Table of Contents

Part I. Interpreting the Danger-Signs: 1. Views from East and West; 2. On self-hatred and self-criticism; 3. Past shadows, present needs; Part II. Antisemitism as a Cultural Code: 4. Antisemitism Old and New; 5. Functions and meaning; 6. Norms and codes: two case studies; 7. Comparing Germany with the French Republic; Part III. The Jewish Project of Modernity: 8. On minorities in the nation state; 9. Climbing up the social ladder; 10. Paradoxes of becoming alike; 11. Jewish success in science; 12. On the ambivalence of Bildung; 13. Forces of dissimilation; 14. Inventing tradition.

Promotional Information

This book explains why the ferocity of the Nazi attack upon the Jews took many by surprise.

About the Author

Shulamit Volkov is the Konrad Adenauer Chair for Comparative European History and Professor of Modern European History at Tel Aviv University. She was previously a fellow at St Anthony's College, Oxford, the Wissenschaftskolleg, and the Historisches Kolleg. Volkov is the author of The Origins of Popular Antimodernism in Germany: The Urban Master Artisans, 1873-1896 (1978) and the editor of Deutsche Juden und die Moderne (1994) and Being Different: Minorities, Aliens, and Outsiders in History (2000).

Reviews

'Shulamit Volkov has produced more instructive pieces on the history of the German Jews than virtually any other historian. … her most recent book … deserves particular attention.' German Historical Institute London Bulletin