This Very Short Introduction examines and untangles the various strands of antisemitism seen throughout history, from medieval religious conflict to 'new' antisemitism in the 21st century. Steven Beller reveals how the phenomenon grew as a political and ideological movement in the 19th century, how it reached it its dark apogee in the worst genocide in modern history - the Holocaust - and how antisemitism still persists around the world today. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Antisemitism has been a persistent presence throughout the last millennium, culminating in the dark apogee of the Holocaust. Steven Beller examines and untangles the history of the phenomenon - from medieval religious conflict, to its growth as a political and ideological movement in the 19th century, and 'new' antisemitism today.

'Ghetto' is an extraordinarily complex word that encompasses Jewish history, black experiences in northern America, and our contemporary sense of cities and countries segregated by race and class. Exploring the various identities and uses of ghettos, Bryan Cheyette shows how different instances of ghettoization interrelate across time and space.

No one wants to live in poverty. Few people would want others to do so. Yet, millions of people worldwide live in poverty. According to the World Bank, over 700 million people lived on less than US $2 a day in 2013. Why is that? What has been done about it in the past? And what is being done about it now? In this Very Short Introduction Philip N. Jefferson explores how the answers to these questions lie in the social, political, economic, educational, and technological processes that impact all of us throughout our lives. The degree of vulnerability is all that differentiates us. He shows how a person's level of vulnerability to adverse changes in their life is very much dependent on the circumstances of their birth, including where their family lived, the schools they attended, whether it was peacetime or wartime, whether they had access to clean water, and whether they are male or female. Arguing that whilst poverty is ancient and enduring, the conversation about it is always new and evolving, Jefferson looks at the history of poverty, and the practical and analytical efforts we have made to eradicate it, and the prospects for further poverty alleviation in the future. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

With an overview essay, timeline, reference entries, and annotated bibliography, this resource is a concise, one-stop reference on antisemitism in today's society. Stretching back to biblical times, antisemitism is perhaps the world's oldest hatred of a group. It has manifested itself around the world, sometimes taking the form of superficially innocent jokes and at other times promoting such tragedies as the Holocaust. Far from disappeared, its continued existence in today's society is evidenced by vandalism of Jewish cemeteries and shootings at synagogues. This book explores the causes and consequences of contemporary antisemitism, placing this form of hatred in its historical, political, and social contexts. An overview essay surveys the background and significance of antisemitism and provides historical context for discussions of contemporary topics. A timeline highlights key events related to antisemitism. Some 50 alphabetically arranged reference entries provide objective, fundamental information about people, events, and other topics related to antisemitism. These entries cite works for further reading and provide cross-references to related topics. An annotated bibliography cites and evaluates some of the most important resources on antisemitism suitable for student research.

What is anti-Semitism? Previous efforts to define'anti-Semitism' have been complicated by the term's disreputable origins, discredited sources, diverse manifestations, and contested politics. The Definition of Anti-Semitism explores the ways in which anti-Semitism has historically been defined, demonstrates the weaknesses in prior efforts, and develops a new definition of anti-Semitism.

Volume XXIV of the distinguished annual Studies in Contemporary Jewry explores relations between Jews and Protestants in modern times. Far from monolithic, Protestantism has innumerable groupings within it, from the loosely organized Religious Society of Friends to the conservative Evangelicals of the Bible Belt, all of which hold a range of views on theology, social problems, and politics. These views are played out in differing attitudes and relationships between Protestant churches and Jews, Judaism, and the state of Israel. In this volume, established scholars from a variety of disciplines investigate the "Protestant-Jewish conundrum." They provide analysis of the historical framework in which Protestant ideas toward Jews and Judaism were formed from the 16th century onward. Contributors also delve into diverse topics ranging from the attitudes of the Evangelical movement toward Jews and Israel, to Protestant reactions to Mel Gibson's blockbuster film, "The Passion of the Christ." They also address German Protestant behavior during and after the Nazi era and mainstream Protestant attitudes toward the Israeli-Arab conflict. Taken as a whole, this compendium presents discussions and questions central to the ongoing development of Jewish-Protestant relations.

The five volumes provide a compendium of the history of and discourse about antisemitism - both as a unique cultural and religious category. Antisemitic stereotypes function as religious symbols that express and transmit a belief system of Jew-hatred, which are stored in the cultural and religious memories of the Western and Muslim worlds. This volume explores the phenomenon from the perspectives of Philosophy and Social Sciences.

With a broad scope across the millennia, from high literature to popular culture, between page and stage and screen, this Very Short Introduction considers comedy not only as a literary genre, but also as a broader impulse at work in many other historical and contemporary forms of satire, parody, and play.

Millions of Africans, Asians, and other peoples were the subjects of colonial rule by overseas empires through the mid-twentieth century. By the end of the century, however, nearly all of these peoples had become citizens of independent nation-states. The United Nations grew from 51 member states at its founding in 1945 to 193 today. Its nearly four-fold increase is one measure of the historic shift in international relations that has occurred over the past half-century. Decolonization is the term commonly used to refer to this transition from a world of colonial empires to a world of nation-states in the years after World War II. Both ex-imperial states and post-colonial regimes have promoted a selective and sanitized version of decolonization that casts their own conduct in a positive light, characterizing the process as negotiated and the outcome as inevitable. This book draws on recent scholarship to challenge that view, demonstrating that considerable violence and instability accompanied the end of empire and that the outcome was often up for grabs. This book highlights three themes. The first is that global war between empires precipitated decolonization, creating the economic and political crises that gave colonial subjects the opportunity to seek independence. The second theme is that nation-state was not the only option pursued by anti-colonial activists. Many of them sought pan- and trans-national polities instead, but a combination of international and institutional pressures made the nation-state the standard template. The third theme is that the struggle to escape imperial subjugation and create nation-states generated widespread violence and produced huge refugee populations, leading to political problems that persist to the present day. By focusing on these crucial points, Dane Kennedy reminds us how the tumultuous, even tragic, changes caused by the decolonization profoundly shaped the world we live in.