Hostages Of Civilisation: The Social Sources Of National Socialist Anti-Semitism
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket - cloth/board in good condition
Pages: Good
Few questions in modern history are as urgent and unsettling as how an entire civilisation came to embrace genocidal antisemitism — and Eva G. Reichmann's Hostages of Civilisation: The Social Sources of National Socialist Anti-Semitism confronts that question with unflinching scholarly rigour. Drawing on sociology, history, and political theory, Reichmann systematically dismantles the notion that Nazi antisemitism was a spontaneous eruption of barbarism, instead arguing that it was deeply rooted in identifiable social, economic, and psychological tensions within German society. She chronicles how the precarious position of Jewish communities — integrated enough to be visible, yet marginalised enough to be scapegoated — made them ideal targets for a movement that weaponised resentment into ideology. The result is a landmark study that presents antisemitism not as an aberration, but as a product of modernity's own contradictions. Reichmann writes with the clarity and conviction of a scholar who lived through the era she analyses, lending the work an authority that is both academic and deeply personal. Her style is measured yet morally charged, situating individual prejudice within sweeping structural forces without ever losing sight of the human cost. First published in the mid-twentieth century and reissued by Greenwood Press, the book remains a foundational text for anyone seeking to understand how hatred is manufactured, legitimised, and ultimately institutionalised. For historians, students, and general readers alike, it poses a question that still demands an answer: what does it reveal about civilisation itself that such hostages were ever taken?
Author: Eva G. Reichmann
Format: Hardback
Published: 1970, Greenwood Press, Publishers
Genre: History
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket - cloth/board in good condition
Pages: Good
Few questions in modern history are as urgent and unsettling as how an entire civilisation came to embrace genocidal antisemitism — and Eva G. Reichmann's Hostages of Civilisation: The Social Sources of National Socialist Anti-Semitism confronts that question with unflinching scholarly rigour. Drawing on sociology, history, and political theory, Reichmann systematically dismantles the notion that Nazi antisemitism was a spontaneous eruption of barbarism, instead arguing that it was deeply rooted in identifiable social, economic, and psychological tensions within German society. She chronicles how the precarious position of Jewish communities — integrated enough to be visible, yet marginalised enough to be scapegoated — made them ideal targets for a movement that weaponised resentment into ideology. The result is a landmark study that presents antisemitism not as an aberration, but as a product of modernity's own contradictions. Reichmann writes with the clarity and conviction of a scholar who lived through the era she analyses, lending the work an authority that is both academic and deeply personal. Her style is measured yet morally charged, situating individual prejudice within sweeping structural forces without ever losing sight of the human cost. First published in the mid-twentieth century and reissued by Greenwood Press, the book remains a foundational text for anyone seeking to understand how hatred is manufactured, legitimised, and ultimately institutionalised. For historians, students, and general readers alike, it poses a question that still demands an answer: what does it reveal about civilisation itself that such hostages were ever taken?