen.

Antisemitism and the left will appeal to students, lecturers and the general reader interested in antisemitism and/or in principles of universalism, spanning the fields of politics, sociology, history, philosophy and Jewish studies.

Review Quotes

'Fine and Spencer are excellent in showing how universalism both offered a progressive pathway to emancipate Jews and a means to suppress their particularity. They meticulously probe the conundrum of whether, in Enlightenment thought and practice, Jews could only be humans and never Jews.'
Robin Cohen, University of Oxford

'Fine and Spencer have contributed some very sensitive, and sensible, analyses of attitudes towards antisemitism and the Jewish question from universalist thinkers, beginning with the Enlightenment and going on through to current debates on the left about Israel.'
Steven Beller, Independent scholar, Washington D.C., Patterns of prejudice, 2017, Vol. 51, No. 5

'Fine and Spencer should be applauded for convincingly demonstrating, in such a short work, the need for the left to confront the Jewish question in order to pursue its political mission.'
Benjamin Bland, Royal Holloway, University of London, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 54, No. 1

'Allegations of antisemitism have been directed at Corbyn and his newly-modelled Labour Party, both from within British Jewry and from within his own party; those same allegations have been rejected by many of Corbyn's supporters as a politically-motivated smear. Robert Fine - who has sadly passed away since this book was published - and Philip Spencer tried to explain this apparent revival of antisemitism on the left by reference to the history of the Jewish question in European politics.'
Dave Rich, Deputy Director of Communications Community Security Trust, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Vol. 19, No. 3, (2020)

About the Author

Robert Fine was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick

Philip Spencer is Emeritus Professor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Kingston University and Visiting Professor in Politics at Birkbeck, University of London