A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America [Paperback]

Frederic Jaher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996

Home to nearly one-half of the world's Jews, America also harbours its share of anti-Jewish sentiment. In a country founded on the principle of religious freedom, with no medieval past, no legal nobility and no national church, the questions arise of how anti-Semitism became a presence in America, and how did America's beginnings and history affect the course of this bigotry? Frederic Cople Jaher considers these questions in "A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness" a history of anti-Semitism from its origins in the ancient world to its first widespread outbreak in America during the Civil War. Comprehensive in approach, the book combines psychological, sociological, economic, cultural, anthropological and historical interpretation to reveal the nature of anti-Semitism in the United States. Jaher sets up a comparative framework, in which American anti-Semitism is seen in relation to other forms of ethnic and religious bigotry. He compares America's treatment of Jews to their treatment in other eras and countries, and notes variations by region, social group and historical period. Jaher shows us that although anti-Semitism has been less pronounced in America than in Europe, it has had a significant place in its culture from the beginning, a circumstance traced to intertwining religious and secular forces reaching back to early Christianity, with its doctrinal animosity toward Jews. He documents the growth of this animosity in its American incarnation through the 1830s to its virulent and epidemic climax during the Civil War. Though Christianity's dispute with Judaism accounts for the persistence of anti-Semitism, Jaher reveals the deeper roots of this pathology of prejudice in the human psyche - in primal concerns about defeat, enfeeblement, and death, or in visceral responses of intergroup and interpersonal envy and rivalry. An in-depth study of all phases of anti-Jewish feeling as it is manifested in politics, economic

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The field of American Jewish history is proving a fruitful one for many scholars. Jaher (history, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana) here presents an overview of European anti-Semitism and an analysis of the American scene through the mid-1800s. Jaher shows how the American experience was a truly new one for Jews. Though often the subject of derision, American Jews on the whole did not face the downright hatred and ostracism experienced by their European counterparts. Jaher's welcome study sheds more light on an important subject. Though somewhat pedantic in tone, it is recommended for libraries with strong U.S. history and Judaica holdings.
- Paul Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

To find evidence of serious anti-Semitism in America for much of the time Jews have lived here, you need to put on knee pads and go searching in the nooks and crannies of history. Frederic Cople Jaher has searched strenuously, beginning with the first Jews to arrive in 1654...His writing has a pleasingly solid feel to it, packing in fact after fact.
--David Klinghoffer (New York Times Book Review )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674790073
• ISBN-13: 978-0674790070
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, August 11, 2003

By 

Chris Macdonald Dennis (St. Paul, MN U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America (Hardcover)

I used this book in my qualifying exams for my doctorate and it was invaluable!

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The title is mis-leading...The book stops in the year 1870.., May 31, 1999

By A Customer

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This review is from: A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America (Paperback)

This book is probably not what you are expecting it to be based on its title. You probably expect it to cover the history of American anti-Semitism up to the present day. In fact it stops at around the year 1870. To me the title is (deliberately) misleading, intended to create sales to readers who, like myself, feel cheated when they discover there is not a word of any event of the twentieth century. Furthermore, my impression of this book's style is not favorable. It seems to me to be a compilation of historical factoids without much of the author's "heart and soul" showing through. It strikes me as being rather dry, lacking the feeling of being taken under one's wing that one gets from the excellent compilation, "History and Hate: the Dimensions of anti-Semitism" editied by David Berger. On the bright side, Jaher's book is only 249 pages so at least it doesn't take half a year to read. It has favorable reviews printed on its back cover from the likes of the "New York Times Book Review", so obviously this book is not entirely without merit. Perhaps it is ultimately a matter of personal preference. For me, this book was not what I expected based on its title. I felt the tone was inappropriately impersonal, giving me an impression of the author as a person trying to pretend he himself is not in the end the books' inner soul. To me this book seemed cold and soul-less, failing to communicate to me a sense of an author possessed of passion or strong feeling.