Title
The Paranoid Apocalypse : A Hundred-Year Retrospective on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion / Steven T. Katz; ed. by Richard Landes.
ISBN
9780814748930
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2011]
Copyright
©2011
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Other Standard Identifiers
10.18574/nyu/9780814748923.001.0001 doi
Call Number
DS145.P7 P37 2016
Dewey Decimal Classification
305.8924
Summary
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, first published in Russia around 1905, claimed to be the captured secret protocols from the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 describing a plan by the Jewish people to achieve global domination. While the document has been proven to be fake, much of it plagiarized from satirical anti-Semitic texts, it had a major impact throughout Europe during the first half of the 20th century, particularly in Germany. After World War II, the text was further denounced. Anyone who referred to it as a genuine document was seen as an ignorant hate-monger.Yet there is abundant evidence that The Protocols is resurfacing in many places. The Paranoid Apocalypse re-examines the text's popularity, investigating why it has persisted, as well as larger questions about the success of conspiracy theories even in the face of claims that they are blatantly counterfactual and irrational. It considers the medieval pre-history of The Protocols, the conditions of its success in the era of early twentieth-century secular modernity, and its post-Holocaust avatars, from the Muslim world to Walmart and Left-wing anti-American radicalism. Contributors argue that the key to The Protocols' longevity is an apocalyptic paranoia that lays the groundwork not only for the myth's popularity, but for its implementation as a vehicle for genocide and other brutal acts.The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, first published in Russia around 1905, claimed to be the captured secret protocols from the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 describing a plan by the Jewish people to achieve global domination. While the document has been proven to be fake, much of it plagiarized from satirical anti-Semitic texts, it had a major impact throughout Europe during the first half of the 20th century, particularly in Germany. After World War II, the text was further denounced. Anyone who referred to it as a genuine document was seen as an ignorant hate-monger.Yet there is abundant evidence that The Protocols is resurfacing in many places. The Paranoid Apocalypse re-examines the text's popularity, investigating why it has persisted, as well as larger questions about the success of conspiracy theories even in the face of claims that they are blatantly counterfactual and irrational. It considers the medieval pre-history of The Protocols, the conditions of its success in the era of early twentieth-century secular modernity, and its post-Holocaust avatars, from the Muslim world to Walmart and Left-wing anti-American radicalism. Contributors argue that the key to The Protocols' longevity is an apocalyptic paranoia that lays the groundwork not only for the myth's popularity, but for its implementation as a vehicle for genocide and other brutal acts.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Series
Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies Series ; ; 3
Available in Other Form
print 9780814748923
Frontmatter
Contents
1. Introduction
Part I. Conceptual Prelude On Paranoid Politics and Apocalyptic Violence
2. The Melian Dialogue, the Protocols, and the Paranoid Imperative
3. The Apocalyptic Other
Part II. Medieval Prologue
4. The Devil's Hoofs
5. Thomas of Monmouth and the Protocols of the Sages of Narbonne
Part III. The Early Years
6. "The Antichrist as an Imminent Political Possibility"
7. Protocols of the Elders of Zion
8. "Jewish World Conspiracy" and the Question of Secular Religions
9. The Turning Point
Part IV. Post-Holocaust Protocols
10. The Protocols in Japan
11. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Part V. Protocols at the Turn of the Millennium
12. Anti-Semitism from Outer Space
13. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on the Contemporary American Scene
14. Protocols to the Left, Protocols to the Right
Part VI. Quo Vadis?
15. Conspiracy Then and Now
16. Jewish Self-Criticism, Progressive Moral Schadenfreude, and the Suicide of Reason
About the Contributors
Index
